Road less travelled for Reds prop

DISCOVERING a muscular 118kg prop from South Australia is nearly as unlikely as the Reds finding a good one from a tiny ski resort town in Sweden.

Remarkably, project prop Markus Vanzati ticks both boxes because he has broken the mould for unusual journeys to the scrummaging coalface of Super Rugby.

Vanzati didn’t pack his first scrum until he was 15 yet will face off against brawny Lions front-rowers who have been doing it almost since birth in Johannesburg tomorrow morning.

It is a huge vote of confidence that Reds coach Nick Stiles, a former Wallabies prop, believes Vanzati, 22, is made of the right stuff to be a weapon off the bench.

“I asked the doc on the sideline last weekend to check if I had a temperature because I felt hot in the face,” Vanzati said of preparing for his 15minute debut against the Crusaders.

“He just said, ‘Nervous, right?’, and I was until I got into it on the field.”

Vanzati’s mum Louise was a Swedish backpacker when she first met his father Paul.

The pair travelled to Sweden and Markus was born in Jarvso before the young couple decided that Strathalbyn in South Australia would be home.

A premiership winner with the Souths club in 2015, Vanzati’s explosive qualities were sharpened by club props David Feao and Sam Denny before the Reds continued his education.