Heaviest 2023 Rugby World Cup player weighs same as a piano and sumo wrestlers
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Rugby forwards aren’t necessarily known as the most nimble of athletes.
Prepare to see some extraordinary physical strength on display as the Rugby World Cup gets underway in France, with players tackling, mauling and rucking their way through each battle. It’s fair to say that size and muscle mass rule supreme.
But taking that notion to a whole new level is Tongan international Ben Tameifuna, otherwise known as the heaviest player at the tournament.
New Zealand-born prop Tameifuna’s weight has been the subject of much bewilderment and even criticism, having once been ordered to shed 20kg after showing up to a pre-2019 World Cup training session at a gargantuan 160kg.
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The 32-year-old behemoth flirted with representing the All Blacks as a youngster before jetting into Europe in 2015 with French team Racing 92. Now at Bordeaux Begles, Tameifuna currently weighs in at a still mind-boggling 140kg.
For reference, that terrifying figure puts him in the same bracket as a grown panda, the biggest sumo wrestlers on the planet or even an average upright piano (not quite a grand piano!). For the beer lovers among us, he weighs the equivalent of two full sized kegs.
Tameifuna once shed light on the secret to putting on the pounds, saying: “Too many croissants and baguettes! Obviously I don't have a six-pack! I look at food and put on weight!'”
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Yet for all his light-heartedness, Tameifuna’s weight at one point caught up with him. The tighthead was sat down by his former Racing 92 coach and told he needed to change his habits.
Speaking to Rugby World, he recalled: “I pretty much promised myself on that day, ‘I’m never gonna get back to that 160kg bracket ever again.’
“We’d come off a big European season and then it floats around to the World Cup (with Tonga). To be honest, I just let my hair down (after that). I’d just gone through a big year, I was back home, I was just enjoying Mum’s cooking.
“To be honest, I couldn’t be bothered doing anything. Mentally, it had just been ‘rugby, rugby, rugby.’ For two or three weeks I just wanted to do nothing, because when you get back to France you know it’s going to be kicking on all over again for another nine months. And obviously, I paid the consequences.
“Yeah, I (made mistakes), but as a rugby player it’s about how you react to it. It’s either you drop your lip and go home and have another pizza or you get into the gym and just get stuck into it.
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“When the coach sat me down and said they were concerned not just about the team, but my health as well, that sort of kicked off a bell in my head. It was like, ‘Maybe this is a bit dangerous’. But it was just about finding and retaining good habits.”
Resisting all the allures of his mother’s cooking, 24-times capped Tameifuna has been called up once again to represent Tonga at the Rugby World Cup. He begins by facing Ireland on Saturday.
- Rugby World Cup
- Rugby union
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