THE 20 MOST MEMORABLE RUGBY ACTS OF 2020

1 OFA SHOWN RED

Ofa Tuungafasi has been lining up midfield runners all year and hitting them hard and legally. He is superb at bending his knees and launching into ball carriers' chests.

But in Brisbane, when impressive wing Tom Wright charged at him, Tuungafasi was a touch too high. Wright was also dropping after being clipped by Ardie Savea and so with the tackler fractionally too high and the ball carrier fractionally lower than anticipated, the inevitable happened.

Tuungafasi's shoulder crashed into Wright's chin and it was a red card. Were there mitigating circumstances..? Maybe…but referee Nic Berry didn't agree.

2 MO’UNGA’S SHORT KICK OFF

When the Blues travelled to Christchurch, it felt that not only was the Super Rugby Aotearoa title on the line, but that the clock had been wound back to the good old days when the Auckland-Canterbury rivalry gripped the nation.

We had the hype of old leading into the game and it didn’t disappoint. An epic encounter played out – and the Blues were in control for the first 55 minutes. When Rieko Ioane barged over to make it 15-9 it felt like an upset was on the cards.

But Braydon Ennor charged the conversion attempt and then Richie Mo’unga sneaked a short kick off along the ground which he regathered and five phases later the Crusaders scored and were back in the lead.

It was an act of spontaneous genius by Mo’unga and turned the game, with the Crusaders scoring again to win 26-15. It was illustrative of their champion quality of being able to soak pressure only to find another gear in the final quarter.

3 WILL JORDAN’S LAST 3 GASP TRY

The North had the inter-island game sewn up in Wellington. It had been a ding-dong affair proving that the fixture was absolutely worth resurrecting and with the clock showing 83 minutes, the North led 35-31.

But the South refused