I watched the rugby practice of the various age groups at Affies during the week – my position from outside the school boundary fence still allowed me to see the boys running laps around the athletic field, which surrounds the main rugby field.
At some stage I realised that I could no longer clearly distinguish between the age groups as they were running past me due to the immense sizes of some of the younger boys - in some cases, they were bigger than the senior boys.
This brought to mind how rugby actually caters for all player sizes and usually there is a position for every size player from small to very big or tall. I also thought about the fact that certain positions traditionally require specific sizes of players - usually, the tallest boys play lock the heaviest play prop, the shortest play scrum-half and the fastest play in the backline and usually in the wing positions.
However, are these traditional size requirements still valid in modern schoolboy rugby? The first thought that comes to mind is that the biggest players are always the best for both the forwards and backline positions. But I've noticed during the past years that the traditional size requirements for positions have changed radically with some props and even half-backs being more than 1.8m tall instead of short and bulky in the case of the props. The same can be said for some flanks who can easily be confused for locks on the field.
And what about the backline players? There have also been noticeable changes in the traditional sizes of the wings who usually are large, strong and powerful runners. I notice that much smaller, faster and agile boys are now the first choice options for these positions – why run through your opponent if you can easily run around him as well as the other opponents? Smaller and faster players can also bring another "game breaker" dimension to the game when needed such as quick breaks from broken play or against the run of play to score.
The head coach of one of the top rugby schools in Pretoria mentioned to me that nowadays players must be able to run between 11 and 14km during a game due to the ever-increasing pace of schoolboy rugby, especially in the senior games. This could mean that very big players, if not properly conditioned, may struggle to keep up with this distance and pace compared to the smaller, agile players who may be better suited for the modern schoolboy game.
That being said I still believe that big player size is still very important especially in the forward pack that must be able to dominate the opponents to ensure that good, clean ball is provided to the backline. And of course, big powerful centres to break the opponent's line do not hurt either (excuse the pun).
So maybe bigger is still the best, or not. Be that as it may, rugby still caters for any size player although maybe not in the traditional or expected positions.
Article by: Francois du Toit (Click on this link to share your thoughts and stories)