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Wed 3 Feb 2016 | 04:32
Midweek Madness - Bath's forward pack take on a Formula 1 car

6
Comments

Red Bull Racing and F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo have taken on Bath's forwards in the ultimate scrum session, with the force of eight hundred horses up against eight mere mortals. With 900kg of muscle on home turf at Farleigh House, Bath were up for the challenge.

"It’s not every day you get to do something like that," said tighthead Henry Thomas. "We love testing ourselves on the biggest stage but not many players can say they’ve scrummed down against a Formula One car".

Ricciardo, a winner of three grand prix titles, said: "I was excited about the challenge as it’s definitely something I’ve never experienced before! Seeing the rugby players take their positions behind the scrum machine right in front of me was somewhat… strange. 

"But my competitiveness kicked in and I was determined to beat them!"

Posted By: Grant Constable

6 Comments

  • danknapp
    9:34 AM 05/02/2016

    They should try it with a group of scrum halves against some kid on a tricycle.

  • 10stonenumber10
    1:12 AM 05/02/2016

    Cars are cars. People are people.

    Until we as a planet transcend human form and follow an alien/manmade biomechanic evolutionary process resulting in a badass Raiden/Gundam Wing/Transformers type situation, I think as a species we should stick to taking on stuff that bleeds the same red we do.

    I wasn't a fan of the Habana thing, on first view it was interesting, but my god that Cheetah looked sad. The only animals large enough to scrum down against generally have foul tempers, bad eyesight, and won't think twice about sticking a tusk or horn through your chest!

    Maybe they should use the army exercise of recovering a Land Rover Defender sunk to the axles in mud against a group of trained soldiers? Set it as a season long challenge, it would do great stuff for the Help for Heroes charity

  • drg
    12:22 AM 05/02/2016

    That was sort of what I had in mind... I mean can you imagine the news articles had this not carefully been calculated as a DEFINITE pack win:

    "8 dead in tragic scrum machine and Formula 1 accident"....

    It's a bit of fun, but the perceived variables involved are just far too risky for someone to genuinely put their pack at risk.... Much like the Habana Cheetah episode "springbok devoured by cheetah" might sound like a fairly innocuous headline, until you realise it's about BH!...

    I suppose some sort of restricted vehicle say with straps, so it only has a metre and a half to go, could form and interesting video... Or are we really just clutching at clearly obvious outcomes, hoping for entertainment...?

  • 10stonenumber10
    11:56 PM 04/02/2016

    F1 cars are about 700kg including the driver... most of whom are only about my size. With studs included, a single rugby boot has a greater surface area and therefore contact patch with the ground than both rear tyres together... against 16x the traction, 200kg extra weight + the mass of the scrum machine, there was only going to be one winner....

    If they did this with a 1700kg 4WD Nissan GT-R, the pack would go backwards (and probably underneath too).

    Still, it is a bit of fun, like Habana vs the Cheetah

  • drg
    9:43 PM 04/02/2016

    I had an incline that there was something like that, however they do say an F1 car has a fair weight and the info was 1000 bhp per ton.... So I wasn't sure...

  • drg
    10:55 PM 03/02/2016

    I want to believe this, but I'm not sure I do :/

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