This week on The Breakdown the team is joined by Peter FitzSimons to address the mountain of issues that face our friends across the ditch. Tim Horan joins the panel to shed light on THAT letter and Steven Luatua dials in all the way from the UK. Video / Sky Sport
Some variation of the bench press remains a staple in rugby clubs across the globe. Upper body strength remains a valuable asset in the game, once it doesn't come at the cost of compromising a player's speed or endurance.
One rep max bench presses are also a potentially dangerous exercise for contact sports athletes to attempt. Many avoid PBs on the bench as they pose a significant risk of pectoral tears or upper limber injury. For most rugby players, having a big number on the bench isn't worth the risk of a potentially season-ending injury.
It goes without saying that rugby players are neither powerlifters, professional strongmen nor bodybuilders. In a rugby context, an enormous bench press is not necessarily indicative of anything other than a strong upper body. It doesn't always translate into a good rugby player on the field of play. Rugby is not a weight-lifting competition; it's a contact sport that requires speed, endurance, and explosive strength of its athletes. Many of the world's best rugby players have modest PBs on the bench press.
The relative bodyweight of players and what they're throwing up on the bar must be taken into account. The Springboks, for example, expect Test players to bench press between 1.3 to 1.5 times their bodyweight, position-dependent. A 120kg prop, therefore, would be expected to bench 180kg as a "minimum" requirement, while a 100kg centre would be expected to bench 130kg.
Generally speaking, S&C coaches have moved the sport towards core and explosive strength training in the last decade – away from a "bulk at all costs" mindset. One PRO14 head coach RugbyPass spoke to said that he was interested in creating powerful, fast athletes, regardless of their size. He likened it the Irish MMA fight Conor McGregor: an example of explosive athlete generating KO forces on a lithe 70kg frame.
Nevertheless, be it a spotty teenager aiming to make the school's first XV or a veteran tighthead who wants the club bragging rights, the bench press remains an entrenched part of rugby's cultural psyche.
The following list comes with a health warning. While most of the numbers represent personal bests for many of these players, inevitably some will have either bested these records or, inversely, are no longer capable of lifting that amount. For example, Wallaby backrow David Pocock benched 185kg at his peak, but admitted in a 2019 post on Instagram that "I'd be pushing it doing 155/160kg at the moment".
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 of below 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 PBs of some notable professional rugby players.
An honorable mention must also go to former Wallaby wing Murdoch Alistair, who benched 227.5kg (raw) at the World Drug Free Powerlifting Federation (WDFPF) in 2014 in the under 110kg bodyweight category. He did, however, manage this feat long after his retirement from rugby, and at the age of 46.
Aled de Malmanche during the All Blacks Captains run at Waikato Stadium in 2009. Photo / Sarah Ivey.
