The schoolboy rugby hashtag alone has a whopping 157 million views on the social media platform, a range of videos celebrating the rugged beauty of the high school sport through clips of boisterous supporters and bite-sized highlight reels soundtracked by trap beats.
The pride and passion of New Zealand schoolboy rugby, epitomised by school hakas, is a constant presence on the app. It's how many fans around the world will get a glimpse of Kiwi schoolboy rugby lore like New Plymouth Boys' High School's gladiatorial Gully Ground – the first XV team's historic home field bordered by tall terraces usually packed with haka-chanting students – or old highlight packages of All Blacks dominating first XV competitions in their youth.
But perhaps two of the year's most viral schoolboy rugby clips has come from South Africa, the one nation that seems close to rivalling the culture and vibrancy in New Zealand.
One viral video from a Rondebosch Boys' High School rugby match in Cape Town released in May this year has garnered over 34 million views on TikTok. The video, which has since been shared by World Rugby's official account and popular sports highlight page House of Highlights, features a spine-tingling school chant during a rugby match, led by a saxophone player to the tune of American rapper Future's dark and catchy 2017 hit 'Mask Off'.
Another video featuring a crazy tackle from South African schoolboy sensation Jurenzo Julius, known better by his nickname 'The Boogie Man', of Paul Roos Gymnasium high school has also lit up millions of TikTok feeds.
The video – where Julius not only nails the attacker with a hard hit but then picks the ball-carrier up on his shoulders and carries him back for 10 metres – has even made news in South African and UK media.
It all creates a rugby experience, both at the grounds and online, that is seriously lacking in the professional game.
The sport would do well to learn from the TikTok kids.
Breakers boss' weird Indian cricket tweets
New Zealand Breakers CEO Matt Walsh has posted a bunch of weird tweets over the last few weeks about the Indian national cricket team, prompting some fans to question if he had been hacked.
The posts in question have ranged from Virat Kohli jersey giveaways to Indian cricket stats, all at odds with the usual topics and style of his otherwise fairly normal Twitter presence.
The Breakers have confirmed that Walsh has not been hacked, so it seems the former NBA player is merely using the army of online Indian fans as a promotional tool or a way to gain followers.
Regardless, it certainly isn't unusual for Walsh and the Breakers, who under the new ownership of the last few years, have been known to adopt the 'all publicity is good publicity' school of marketing the Kiwi ANBL franchise – no matter how strange or negative.
The biggest chess scandal in years
Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian chess grandmaster and reigning five-time World Chess Champion, has sparked a massive scandal in the world of chess after his shock defeat in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis.
It was Carlsen's first loss in years with White, and it came to a much lower rated opponent in 19-year-old American newcomer Hans Niemann.
Carlsen then announced a surprise withdrawal from the tournament, with the only explanation for doing so coming with a cryptic tweet of a video of football manager Jose Mourinho saying "if I speak, I am in big trouble", seemingly implying that Niemann cheated.
Security was stepped up in round four of the tournament, with Niemann being scanned and frisked before his game, but nothing was found.
Allegations of cheating grew after popular chess streamer, grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, revealed that Niemann had been temporarily banned from Chess.com years earlier for computer use in an online tournament.
The scandal has set off intense analysis of Niemann's win over Carlsen, where the teen grandmaster was more than prepared for Carlsen's surprise opening moves. Others pointed out that Niemann's moves were sub-optimal during the match, which suggests computer aid wasn't used. There has been no proof that Niemann cheated.
Niemann has since been banned from Chess.com, the largest chess site, and uninvited from the upcoming $1 million Chess.com Global Championship in Toronto. He has spoken out about the accusations, saying his reputation has been slandered by the sport's big entities.
Whether or not Niemann cheated, there is surely more to come from what is becoming one of the biggest chess scandals in years.
