'My Grandma could squat more': Ex-England S&C coach names the most 'rugby strong' star

Having been part of the England set-up for a decade, former strength and conditioning coordinator Tom Tombleson worked with a huge number of players in their physical prime and saw his share of freak athletes.

Steve Borthwick is preparing for his second campaign without Tombleson, who left his role with England in the summer in the spate of exits which also included head of S&C Aled Walters and assistant coach Felix Jones. Since his departure, the former England Sevens international has worked as rehab performance coach with Manchester City as well as GB Sevens’ S&C head coach.

But he joined two players who worked under him extensively, Ben Youngs and Dan Cole, on their For the Love of Rugby podcast recently, where he provided a deep dive into the world of strength and conditioning.

On the podcast, Tombleson was questioned about which players produced the best numbers in a variety of areas, from strongest to quickest and everything in between.

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“Gym strong, Marler’s very strong isn’t he?” Tombleson said, listing the recently retired prop as one of the biggest squatters alongside Kieran Brookes and Will Stuart.

“Kieran Brookes was super strong, Will Stuart, Coley has got a very impressive front squat. But it’s got to be Marler. Technically Gengey [Ellis Genge] is great.”

Youngs then asked which player is ‘rugby strong’, emphasising that “there is a difference”.

“Dickie, my Grandma could squat more but he is strong and tough, animalistic,” Tombleson replied.

“Dickie, he’s the first one that comes to mind. Courts [Courtney Lawes] obviously, Luds [Lewis Ludlam], animal, he just brings all of the rage from the heavens into each contest and that’s strength. Browny? They’re functionally really, really fit for purpose and you don’t see these guys ever get smoked. Zach Mercer, he just rides tackles and he’s strong for what he does. If we’re talking about gym strong, they’re often not the same thing.”

Cole and Youngs proceeded to quiz the coach on the pound-for-pound strongest player he has worked with, as well as quickest and fittest.

“Pound-for-pound in the forwards is probably Ben Earl. He’s not super heavy but he’s very powerful. His legs, he can jump and he’s very fast. Pound-for-pound power, Jonny [May], when he jumps he just sits up there for a little while then he comes down. Adam Radwan, Henry Arundell, they are top two percentile, in any sport, very, very powerful.

“If you’re talking linear straight speed, Adam Radwan and Henry Arundell are lightning. If you’re talking fastest moving, that might be stepping or evasion, Ant [Anthony Watson]. He can do you like a kipper in a phone box. Crazy feet. JJ [Jonathan Joseph] could move laterally like a super crab. These guys could move. They’re fast, but they’re not traditional fast, they just move fast. The top-speed guys are your thoroughbreds like Jonny [May], Arundell, Radwan.

“Fittest guys, Richard Wigglesworth when he was a player, Alex Goode and Chris Ashton had big lungs. Forwards-wise, Callum Clark and Tom Wood, they could run all day. They had really big Yo-Yo scores, which was what we were using at the time. Big, big engines. Those guys would run loads. Sladey has got a huge engine, he can just run and run and run and he just doesn’t slow down. Faz [Owen Farrell] just didn’t slow down.”