Sometimes smaller is better!
A trend is a friend
Trying to select my favorite try in this year’s Six Nations and I was eyeing the French flanker Oscar Jégou scoring that try against Ireland sneaking underneath the tackler. This made me think about this trend. We see these rugby players getting bigger and bigger, fitter and stronger. In contact hitting even harder (“We need to win the collisions”). Then we have the discussion about the size of the bench and that perhaps we should have a smaller bench to create a different kind of player? Next Rassie and co decided on the 7-1 split and created their bomb squad – France following suit. You have to ask yourself how will this end?
Fast and Furious – I (ft. Cheslin Kolbe)
With gaps in defense getting ever smaller and the windows of opportunity very short, we see the resurrection of the speedy wingers. Small but powerful little athletes that can step around these big defenders easily. Enjoy Cheslin superpowers speed and an explosive side step!
Fast and Furious – II (ft. Ange Capuozzo)
Born and raised in Grenoble and Toulouse but playing for Italy too. In 2022 he made that fantastic debut in the Six Nations scoring that sensational last minute try and Josh Adams handed over his Man of the Match trophy. Superpower is his speed and ability to change direction at pace.
Fast and Furious – III (ft. Louis Bielle Biarrey)
Scoring a whopping record of eight tries in the 2025 Six Nations, Louis Bielle-Biarrey is world’s FASTEST rugby player! His superpowers: speed and kick chase (why did the ball never bounced for me like that?)
Smaller is better
With that skill mix it turns out that speed is a brilliant compensation for being small. Quicker off the mark translates in running into those small spaces in a blink of an eye. Accelerate and step to beat defenders instead of playing bigger players.
“Rugby is a game for all sizes.”
Hope this is still the case and we do not disregard our smaller players.
Lessons learned
We can use smaller players very well, but we should make them as quick as possible and learn them to side stepping to evade tackles and run around the big ones (Cheslin Kolbe) and to kick-chase (Louis Bielle Biarrey).
How? Of course both Cheslin and Louis are talented athletes and we cannot compare our players with the world’s bests. But yes, we can develop speed in our team. The Speed, Agility and Quickness methods are pretty fail safe! For example, asked this question: “Hey ChatGPT: set up a rugby trainingsplan to develop the speed, agility and quickness of my wingers please”. You can download the answer here.
Fast and Furious – IV: The Prequel (ft. Shane Williams)
Just to close this off, I know Erik shows this clip to his smaller players:
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