'He's a brick of a man' - The toughest Lions player Jerome Kaino ever faced
Having played over 80 Test for New Zealand, All Blacks enforcer Jerome Kaino has faced the best the sport has to offer.
The 38-year-old, who yesterday had the pleasure of lifting the Heineken Champions Cup in Twickenham, is among a select group of players to have faced two separate British and Irish Lions tours as a player.
A young Kaino faced the Lions way back in 2005 for the Auckland Blues. "I remember playing against the Lions for Auckland and coming off the bench. It was like playing for the All Blacks.
"We in an Auckland hotel and the 'Barmy Army' were singing outside. The good thing about it was when we came out, everyone was cheering us as we walked out to the bus.
"I've still got Martin Corry's jersey from that game. That was quite special me. I made it a goal to make the All Blacks for that series but I wasn't good enough but to be able to experience that and play against the Lions, that was awesome.
Twelve years later in 2017, the big back row would play a pivotal role in the drawn Test series. One of the more brutal moments was when Kaino injured Irish flanker Sean O'Brien with a massive cleanout that ended O'Brien's game at halftime.
"I think Seanie was just in an awkward position. I just got him in a sweet spot.
"I felt bad for him after the game and went and saw him. He was in a sling. He's a good lad, I felt bad for him."
While his battle with O'Brien was one to savour for fans, Kaino choice as the 'toughest Lions player he ever faced' is a frontrower.
'"Maro was pretty tough," said Kaino. "But I'd have to say someone that kept on coming was Mako Vunipola. He has no hand brake, he just keeps on going and going.
"Loves to get the ball in his hand. To try to stand in front of him and get a shot on him is impossible. He's so solid. He's a brick of a man.
"He'd be up there as the toughest in the Tests that I played."
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I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).
Number Of Clubs:
1526
Registered+Unregistered Players:
651146
Number of Referees:
3460
Pre-teen Male Players:
320842
Pre-teen Female Player:
4522
Teen Male Player:
199213
Teen Female Player:
4906
Senior Male Player:
113174
Senior Female Player:
8489
Total Male Player:
633229
Total Female Player:
17917
So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.
So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).
https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.
The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.
In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.
Go to commentsOk I understand. Give them my number please Nick.
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