Lions front row the heaviest ever

The Lions front row for the NZ Maori game tomorrow night is the heaviest ever, the tourists' management says.

The Sheridan-Thompson-White "juggernaut" front row weighs in at 348kg (or 54 stone 10lb).

Prior to this tour, the record for the heaviest front row had been set on two occasions on the 1955 tour to South Africa. All-Welsh front row Billy Williams (Swansea), Bryn Meredith (Newport) and Courtney Meredith (Neath) combined to weigh 278 kg (43st 10lb) for the matches against Rhodesia and the 4th test against the Springboks, the Lions management said.

That record has already been "bettered" twice on this tour - against Argentina the front row of Rowntree-Byrne-Hayes weighed 331kg, while against Bay of Plenty the Jenkins-Bulloch-Stevens partnership weighed 3kg more.

- HERALD ONLINE STAFF