JOHNNY WATTERSON looks at how all the international teams have opted for the taller and heavier players in their quest for Six Nations glory

LAST YEAR a comparative study of the sizes of the All Black players was published in New Zealand. It tracked the height and weight of players over 100 years and showed that on average, a team member in 2005 was 6ft 1½in. That was 4.7in taller than the average player from the 1905 All Black team, known as the Originals.

His weight was also, on average, heavier by just over one stone and even the lightest player on the 2005 All Black team was half a stone heavier than the average Original.

This week Sonny Bill Williams scored a first round knockout over American boxer Clarence Tilman, which left the New Zealand rugby World Cup winner undefeated in five fights.

Williams was competing in the heavyweight division and although he would have been considered a small heavyweight, he went into the ring at 6ft 3in and weighing 17st.

The modern centre and winger in rugby now have physiques that allow them to fit snugly into the professional heavyweight division in boxing, which is anything over 200lb (14st 4lb), with no height restrictions.

The Klitschko brothers, Vladimir and Vitali, who possess most of the current professional heavyweight belts, are 6ft 6in and 6ft 7in respectively.

The issue of height in rugby has become a vexed one and last week in Aviva, the size of the Welsh backs was a factor in the execution of two of their tries against Ireland, as well as much of the work that went in before the tries were scored.

Winger George North used his frame to muscle over in the corner, where the combined efforts of Tommy Bowe and Gordon D’Arcy couldn’t arrest his momentum, while Fergus McFadden miss-timed his tackle enough to allow the 6ft 4in North bump him away and offload to 6ft 1in Jonathan Davies. Close at hand was the 6ft 6in Alex Cuthbert and the 6ft 4in Jamie Roberts.

The combined height of the Wales fullback, centres and wings for this weekend is 11 inches more than the combined heights all of the other Six Nations teams, except Italy. The Italian backs are all six feet or more, with two players, right wing Giovanbattista Venditti and left wing Luke McLean, each 6ft 3in.

Ireland fullback Rob Kearney said this week in Carton House that against Wales last week “our defence let us down.” Kearney declined to be drawn into the issue of physically bigger opponents and was content to frame Ireland’s defensive frailties as “a mind-set” issue, and not simply one of big against small.

No doubt Kearney is correct and a focused, organised defence is a matter of using the mind to aggregate players as a unit. But there was no escaping the physical disparity between the two teams in that area.

Wales have by far the biggest three-quarters going into this weekend’s round of Six Nations matches, with the fullback, wings and centres totalling 31ft 2in.

Italy have the second tallest set of backs, totalling 30ft 8, which is significantly behind the Wales total but still, Jaques Brunel’s side are an average of just under an inch a man taller than the Irish backs.

None of the five Italian or English three-quarters are under six feet in height.

The old adage of “a good big ’un being better than a good small ’un” not only holds true but seems to have taken on greater importance in the modern game, where offensive nirvana would be the mismatch of 6ft 3in Tommy Bowe against 5ft 7in Shane Williams contesting a crossfield kick.

The nine-10 channel has been the most obvious attack point of choice, although Wales again have solved any physical issues there with 6ft 3in scrumhalf Mike Phillips.

Tonight in Paris, France average out as a bigger backline by a small margin but once again Ireland will face outsized athletes in 6ft 4in Aurelien Rougerie at outside centre and the same-sized Julien Malzieu on the wing. Let’s see what physical impact they have.

At 6ft 3in, Ospreys winger Bowe is as good as it gets for the team with respect to backline height, with Ireland’s tallest ever winger, 6ft 4in Shane Horgan, out of the international picture.

In the 1980s centres such as Ireland’s Brendan Mullin would have typically been a few inches smaller than today’s athlete. Mullin was 6ft 1in and weighed 187lb, or around 13 stone 4lb. The Irish scrumhalf today, Conor Murray, is almost exactly the same height and weight.

Of the 30 players in action in the three-quarter lines over the Six Nations teams, just eight are under six feet tall, while 11 players are 6ft 2in or taller.

There will always be room for the one-off like Shane Williams but in the game of collisions, bigger players, who are co-ordinated and athletic have made their mark after just one week of this year’s championship. Five years ago orthopaedic surgeon and former Welsh fullback JPR Williams addressed the issue of size.

“If you look at the English league it is more physical than the Magners League: going for size and strength is in England’s psyche,” he said.

“The Irish, Scots and Welsh do not have particularly big players, so play a more open game, and in Wales at least to play with skill is a philosophy as well as a necessity. It would be very sad if an exciting player like a Shane Williams in Wales was lost to the game in the future.

“At international level the only way Wales can compete is to play high-risk rugby because they will never be as big as nations such as England and South Africa.”

It took just five years to prove the great man wrong.