Have SA achieved the 1 Tonne Scrum?

A couple of years ago i started a thread about a fictonal pack with a combined weight of over 1 Tonne (1000kg). https://www.606v2.com/t31382-the-one-tonne-scrum-1000kg

Just watching the build up to the Aus v SA game, i didn't manage to get all of the players weights but everyone was over 110kg (i think). Have SA put out the heaviest pack of all time? Does anyone have the all of the player weights? It's got to be close.

Whatever it is the SA pack is bloody frightening. First 10 have been physical to the max. Apologies but I want Australia to win, the more misery placed upon SA before Wales meet them the better.

What? You actually want to face a wounded and angry SA??

Why not, Wales have been close, very close in the last few years, in fact Wellington 2011 and a ??missed?? penalty it may have been different:) World's heaviest pack or not, you have to beat what is put in front of you.

I'd love to know what they feed these lads when they're growing up. Insane how big they're growing them in SA.

Coleman wrote:I'd love to know what they feed these lads when they're growing up. Insane how big they're growing them in SA.

I have many SA mates in NZ and from what I can understand from drinking & eating with them it's protein .... meat, meat and for desert meat.

The amount of giants they produce is disproportionate thought. The only player that I can think of from Wales who I ever considered to be a monster was Gavin Quinnell. They have 17 year olds like him.

They're dutch farmers that roam the land eating red meat. That's why they're big.

The Saint wrote:They're dutch farmers that roam the land eating red meat. That's why they're big.

Neither Dutch nor farmers anymore, but yes they like their meat.

A mate if mine's kid recently went on an U17 age group tour to South Africa. He plays hooker and for his age he's a pretty big bloke. However he found himself up against school kids from SA who were 130+ kg in every single game.  He wore two poundings up front and then put in for a positional shift to fullback.

Based on the players weights from the Springbok site, it's a hefty pack. But not quite at the 1 tonne mark (yet)!

Beast - 115kg
Bismarck du Plessis - 112kg
Jannie du Plessis - 120kg
Eben Etzebeth - 117kg
Flip van der Merwe - 116kg
Francois Louw - 114kg
Willem Alberts - 120kg
Duane Vermeulen - 108kg

= a total of 922kg of Bok power

We big. And by "we" I mean the Afrikaans kids whose diets remain a mystery to all.. The dutch ancestory helps with their height.

Quite scary when Duane Vermeulen is the littlest person in the pack.

As an aside Etzebeth gained 40kg and six inches in his final two school years.

kingraf wrote:As an aside Etzebeth gained 40kg and six inches in his final two school years.

 
Bitch for people who'd been bullying him.

To be fair, that still would make him around 6'3 and 80 odd kg at the age of about 16! Must have been some big bullies!

Sheesh talk about a growth spurt.

I was talking to my wife's cousin who grew up many years ago in SA and he said that when he was at school every Wednesday afternoon was dedicated to sport and playing a variety of sports against neighbouring schools. That doesn't happen in England. When I was at school (her cousin is about 15 years older than us) we played about a half dozen games of football, 2 or 3 games of cricket and a rugby sevens tournament per year. The lack of competitive sport in the state schools in the UK means that there is little to inspire young people to pack down the protein and look to develop. Rugby over here is overly reliant on private schools and they don't necessarily the biggest and strongest guys going.

The Ab's pack they play next week will probably be 16 kg+ lighter. The difference is the loose forwards. Alberts and Louw are about 10 kg heavier than their opposites.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Rugby over here is overly reliant on private schools and they don't necessarily the biggest and strongest guys going.

Really? The public schools were always massive compared to our school, it wasn't quite Meaning of Life size difference, but it was significant, although we never played each other. It's also difficult when you play based purely on age instead of weight as people grow up. I'd say it was down to conditioning and the specialist treatment public schools give to sport compared to comprehensives. Very few lads lifted weights even up until the age of 16, whereas you knew the public school boys had been since they were 13 or 14. I'd hesitantly say that that may be changing, what with a culture of a lot of people wanting to look like smoething off Geordie Shore, lifting has become more mainstream. So I dunno. Maybe size is changing.

Also, braai.

They grow up chewing biltong. A protein sourced from a variety of game, wild and sometimes domesticated fauna.

Beast as per Sat game was 120kg. He's bulked up but in muscle as he looks a lot fitter. Coenie Oosthuizen is something like 127kg. He's immense.

Duane Vermuleun looks a little shy at 108kg too... am sure he was about 115kg in the match schedule.

If I recall the match weight of the pack was above 930kg on Sat.... mainly due to a large backrow.

The Stormers have been sending out a pack this size for a couple of seasons.... I think the largest was about 940kg.... and that was even with a slight Kolisi (100kg only) in the side.

kingraf wrote:As an aside Etzebeth gained 40kg and six inches in his final two school years.

He was a winger until matric. I believe his uncles were locks and props though for WP so he has the front five in his genes... they were known to be pretty fearsome chaps both on and off the rugby field from what I know.

I doubt it is possible to achieve a one tonne pack without losing too much quality, even when you look at this bok team, these players all still look fit, to add antoher 75 kg to that squad you will lose a lot of mobility.

I think 940-950kg is probably possible but only for a bok pack. Their game has never been down to forwards mobility.... above that I can't see them beiing competitive.

Everyone else I think would struggle above the 920kg mark I think. Boks just make them a little bigger... always have been, always will be.

A pack of 1000kg is 125kg (over 19. 5 stones in old money) per man is unlikely to produce an effective one under the 'new' laws. It might have done last season when the hit was king but the seismological effect has surely been undermined. Sort of fracked.

The optimal weight for the hooker alone is unlikely to be much more than 14.5 stone (91kg) in the new Old World.

The Ozzie forwards did look tiny compared to their Bok opponents. Can't be nice playing 10 and have backrowers double your body weight running at you, and boy can some of those forwards run too!