Rugby ‘pressuring kids to bulk up’

YOUNG English rugby hopefuls are under too much pressure to bulk up, according to Bristol hooker Harry Thacker.

Thacker, once dubbed too small to make it as a rugby player, has urged kids to ignore the ‘big is best’ message.

Teenagers as young as 14 are being pressurised into taking supplements, with the dangers of positive drugs tests, as they strive to keep pace with rugby’s obsession for bigger, faster and fitter stars.

‘I get a lot of messages from kids at 14, 15, 16 on Instagram saying: “I’m being told that I need to put as much weight on as possible; what did you do”?’, he said

‘I’ve sat down with a few boys going through the system. I’m a strong believer that, if you’re good enough, you should be there. The weight will come. I don’t think guys at 14 should be smashing

the gym.’ Thacker, 24, is ideally equipped to preach the message having been snubbed many times at his first club Leicester, where he was repeatedly told he was too small.

He is only 5ft 8in and weighs 15 stone, yet he is the form hooker in the Premiership. ‘There’s a lot of pressure for youngsters to be bigger, stronger, faster,’ he said. ‘There’s probably more focus on that than their core skills. Passing, tackling, stuff like that.

‘There is a lot of pressure and I think it’s directed at the wrong things. When you’re 18, 19, 20 is when your major growth should occur. Not at 16.’

Thacker had no interest in supplements to stimulate growth and worries that too many kids are going down that road, adding to a drug problem that is blighting the sport. Currently there are 26 British rugby union players serving drugs bans.