Rugby’s weighty warriors shows size does matter
IT’S going to be a very strange evening on Friday. Scotland will play Georgia at Murrayfield before a crowd of perhaps 67,000 less than might have been there, the match will be shown live on ITV4, and the Scottish team will be missing its talismanic full- back Stuart Hogg. He is otherwise engaged with Exeter Chiefs in trying to win the amazing double of European Champions Cup – and wasn’t that a brilliant final at the weekend – and the English Premiership with the final on Saturday against Wasps or Bristol Bears depending on how many more Wasps’ players test positive for coronavirus.
That bloody word again. We are all utterly fed up with it, but as I always say, it’s not worth risking a single human life just to play a game of rugby. Credit, therefore, to the Scottish Rugby Union and the Georgia Union, the players, officials and all those behind the scenes who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much in order that we can get the match played on Friday. No professional sporting occasion will be the same without crowds, and the closure of pubs and clubs in Edinburgh and elsewhere will make it a damp squib of an occasion, but at least international rugby is back.
Gregor Townsend will name his XV and replacements later today, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few experiments in selection, but I do hope he isn’t tempted to play men of lesser avoirdupois, for this Georgian team are big tough men, and they will need to be taken on up front and bested in the sheer strength department if Scotland are to gain the comfortable victory that is required ahead of the Eight Nations tournament.
Regular readers know I bemoan the fact that bulk counts so much these days, and into my email inbox the other day popped a very instructive missive from the firm that makes Charles Tyrwhitt shirts, to which I am quite amenable whenever I refresh my wardrobe every decade or so.
T he stats they provided were simple comparisons between the average heights and weights of the various players of Scotland, England, France, Wales and Ireland in 1995 when rugby was still allegedly amateur and the same teams in the World Cup last year, measured across the squads named in both years. After 24 years of professionalism, the differences in height and weight were not as vast as I thought they would be, but they were still considerable.
For instance – and this may be encouraging – the jump in weight of the average Scottish pack between 1995 and last year was an astonishing 58kg or 9st 1lb. That’s more than a stone per man heavier, and boy, have we needed to do that bulking up over the years.
Most hookers in the Five Nations were not so much bigger, but the average height of Scotland’s number twos has shot up from up from 1.68m ( 5ft 6ins) to 1.85m ( just under 6ft 1in). England’s hookers are an average 16.5 per cent heavier than in 1995, weighing in at 111.3kg or 17st 7lbs while Scotland’s props are on average 5cm ( 2ins) taller.
Scotland’s locks are 6.6 per cent heavier, but surprisingly not much taller, though England’s locks are actually smaller – but then they did have Martin Bayfield at 2.08m ( 6ft 10ins) back then.
Not much change to flankers and number eights, but Italy have added 7kg, or more than a stone, to each of their back row players on average, while back in 1995, the Irish number nines entered the fray at 1.73m ( 5ft 8ins) and 79kg ( 12st 6lbs). By 2019, however, the average Irish scrum half stood at 1.82m ( just under 6ft) and 88.5kg ( 13st 13lbs), representing percentage gains of 4.7 and 10.7 respectively.
At stand- off, only Scotland out of the five nations did not gain height or weight, while the number tens shirt of Wales needed to accommodate an astonishing 16kg ( 2st 7lbs) extra.
Only Wales did not gain height in their centres, but all five nations saw extra weight in the 12 and 13 positions, with England putting on the most at 9.5kg ( 1st 6lbs).
I was surprised to learn that Scotland’s wingers are virtually unchanged, but not surprised in the slightest that Welsh wingers are on average some 6cms ( just over 2 ins) and 16.5kg ( 2st 8lbs) bigger than in 1995.
At full back, Scotland and England had heavier number fifteens in their 2019 squads, with Scotland actually the biggest at 99kg ( 15st 8lbs) across the squad.
SO there you have it – proof positive, as if it were needed, that the sport at international level is being played by much bigger men. You can check out the stats yourself at ctshirts. com.
Are the players any better? Now that’s the real subject for discussion. Let’s just hope that on Friday and over the following weeks, our guys are better than the other guys.
Boy, have we needed to do that bulking up