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There's a new heaviest rugby player on the planet
By Ian Cameron
It would appear the title of the heaviest rugby player - competing in the sport at a professional level - has once again changed hands.
In recent seasons - and depending on which website you trust - the title has generally been held by one of either Bordeaux's Ben Tameifuna or La Rochelle Uni Atonio; the pair typically clocking in somewhere between 150kg and 153kg, with Tameifuna having once tipped 166kg when returning to Racing 92 from an extended off-season on the islands. The Parisian refused to play him and he was quickly put on a diet.
Both have slimmed down significantly though, with Atonio in particular needing to remain relatively svelt for his duties with the French national team. The pair are now in the mid to late 140kgs (Atonio 145kg, Tameifuna 148kg on their respective club websites).
There have been plenty of new giant entrants to the list of late. Tighthead Asenathi Ntlabakanye was listed at 153kg by the Lions last season, while fellow South African JJ van der Mescht, who plays in the second row for Stade Francais, was confirmed as weighing 154kg by coach Paul Gustard.
However, a new name can now claim the title after years of being a few kilos shy of the top spot. Malik Hamadache is listed on Agen's website as weighing 156kg, which translates to 24 stone 6 pounds, or 343 Ibs. We say a 'new name' but Hamadache is a 34-year-old veteran of the French leagues, having played for Albi, Montpellier, Pau and most recently Agen. Born in Avignon of Algerian parents, he won a solidarity cap for France back in 2018/19.
If the 156kg stat is accurate, it makes the weather-worn tighthead the heaviest rugby player currently listed by a professional club anywhere on the planet.
The only potential outside threat to the title is Walid Maamry, who currently plays for Bédarrides Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vaucluse Rugby in the fourth flight on French rugby, which we understand to be a semi-professional league. We also cannot locate a credible current weight for Maamry, who once tipped the scales at 170kg as a France U18s player. He lodged a complaint after he was badly bitten on the finger in a match against Macon in November of last year, after which his internet trail goes cold. He plays tighthead and second row.
For more heavyweight rugby players check out our 'Heaviest XV'.
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Latest Comments
Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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