Small 9s prospering in land of giants
RUGBY has become a game of giants, Olympian figures bench pressing and squatting ridiculous amounts in the gym, but encouragingly there does still seem scope for small scrum-halves to use their speed and wit to run the lumbering behemouths ragged.
England have two such prospects on the horizon who we need to keep an eye on.
On Thursday the fifth form figure Chris Bell – barely 5ft 7in and 11 stone – gave an absolute masterclass at scrumhalf for Cambridge with one of the best individual performances I’ve seen at the Varsity match in years.
Oxford couldn’t lay a hand on him, his service was quick and well directed, his kicking excellent and he also did more than his fair share of tackling – and even cleared out the occasional ruck.
Meanwhile the most impressive operator for England U20 over the last two seasons was Harry Randall – once the Wales U16 captain – who on a good day might claim 5ft 8in and 11 stone something. Again, it’s not just about speed of foot and mind with Randall,
right, who is on Gloucester's books, he also rips into the big guys. As with Bell he seems to have that rubber ball quality which protects him for the biggest hits in the rare event of an opposition forward catching up with him. We wish them well in the future, the game will be much poorer if we lose the claim that rugby caters for all shapes and sizes.