Andrew Alauni has played rugby league in western Sydney for as long as he can remember. But he has never experienced anything quite like a Run it Straight tournament. “What hypes me up is the crowd,” Alauni, 24, says. “When I’ve got the crowd behind me, when they scream out my name ... honestly, I’m blessed being part of the event.” Run it Straight is a rapidly growing social media trend that has racked up millions of views across Instagram and TikTok. The object is simple: two players run at each other from opposite ends of a 10-metre strip and collide as hard as they can in a rugby league-style hit-up, aiming to knock the other over and win the collision. The risks are obvious, and the craze has already ended in tragedy. A week ago, 19-year-old Ryan Satterthwaite had his life support turned off after sustaining an ultimately fatal head injury playing the game in an Auckland backyard. His family said he had been influenced by social media.