Dan Carter allegedly outdoes Sonny Bill Williams when it comes to bench presses in the weight room.
That’s the claim of Rugby Pass who have released an unscientific list of 38 leading professional rugby players and their abilities in the gym.
In the macho area of bench presses, the current record goes to Gheorghe Gajion, the Maldovan international who goes by the name of “The Beast From the East: and plays for Welsh regional outfit Ospreys. He lifts 230kg.
The highest-placed New Zealander is former Waikato, Chiefs and All Blacks hooker Aled de Malmanche with 220kg.
Apparently Carter has a best of 145kg which is 5kg more than Williams in an era of professional rugby where the gymnasium has become increasingly important.
Rugby Pass does quantify their list saying: “The vast majority of figures come from comments made by teammates, coaches or the player themselves in the media. Despite that, inevitably, some question marks remain over one or two numbers, especially in a discipline so given to hyperbole. The list is also not an exhaustive list of the top bench press records in the sport; rather it’s the bench press personal bests of some notable professional rugby players.”
To give some indication of the relative strength involved, they say Springboks test players are expected to bench press between 1.3 to 1.5 times their bodyweight. That is “position-dependent’, meaning a 120kg prop would be expected to bench 180kg as a “minimum” requirement, while a 100kg centre would be expected to bench 130kg.
There are 14 players with Kiwi connections on the list.
RUGBY’S BENCH PRESS NUMBERS (according to Rugby Pass)
Gheorghe Gajion (Ospreys) 230kg
Aled de Malmanche (Stade Francis, retired) 220kg
Andrew Sheridan (Sale Shark, retired) 215kg
Alfie To’oala Vaeluaga (Samoa) 210kg
WillGriff John (Sale Sharks) 210kg
Max Lahiff (Bristol Bears) 210kg
Nicky Smith (Ospreys) 200kg
Rory Sutherland (Edinburgh) 200kg
Jon Welsh (Newcastle Falcons) 200kg
Tom Court (Ulster, retired) 200kg
Jack Whetton (Highlanders) 200kg
Ben Tameifuna (Racing 92) 190kg
Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers) 190kg
Siate Tokolahi (Highlanders) 190kg
Cian Healy (Leinster) 190kg
David Kilcoyne (Munster) 187.5kg
Jackson Wray (Saracens) 187.5kg
Maro Itoje (Saracens) 187.5kg
David Pocock (Panasonic Wildknights) 185kg
Ugo Monye (Harlequins, retired) 185kg
Joe Moody (Crusaders) 180kg
Pouri Rakete-Stones (Hawk’s Bay) 180kg
Will Genia (Rebels) 180kg
Digby Ioane (Glendale Raptors) 180kg
Mike McCarthy (Leinster, retired) 180kg
Tendai Mtawarira (Old Glory) 180kg
Gareth Denman (Coventry) 180kg
Tom James (Scarlets) 180kg
Paul O’Connell (Munster, retired) 179kg
Nemani Nadolo (Montpellier) 175kg
Eben Etzebeth (Toulon) 175kg
Jaycob Matiu (Northland) 170kg
Ben Funnell (Crusaders) 165kg
Pierre Spies (Montpellier, retired) 165kg
Matt Vaai (Counties Manukau) 162.5kg
Pete Samu (Brumbies) 160kg
Sam Whitelock (Panasonic Wildknights) 160kg
Matt Todd (Crusaders) 150kg
Caleb Timu (Montpellier) 150kg
Andy Goode (Newcastle Falcons) 150kg
Dan Carter (free agent) 145kg
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) 140kg
Jim Hamilton (Saracens, retired) 140kg
Sonny Bill Williams (ex-Blues) 140kg
Richie Mo’unga (Crusaders) 137kg
