SIZE. DOES IT MATTER? Of course it does, despite the long-held shibboleth that rugby is for ‘all shapes and sizes’. For every Cheslin Kolbe or Faf de Klerk, there’s a shedload of smaller guys who must overcome the prejudice of a coach or selector. And Harry Thacker is one of them.
According to his club’s website, the Bristol Bears hooker is 93kg and 1.72m – or 14st 9lb and a fraction under 5ft 8in depending on your preference. And back in his teenage years at Leicester Tigers, those sorts of figures didn’t cut it.
“I never thought (pro) rugby would happen for me because when I was about 16, in the Tigers academy, I was told I was too small,” says Thacker, who started out with the U7s at Lutterworth RFC when he was four years old.
“We had the county competition to get into the England age groups. I played a couple of games and did alright. I didn’t feel out of place. I thought, ‘I
