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Fri 21 Sep 2012 | 04:14
Hardest, Fastest, Strongest - Carrier, Runner, & Big Hitter

43
Comments

Who is the strongest ball carrier you've seen? What about the quickest runner, or the biggest hitter? These are debates that fuel rugby fans' forums and pub chats constantly. In this new feature, the players themselves give their opinions.

This new segment features some excellent footage of some brilliant players, and is shown on Sky Sports' Rugby Club, which as with it's Australian namesake, is on a Thursday night.

The first three of the segments are put together below in one video, making for a really enjoyable and thought provoking few minutes. Who would you choose?

While most of these guys answer from the point of view of having played against - or with - the players mentioned, as armchair pundits we can only judge based on what we've seen.

With that in mind, leave a comment below to let us know, in the three categories, who in your opinion is the 1) Strongest Ball Carrier, 2) Fastest Runner, and 3) Biggest Hitter you've seen?

Enjoy the video, and hopefully we'll bring you more of the same in the future.

Thanks to Sky Sports/The Rugby Club

Posted By: Grant Constable

43 Comments

  • blufsta
    11:34 AM 03/01/2013

    Strongest ball carrier - Lomu. Hard power and speed, probably the hardest player to stop. Inga Tuigamala was Lomus predecessor and also hard to stop.

    Fastest runner - Rubeni Caucau for me was one of the best (even though he never really reached his full potential). Habana, Zee, Shane Williams are all up there..

    Hardest Hitter - "The Chiropractor" Brian Lima is one of if not the biggest hitters out.. Apollo Perelini before him was the biggest hitter for the Manu.. but there are so many contenders for this title, Tuilagi bros, Collins, Chapel, Dusautoir etc.. Sam Tuitupou gets a mention in there as well haha

  • pretzel
    2:37 PM 28/09/2012

    Lol!

    Unfortunately I cannot tell you which national team I support for a few reasons:

    1) I generally enjoy all good rugby, regardless of which team is playing.
    2) I am of quite mixed origins and have more ties to the contributing countries than I do to my birth country.
    3) I keep things like that a secret in order to keep my neutrality within the forum.. If no one knows who you support, then you cannot be accused of being biased :)

    However, when watching matches although I enjoy good rugby, I tend to somewhat support the underdogs.. I love watching lesser teams achieve the unachievable. :)

  • 10:41 AM 28/09/2012

    Thanks my point exactly.

  • pretzel
    6:07 AM 28/09/2012

    Yeh I do see your point, I am just unsure how it could be judged that any player is faster than any other player unless they were told to run 50 metres or something and timed and then a table of their times were put up labelling their positions against all other players...

    I think someone up there made a brilliant point (Jaded Forward) about "Fast" and "Quick" and how they can be interpreted differently. I think it is a nice post that really opens up the rugby world and ties in well with your point. It is almost impossible to see who is faster (unless doing as I said), however speed is nothing without a brain attached, and a brain that can allow a player to move and jink about is even better...

    I would like to see a table of stats though... but as Jaded Forward said, it might not mean much unless it was a clear sprint for a ball...

  • pretzel
    6:02 AM 28/09/2012

    Lol, ok, I suppose terrible was a bit dramatic. The latest True Grit, in my opinion, was not as good, probably because I knew the story and I liked how John Wayne played it, whereas the new Rooster Cogburn was not as "homely" as John Wayne, or didn't have the same touch...

    I think had I not seen the original I'd have probably enjoyed it.. I suppose however if one were to see the latest version first and THEN see the JW version, they'd probably say they like the latest version more...

    You know, I actually never saw The Godfather 1,2 or 3... it was just one of those movies I never got round to watching....

  • pretzel
    2:42 AM 27/09/2012

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqWHFnwdtVU

    Wasn't really a sidestep, not in the traditional sense... I wouldn't like to say he is faster or slower, but clearly he beat Habana there...

  • pretzel
    2:40 AM 27/09/2012

    True Grit was a terrible film when you compare it with the John Wayne original!!!

  • 10:29 PM 26/09/2012

    Liked him in True Grit.

  • madman3104
    1:02 AM 26/09/2012

    Strongest Ball Carrier: Have to be Lomu, hands down; no one wanted to try and stop the beast and it didnt matter if you were a forward or a back or going stright into reverse when that shoulder drops.

    Fastest Runner: Cau Cau ticks the boxes, he was quick off the mark and when he hit top gear was untoucable, (not that he hit top gear becasue there usually already all over when he hit third)

    Hardest Tackler: I will go fro some one diffrent here, a Fijian guy named Viliami Satala. He could hit, they called him the streacher. big hit, great timing and legit tackles too.

  • madman3104
    12:56 AM 26/09/2012

    No one ever saw what he was truely capable of, he never trained hard at the Blues and held back on fitness testing and speed tests, but they all knew what was lurking underneath. He was the fastest in the team, even Roks and Howlett admitted that. By the time he got to third gear he was already away and always seemed to power down, no point lighting the afterburners if these no one close enough to touch you. 100% quickness, 100% speed. Probably the best winger on the planet when he was fit.

  • madman3104
    12:51 AM 26/09/2012

    Lol... Yep good ol Matt Damon!

  • 11:55 PM 25/09/2012

    Look I love Shane one of my favorite athletes, and definitely the most nimble and tricky, but fastest with the ball in hand, he was plain stripped by zee who also did habana, there's no contest.

    And as for occonor doing Shane, as stated above, I don't agree, he had a step and just beat him, he didn't run past him.

    Dusatoir is the most consistent big tackler but definitely not a Samoan like hitter.

    The reds flanker with the blind hair, dont recall his name also laid out jerry when he was waiting for the ball. I find Chabal did that frequently, hit players waiting for passes. Which is fair play, but opportunistic none the least, unlike Jerry and white who'd line up players running at them.

  • 9:58 PM 25/09/2012

    Would also like to mention Tuigamala for strongets ball carrier. That is if anyone else remember that far back. This guy was brilliant.

  • pretzel
    1:50 AM 25/09/2012

    Wooooooooosh, straight over my head... I blame it on fatigue...

  • eggman
    12:26 AM 25/09/2012

    I think he might've been ironic.. Might explain the double post :p

  • pretzel
    11:46 PM 24/09/2012

    Wait... what?... Cipriani as "hardest hitter"???? I mean, I could have let that go had you not followed it by "he just pipped O'Gara to that spot"....WHAT? O'Gara? As in Ronan "Human turnstile" O'Gara?

    You do realise that by "hardest hitter" it is somewhat referring to Hardest tackler... toughest tackler...

    I mean hardest hitter is sort of talking about this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alPSq9nkLv4

    and not this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9gf6ftmvB8

    So I sort of fail to see how Cipriani gets a mention...

  • facepalm
    9:50 PM 24/09/2012

    1) Strongest Ball carrier - Morgan Parra
    2) Fastest runner - Ben Tamaifuna
    3) Hardest hitter - Danny Cipriani

    Parra has got to be one of, if not the most, physically assertive players I have ever seen whilst in full flight. I don't think anyone can deny him that spot.
    As for Tamaifuna, all those hotdogs must have really made the difference. I heard he posted 10:15 last year. Unbelieveable stuff.
    Ok, I know many may see Cipriani to be controversial, but he just pipped O'Gara to that spot. Sometimes tight calls must be made. Tally ho.

  • juggernauter
    8:58 PM 24/09/2012

    Quickest man on the game was that little devil Shane Williams. Just remember his try against Fiji at RWC 2007. Blistering pace.

    Strongest tackler has to go to the Chiropractor. Every time I watch that hit on Hougaard my ribs start to itch.

    And hasrdest runner should be SBW. Not onluy for the straight lines but also for that freakish ability to free his arms for the offloads.

    Great feat, RD, keep 'em coming!

  • pretzel
    3:08 PM 24/09/2012

    Well that is sort of what I was trying to get at with my original post up there where I mentioned players strengths with regard to their positions. I said about strong ball carrier... you have brilliant backs who are strong ball carriers and then brilliant forwards. I mentioned Victor Matfield, in my opinion a brilliant player who doesn't just fill a second row role. He is dangerous with ball in hand, he is a strong runner, and he can kick!!!, and of course pass...Now does he earn more "strong ball carrier" points than someone who plays from 9-15 because he is a second row?

    I also mentioned Lomu and SBW. The two are of course different positioned players, but the different styles are hugely apparent. Lomu is a fast bashing player who was to some extent unstoppable. SBW by comparison is strong in his own right but is more easily stopped, however it is his offloads which are not stopped, and offloads are something that Lomu did not do to such a great extent. So it's a bit like apples and oranges.

    The other thing with people like Henry Tuilagi, although he is a destroyer, occasionally he has received a card for his troubles, sometimes rightly sometimes wrongly.... But the other players, Worsley, Dusautoir, McCaw, BOD, etc etc etc, are less often carded... and generally they are carded for their naughtiness in a ruck or slowing the ball etc, less likely to be carded for their tackles...

  • pretzel
    1:21 PM 24/09/2012

    Seems like a lot of people have come to realise the ambiguity of this particular video and surrounding questions.

    I completely forgot about the likes of Betsen, and definitely Dusautoir. I mean for hardest hitters I put Lima as one of mine, (like everyone else) but in reality Lima made a lot of average tackles, and then a few bone crunching tackles. Admittedly his bone crunchers were VERY big and he made more than others, but when you compare him to someone like Dusautoir who seems to make EVERY tackle that comes his way and they all seem to be pretty crunching, not Lima sort of crunching, but definitely crunching.

    Same goes for Wilkinson who consistently made hard hits, again they were often "car accident" hits like Lima, but they were consistently hard.

    So really we end up weighing up consistently TOUGH tackles, against sporadic CRIPPLING tackles, and I am not sure whether it is fair to give someone perhaps like Chabal a title, who throws some monster hits in every now and again, but seems a bit like a lemon the rest of the time...when compared to a Dusautoir, a McCaw, a Warburton (although he was naughty in the RWC!), etc etc who are consistently strong tacklers, and generally legal about it too....

  • colombes
    1:17 PM 24/09/2012

    strongest ball carrier: Lomu
    fastest: jason Robinson
    hardest hitter: Betsen

    but all this stuff is very subjective ;)

  • colombes
    1:13 PM 24/09/2012

    his name is sebastien carat. he was famous for scoring 2 tries during the Hcup 1997 vs Leicester. he was never regular @ top-level but had 1 or 2 unbelievable years

  • stroudos
    11:13 AM 24/09/2012

    Interesting semantic distinction. On those criteria, I would suggest Caucau had to be at least 100% on the quickness scale, which is all the more impressive when you consider how much additional weight he was transferring so quickly. I don't know if I ever saw him at full tilt for a "fastness" score: he never seemed to need to go beyond third gear because he had always wrongfooted people so badly they were never able to catch him.

    For my money, Jason Robinson would score 100% on quickness and 95% fastness.

  • stroudos
    10:50 AM 24/09/2012

    UpandAway- great shout on both Betsen & Worseley, who curiously I don't think have been mentioned elsewhere on this page yet. I would add Dusautoir to this list of flankers who can just keep on smashing people continuously for 80 minutes. Incredible reslience, stamina and, as you say, relentlessness.

  • byehiday
    5:01 AM 24/09/2012

    as a american it was great seeing zee on here for fastest but a bit bummed that todd clever wasnt listed as a big hitter. i know he isnt seen much playing in japan but during the world cup even "plays of the week" loved him and showed it seemed at least a hit or two from every game. it seems watching him that every hit he makes leaves an impact.

  • pretzel
    11:46 PM 23/09/2012

    You mean Matt Damon didn't win the RWC in 1995?

  • eggman
    6:34 PM 23/09/2012

    O'connor ran past Shane Williams about 2 years ago (since you mention Williams)..

    Around about 1:25 on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCQ37lt0c-c


    Agree though that there are faster players out there, like Habana or Mwovo from Tier 1 nations..

  • pretzel
    12:57 AM 23/09/2012

    As for Hitter...

    Again, there have been cracking hits over the years:

    Tuilagi's
    Chiropractor
    Collins
    Chabal

  • pretzel
    12:50 AM 23/09/2012

    I like your ambition....

    ...Disagree with your comment though...

  • poccio
    9:36 PM 22/09/2012

    Actually I should probably change strongest ball carrier to LOMU

  • moddeur
    6:10 PM 22/09/2012

    strongest ball carrier: Lomu
    fastest: Ngwenya
    hardest hitter: a few of the Tuilagis

  • 4:14 PM 22/09/2012

    Jason robinson was pretty ast though as well, one of my favorites.

    Biggest hitter; chabal over rated opportunistic hitter. Rapeni used to regularly lay guys out. Lima should be up there, as should all the tuilagis with henry probably at the top. collins definitely up there. danny baugh from canada was a massive hitter too, so much so he ruined his career

  • 4:10 PM 22/09/2012

    Surprised Jacque Fourie didn't get any votes, definitely better BC than SWB (who is a great offloader but rarely runs anyone over). ROG should have been interviewed, he's been run over by the best of them!

    Zee has to be the fastest, c'mon, he's beat both habana and williams with pure speed. o'connor? you've got to be joking right? has he ever gassed anyone at the international level?

  • 4:06 PM 22/09/2012

    Have to agree with alot of you here, Jonah has to be the strongest ball carrier. Just ask Mike Catt, Tony Underwood, etc... Surprised

  • gunshowmckenzie
    3:18 PM 22/09/2012

    1) Hardest Ball Carrier for me at the moment has to be Willem Alberts. He ruined England recently. Craig and Scott Quinnell were very destructive runners too in their time.

    2) Tonderai Chavhanga looks insanely fast on clips I've seen of him. There have been a lot of other fast runners though (and more rounded wingers) but I'd give it to him probably.

    3) Hardest Hitter has to be Brian Lima, surely? Especially considering he didn't have the bulky build of the Tuilagi brothers or Jerry Collins (Henry Tuilagi and Collins being two other big hitters that come to mind).

  • pretzel
    2:07 PM 22/09/2012

    Wouldn't like to get into a big debate as right now I really cannot be bothered with it. However what I have read so far in terms of ball carriers, is mostly Lomu or mostly SBW.

    For me though it's two different era's and styles of play.

    Lomu was not selfish, but had a more last resort style of play. For instance the ball gets worked through the hands, it gets to Lomu and generally he is the last man the AB's have before another phase, so he generally tucked the ball and ran, generally over the top of players and towards the try line. In some ways, quite predictable, but nonetheless brilliant and effective.

    SBW on the other hand opens up a whole new field with his offloads, all of a sudden players are through what was a solid defence because SBW put in an offload. Of course he is a strong guy and can break tackles himself, but he is not a Lomu, and Lomu is not an SBW....

    Then I could bring in forwards, what denotes a strong carrier? Are we looking at tackles broken? yards gained? successful offloads? successful ball retention? I know I'm over thinking all this, but, out of the forwards I have rarely seen a player look more dangerous in terms of his ability in open play than Victor Matfield, perhaps I should get out more, get some specs or open my eyes, but I truly think as a tight 5 player, he had the boot, passing, and offloading ability of a back.

    So in theory, although he might not have been better than Lomu, SBW etc, the fact he is a forward gives him far higher marks for me, than any back.

    Runner: Well again, should we include Lomu? Not the fastest player perhaps (when compared to Habana etc I think....but could be wrong) but the impact he made as a result of his running was unprecedented. But as others have said, there is Rokocoko, Habana, Ngwenya, even Howlett was pretty fast, Cau Cau, Robinson....

  • 1:26 PM 22/09/2012

    Great segment

    I always thought Schalk made some big hits in his day, mind you dont think we heard the last of him.

    I think Joe Rokocoko was very fast aswell.

  • katman
    12:40 PM 22/09/2012

    Strongest carrier: Jonah Lomu, although a guy like Bismarck du Plessis is incredibly hard to bring down. Willem Alberts also deserves a mention.

    Fastest runner: I'd love to see a foot race between Habana, Ngwenya and Chavhanga before deciding. Has to be one of those three.

    Hardest tackler: I'd go with Mr Collins too. Plenty of other guys put in the occasional monster hit, but Jerry was consistently destructive.

  • jackrugby
    1:23 AM 22/09/2012

    strongest ball carrier: A. Tuilagi / M. Nonu
    fastest: Bryan Habana / Christian Cullen
    hardest hitter: Jerry Collins / M. Matu

    and Lomu is beyond labels.

    BRAZIL Rugby

  • murray94
    8:05 PM 21/09/2012

    Jean Deysel is one of the worlds greatest ball carriers at the moment.

  • poccio
    7:33 PM 21/09/2012

    strongest ball carrier: SBW
    fastest: TONDERAI CHAVHANGA
    hardest hitter: MOTU MATU'U

  • rugby_sh9
    7:32 PM 21/09/2012

    Lwazi Mvovo should be considered for one of the fastest, and Christian Wade is making a name for himself as well!

  • ramrugby10
    6:51 PM 21/09/2012

    One of the hardest hitters, who time after time shows total disregard for his own body and well-being; TATAFU POLOTA-NAU!

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