It’s that time of year again when a plethora of stories hit your feed, most of which are unbelievable and rightly so because of the day.

With today being April Fool’s Day, we take a run through some of the rugby stories on today’s theme, some of which were actually believable, some outrageous and others just funny.

Rugby can take itself far too seriously, but it was good to see that today’s theme was embraced.

April Fool’s Day in rugby

Whoever is running the Blues‘ social media pages needs a raise. They have by far the best-run accounts of the New Zealand teams and they did not disappoint today, keeping it simple but effective.

“April fools! We’ll start winning now,” one post read.

The Blues have won just one of their six matches so far this season and also joked about the return of a fan favourite, Akira Ioane.

While the other four New Zealand Super Rugby teams were silent on social media, there was at least one joke from Aotearoa that caught the eye with @malcolminthemidfield posting an image of Richie Mo’unga in a Warriors jersey. A post that even got a reply from the man himself on Instagram.

Staying in the South and ROAR Sports wrote a rather convincing story that NRL great Daly Cherry-Evans had signed a mammoth deal to code-switch to union, joining the Queensland Reds.

They reported that the half-back had been “offered a monster five-year contract worth an estimated $1.4 million a year for him to change maroon for gold.”

A wary eye-reader may well have been caught out by the story until the final paragraph, which read: “When we first got the call from Phil [RA CEO Phil Waugh] asking whether he was interested in a move over, we honestly thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke! Then we discovered that it was.”

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Returning legends

Often, stories published on April Fool’s Day centre around legendary players coming out of retirement, and that was the route both Cardiff and Glasgow Warriors took.

Cardiff welcomed back legend Taufa’ao Filise on a short-term deal, a joke that many fans actually wished was true.

Meanwhile, Glasgow joked that legendary winger DTH van der Merwe was returning to the Warriors jersey to reclaim his try-scoring record at the club after George Horne surpassed him on the all-time list.

“Watching George score on Saturday night just brought up so many emotions,” Van der Merwe said in the mock statement.

“Mostly jealousy, though. A lot of jealousy. I just realised that I can’t let anyone else have my record, and that’s why I’ve decided to come out of retirement and make myself available for selection for this weekend.

“I feel good, I feel ready, and being at the Munster match made me realise how much I love hearing the Warrior Nation cheer me on.

“I’ve been getting myself up to speed with the plays and practicing my dives into the corner, so watch out George – I’m coming for you.”

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Antoine Dupont’s replacement

Over in France and Rugby Rama joked that ex-France international Rory Kockott had signed with Toulouse as a medical joker for Antoine Dupont.

Kockott has twice come out of retirement to serve as a medical joker with the publication stating he would be doing so again to join a third club.

Following a similar script, Rugby Pass FR reported that Faf de Klerk would be joining Toulouse to fill Dupont’s void, a less believable story considering the fact that the Springboks star is injured at the moment too.

On a lighter note, social media account Ball Carrier released a “bold re-design from the British & Irish Lions to better represent the make up of the touring squad”.

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The new design simply features Jac Morgan in place of the Welsh Rugby Union logo, suggesting the Wales captain will be the only representative from his country.

Finally, the South Africans were rather quiet today with SA Rugby Mag, one of the few publications joining in with the laughs.

They reported that the Cheetahs would be returning to the URC, replacing the lowest-ranked South African team next season.

The story may have caught a few out, but it was quite clearly a joke when the publication quoted the Cheetahs and Lions’ mascots.

“I was thrilled to wake up to the news that I would be a lot busier next season,” said the Cheetahs mascot on Tuesday. “But then I remembered what today was and my happy purr became an angry roar.”

The Lions mascot added: “I know our rugby crowds aren’t that great either, but Ellis Park does hold 60,000 fans and the few that do pitch up for URC games don’t need to be subjected to fake news, even if it is April Fool’s Day.”

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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/antoine-dupont-replacement-richie-moungas-code-switch-and-mascot-quotes-feature-in-the-best-rugby-april-fools-stories