Writing in The Times, Gabby Logan muses on the "other-worldy" physiques of modern rugby players.
"Women like rugby players - not exactly revelation of the week I will admit, but it needs further examination, especially as thousands of commuters are being hampered on their way to work by middle-aged women suddenly slowing to a shuffle to take in “those posters”.
"So what's the fascination: is it all about size? I will admit that when I first met my husband I had been entrenched in the world of lean footballers for years. I wasn't dating them, but I was interviewing them and working with them all the time. I was a child of one. They were fit and sometimes ripped. But there was nothing other-worldly about their physiques, nothing that the average bloke couldn't attain with a few less beers.
"When I met Kenny, he was with some London Wasps players who were over 6ft 5in tall, so he didn't even look that big next to them. But within an hour of meeting him he jokingly put his arm around me and I felt like I was being enveloped. If we ran out of money we could always live in his wingspan, I thought.
"Size does not just mean height. Every part of a rugby player's body is different to the non-rugby playing human. I watched the Ireland team practise their lineouts at Stadio Flaminio in Rome last weekend. Jerry Flannery, the Ireland hooker, is only 5ft 11in but weighs 102kg (about 16st) - and most of this seems to be on his upper thighs and biceps. “He's a gym monkey,” Keith Wood, the former Ireland hooker, said, noticing that I was staring. Which is a kind way of saying: “He had to work at it, it's not all natural like me.”
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