SUNDAY HERALD REPORTS

Weighting game


Alasdair Reid gets down among the big boys as he investigates the growing pains of today’s generation of players


Who says size isn’t everything? Not John Brain, certainly, for the Worcester coach spent most of last week purring over his side’s unexpected 24-12 win over Northampton in the EDF Energy Cup eight days ago. Purring, in particular, over the two-try contribution to that victory from the man mountain that is Gavin Quinnell.

The youngest member of one of Welsh rugby’s greatest dynasties, it is probably no great surprise that Gavin, the son of Derek and the brother of Scott and Craig, should have grown into a figure of some substance. What was never foreseen, though, was that the youngest Quinnell would simply forget to stop growing until he tipped the scales at 140kg, or just over 22st in old money. He is believed to be the biggest player in English rugby’s top flight today.

Yet while Quinnell enjoys that particular distinction, he is also part of a trend that has seen top players getting bigger and bigger at a startling rate. As our panel shows, it is now remarkably easy to conceive of a pack, drawn from the top level of rugby in the British Isles, with a combined weight of more than a tonne. Granted, we are talking of the metric measurement, but it would not take much to push our burly eight past the imperial ton (2240lb) as well. Lunch would probably do the trick.

Nor is it a pack assembled as some sort of freak show, for most of the players are full internationals and all are playing regularly for their respective club sides. Only Martin Castrogiovanni, the Argentine prop we have chosen at hooker, could be said to be out of position, but as Argentina developed the so-called Bajadita scrum technique in the 1960s – in which the hooker was effectively no more than an extra prop as they put murderous pressure on their opponents – we consider the selection justifiable.

Another illustration of the astonishing growth rate of players in modern times is provided by a comparison between the pack who represented Scotland in the last match of the amateur era, against New Zealand in the 1995 World Cup, and the one who started against South Africa in Port Elizabeth just three months ago. The combined weight of the 1995 side was 814kg, while the 2006 total was 911kg. Measured against the standard of 11 years ago, the current Scottish scrum now has an extra man on board.

More? Try the fact that current Scotland inside centre Andy Henderson – big, but not exceptionally so by the modern standards of his position – is heavier than half the players who lined up in the 1995 pack. Or the fact that Edinburgh centre Rob Dewey, who looks almost certain to be capped in the near future, is already 5kg heavier than Damian Cronin, the lardy lock who was the heaviest forward Scotland could field in 1995.

All of which is fascinating enough, but could there be a darker side to the trend? Consider the fact that the extra poundage is pure muscle, that the game is faster and more intense than ever before, that ball-in-play time has increased by more than 30% percent over the past decade and that players are, inevitably, hitting each other harder in the tackle. Then ask yourself if it is really so surprising that more than half the England players who turned up for a national squad session at Loughborough recently spent their time on the treatment table rather than the training pitch.

Edinburgh team doctor Sam Hewitt has been involved in professional rugby from day one, and he can laugh now at the memory of caring for a Caledonia Reds side in which, as he puts it, “some of them weren’t much fitter than I was, to be honest”. But a few seasons of full-time training and expert support have made a massive difference to the game.

“Players are so much leaner now, they just have so much muscle,” he says. “They’re eating properly, training properly, doing the right kind of weights programmes and getting much better advice. The result is that they are a lot fitter than they ever were.

“The biggest problem, though, is that the fast guys now have power as well, and vice versa. Rugby used to be about nippy little blokes playing against big, slow, strong blokes, but most players now have speed and strength together. In the tackle, there’s a lot of meat hitting meat and the injuries can be more severe. We’re definitely seeing more and more shoulder and knee injuries now.”

There is a concern throughout the sport that conditioning programmes are producing rugby players with more power than their bodies were ever meant to handle. The gym-toned physiques of the professional era are still attached to skeletons and still hinged about joints that are constructed along pre-1995 lines.

The fear is that players are effectively squeezing turbocharged V8 engines into ageing Morris Minors, with no way of upgrading the suspension or the brakes.

But is the sport moving away from those who cannot pile on the pounds as easily as others? Rugby’s proudest boast used to be that it was a game for all shapes and sizes, but must we now append a qualification: any size you like, so long as it’s big?

Not according to Ken MacEwen, the SRU’s national fitness co-ordinator. “From a Scottish perspective, we still have to encourage as many people as possible into the game,” MacEwen says. “We simply don’t have the resources to do anything else. It’s got to be a concern in Scotland that players seem to be getting bigger and bigger all the time, but we have to make the most of what we’ve got.

“But I actually think the smaller guys still have a place in rugby. Take a player like Chris Paterson. We’ve tried everything we can to bulk him up and he just doesn’t put weight on easily, but pound for pound he’s probably the most powerful guy in Scottish rugby.”

MacEwen also offered the example of Alasdair Dickinson, the hefty Edinburgh prop who still manages to be one of the quickest players off the mark in Scotland today. And the key to developing talents like his lies in recognising potential early and channelling young players into development programmes that mean they do not flounder when they make the transition into the adult game.

Reassuringly, at least for those who do not want the game to become the preserve of genetically advantaged giants, the International Rugby Board are also concerned by the current trend.

According to IRB medical officer Dr Mick Molloy, the Irish international lock who won most of his 27 caps alongside Willie John McBride in the 1960s and 1970s, there is an increasing awareness that the situation has to be monitored, starting with consistency in the reporting of injury statistics between rugby-playing nations.

“The thinking in recent years is that bigger means better,” says Molloy, “but the All Blacks are not giants and they’re number one in the world right now. We need to ensure that the game is still on that everyone can play.”

This article was posted on 8-Oct-2006, 08:49 by Hugh Barrow.