When Tomas Lavanini and Iain Henderson smash into each other on Sunday spectators will wince as almost 240 kilos of muscle and bone collide.
Ireland lock Henderson (23) and his Argentine counterpart Lavanini (22) represent a new breed of rugby player: super fit, insanely strong, scarily fast and mind-bogglingly strong.
Ireland are without captain Paul O’Connell and Peter O’Mahony for their World Cup quarter-final, both injured during Ireland’s attritional Pool D victory over France – a match which brought into focus for many Irish fans the dangers of the modern game.
World Rugby chiefs insist the casualty list is shorter than four years ago, or 2007, but Henderson and Lavanini are proof that bigger is better in the eyes of modern coaches and as players increase in size so do the collisions.
Sunday Times journalist David Walsh believes the size issue has reached the point now where the game’s governing body needs to take drastic steps.
“I think there should be a maximum weight, I think we should be saying to players over 17 stone (108 kilos) that they can’t play. That would be victimising people who are naturally heavy but we have been victimising people who are naturally lighter for years, and tonnes of them.
“There are far more people who are 13-14 stone who just can’t get to 17 stone that have been weeded out. If you weed out a few who are huge it is a small price to pay,” Walsh told SportsJOE.ie
Some have looked at the size of modern rugby players, and their powers of recovery, and drawn the conclusion that the use of performance enhancing drugs is rife.
Walsh’s friend Paul Kimmage has spoken about the issue this year, much to the annoyance of Ireland prop Cian Healy and others.
Kimmage’s inspiration was a book written by a former French professional Laurent Benezech on the medicalisation of the game in France and, while Walsh does not feel performance enhancing drugs are a widespread problem in rugby, he does think the use of painkillers and supplements could be an issue.
“Paul’s argument about the rugby is valid in relation to France in terms of the medicalisation of the sport. It has become highly medicalised. If you can take cortisone legally, are they taking it? Yes they are.
“Are they taking it in a way that cortisone was never meant to be used? Probably, provided they can do it without putting themselves at risk of testing positive.”
So don't eat lots of omlettes and take painkillers or go to the gym because it's not this chaps idea of what sports is…. FRO
— Cian Healy (@ProperChurch) January 31, 2015
Better call in and cancel weights on Monday, I'm getting too big for a journalists idea of what sport is….
— Cian Healy (@ProperChurch) January 31, 2015
The chief sports writer at The Sunday Times, Walsh is in Ireland to celebrate the release of The Program, a new film based on his 2012 book, Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit Of Lance Armstrong.
Few people have greater insight into the murky world of PEDs than Walsh, but he is confident the players we are cheering on in Cardiff on Sunday have gained their incredible mass through lots of weights and the huge intake of calories.
So his son tells him.
“Simon our eldest boy now is a fitness trainer and I say, ‘Simon, what about the size of rugby players?’ And he says, ‘Dad, getting big like those guys is the easiest thing to do.’ He said, ‘If I wanted to get that big, give me three months and I could put on three stone and it will look like it’s all muscle.’
“You do this tough powerlifting and it basically tears your muscle. When they reform there is filler, like scar tissue, and it just makes you bigger. You have to be eating like an idiot, but he says the fact that they are that big is no indication they are doping because it is not difficult,” said Walsh, who agrees with Kimmage that the Irish rugby fraternity need to be more willing to discuss the issue of PEDs.
“I looked at the game on Sunday between Ireland and France on Sunday and did I have any reservations that these guys might be on steroids? Absolutely not. I suppose they should be more open to debate because I’m sure there has been doping at lower levels, school kids, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
