Rugby’s best now bigger and bulkier than ever

Bulk is officially beautiful — certainly on the rugby pitch.

A new study by CNN claims rugby union players have grown four inches over the past 40 years and now weigh over two stone more.

The research assessed the measurements and weights of three All Black backs — a full-back, a centre and a winger — at 10-year intervals.

In 1974, the average height recorded was 5ft 10ins and the average weight 185lbs. By this year, that had expanded to 6ft 2ins and 216lbs.

The sample size is small but Professor Jean-Francois Toussaint of the French Institute of Sport (INSEP) told CNN that the snapshot is a reliable guide to evolving physiques in the professional era.

“The change has been dramatic in the last 20 years with large increases in all championships, both in the southern and northern hemisphere,” Toussaint said.

“The increase in both forwards and backs has been around four to five centimetres over the past 20 years and a [weight] increase of 12 kilograms. It has been a large change.”

A similar study, published in the British Journal of Sports in 2012, examined more than 2,500 players at six World Cups from 1987 to 2007.

It found that player height and weight played a notable role in determining a team’s success.

Mankind’s own leaps towards gianthood clearly plays a part in the swelling statistics.

“These changes have both to do with the mean height of the population, but at the same time the knowledge of training, conditioning and the hours spent training and in recovery.

“Many of these things have played a small role in the changes,” Toussaint said.

There was more bad news for the “little guy”, so beloved of pundits such as John Giles and Eamon Dunphy.

Other sports are also producing super-sized superstars.

The average Super Bowl quarterback now stands 6ft 2ins, compared to 6ft in 1974 and weighs 27lbs more.

That 188cm mark has often been regarded as the optimum height for a sportsman and it works well in tennis too; a typical Grand Slam champion now hits that level, compared to 5ft 10ins in 1974.

While added muscle tips an extra 25lbs onto the scales.

An Olympic swimming champ now stretches to 6ft 5ins and weighs 192lbs, compared to 6ft 2ins and 176lbs at the 1972 Summer Games.

The average owner of an NBA championship ring stands 6ft 7.5ins in his stockings, these days, up an inch and a half from 1974 and 19lbs heavier, at 226lbs.

Of the athletes profiled, only sumo wrestling produced some evidence of shrinkage at the highest level.

In 1974, grand champion Kitanoumi Toshimitsu stood 5ft 10ins but weighed in at 26½ stones. In 2014, Hakuho Sho stands 6ft 4ins but weighs just over 24 stones.

However, Toussaint, who has carried out a range of studies on the sporting physique, suggests other sports will also see a levelling off in growth spurts in the coming years.

“We are seeing places where plateaus have been reached already or are close to being reached — for example the height,” Toussaint said.