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6'4, 149kg Nephi Leatigaga set for Leicester Tigers debut

Nephi Leatigaga

As rugby union goes, they don’t come much bigger than Nephi Leatigaga.

Leicester’s giant Samoan summer signing is in line for his debut in this Saturday’s trip to face Bath Rugby in the Premiership Rugby Cup.

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Standing 6’4 and weighing in at 149kg, Leatigaga is the heaviest loosehead prop playing the game professionally, and is just a few kilos lighter than the plus 150kg frames of Tongan tighthead Ben Tameifuna (151-154kg) and France’s Uini Atonio (152kg).

Despite weighing the same as two Herschel Jantjies, he’s also relatively little excess weight on his enormous frame. He will become the Premiership’s heaviest ever player when he makes his full league debut, beating 143kg Biyi Alo by 6kg – just under a stone.

The Samoa international prop is included in the squad for the first time since his arrival and will hope to get some game time off the bench.

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The 25-year-old Leatigaga has played on both sides of the front row in European rugby with Piacenza in Italy and Biarritz in France, and made his first of five Test appearances for Samoa in 2016.

Elsewhere Adam Thompstone returns from long-term injury and scrum-half Harry Simmons is also in line for his first appearance of the season after being named alongside fellow academy graduates Sam Costelow and Freddie Steward on the bench.

Experienced wing Thompstone, in his eighth season with Tigers, plays his first game of the year after recovery from a knee injury which ended his 2018/19 season early.

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He is joined in the Tigers back three by Jonah Holmes and Jordan Olowofela, who both scored tries in last Friday’s Round 2 win over Exeter Chiefs at Welford Road.

George Worth and Joe Thomas team up at centre, with former England Under-20s internationals Tom Hardwick and Ben White at half-back after both appeared off the bench last week.

Tatafu Polota-Nau makes his first starting appearance of the campaign at hooker, with Harry Wells and Tommy Reffell returning to the starting pack.

Tigers defence coach Phil Blake, looking ahead to Saturday’s game, said: “We went with a younger line-up for Round 1 and more experience last weekend but now we’ve got a mix of youth and experience this week.

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“It’s about getting game-time into players and also looking at the combinations throughout the team.

“There were a lot of good signs last week but Bath at The Rec is always a tough challenge.”

Leicester Tigers (v Bath Rugby, away, Saturday 3.00pm)

15 Jonah Holmes
14 Adam Thompstone
13 Joe Thomas
12 George Worth
11 Jordan Olowofela
10 Tom Hardwick
09 Ben White

01 Greg Bateman
02 Tatafu Polota-Nau
03 Joe Heyes
04 Harry Wells
05 Calum Green (c)
06 Guy Thompson
07 Tommy Reffell
08 Jordan Coghlan

Replacements

16 Jake Kerr
17 Facundo Gigena
18 Nephi Leatigaga
19 Hanro Liebenberg
20 Ifereimi Boladau
21 Harry Simmons
22 Sam Costelow
23 Freddie Steward

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Bull Shark 2 hours ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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