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Heaviest players at 2019 Rugby World Cup revealed
By Online Editors
When it comes to tipping the scales, no one in World Rugby comes close to Ben Tameifuna.
The Tongan tighthead prop, known for his barnstorming runs and back-breaking tackles, listed a whopping 153kg playing weight in the Rugby World Cup statistics.
Some distance behind Tameifuna in second was former Sacred Heart College student and current Wallabies prop, Taniela "Tongan Thor" Tupou at 135kg.
And while Tonga was still searching for its first 2019 Rugby World Cup win, they could take pride in two other victories.
The small island nation, ranked 16th in the world, boasts the heaviest player and heaviest forward pack at the World Cup.
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The average weight for a member in Tonga's forward pack was 118.53kg, according to Weight Watchers Australia which crunched the numbers.
Uruguay had the lightest World Cup forward pack, who were on average 13kg lighter than the Tongan's at 104.81kg.
New Zealand's average was 113.76kg and the overall World Cup average forward weighing 112kg.
The body mass index for many of the forwards in Japan would be considered unhealthy, according to body mass index calculations.
However, BMI's weren't always accurate when it came to professional athletes.
It didn't distinguish between fat and muscle, so those with large muscle masses often had high BMI, even though their body fat was in the healthy range.
Those with weight around their waist and healthy BMIs at the highest risk of death from any cause, compared to those with higher BMIs and weight elsewhere.
"If I had to choose between making sure my BMI or my waist-to-hip ratio are within the 'normal' range, I would go for the latter," University of Sydney associate professor Emmanuel Stamatkis said.
"A high waist-to-hip ratio most likely means high amounts of abdominal fat, and we know this comes with quite serious health risks."
New Zealand's heaviest player was Ofa Tu'ungafasi at 129kg, closely followed by Atu Moli at 127kg and Angus Ta'avo at 124kg.
Ardie Savea punches well above his weight of 95kg, the lightest member of New Zealand's forward pack and the only one under 100kg.
But the lightest forward in the competition was Kwagga Smith, from South Africa, who weighed a relatively small 80kg.
This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished with permission.
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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