I'VE become a little obsessed with rugby players' obsession with weight. Take the splendid Ireland and Lions full-back Rob Kearney for example who has been contemplating whether to retire or not after a six month spell with Western force.
He has offers on the table but is worried that he has lost too much weight since early August during a period of complete R and R.
It's a curious but accepted phenomenon that players can eat and drink to excess in the two or three months after retiring and actually lose weight – Keith Wood and Rob Wainwright are the two most dramatic examples I have witnessed.
Then, suddenly, the metabolism stops burning at 1,000mph and the poundage can return with interest.
Anyway, this week Kearney commented: “I've lost about five kilos of bodyweight now so it would be tough to put all that on alone to get back into playing rugby.”
Kearney, never a stick insect at any stage of his career, has consistently been listed as 95kg (14st 9lb) over the last couple of seasons so a loss of 5kg would take him down to 90kg … his fighting weight on the 2013 Lions tour.
Furthermore you need to go down to 87kg which is what he officially tipped the scales with on the 2009 Lions when he produced his best ever rugby and was at his fastest and most effective.
The streamlined, stag-like Lawrence Dallaglio on the ‘97 Lions was every bit as good a player then as later in his career when he bulked up while Wainwright was the same.
Who is it that insists players must become gym bunnies and artificially increase their natural athletic weight and why do so many cling to that belief so religiously?
