Rugby is a sport full of legendary figures. So when it comes to the best nicknames in rugby, there are lots of well-known ones from past greats.
We know of John Eales being ‘Nobody’ – because nobody is perfect. Big-hitting Brian Lima was ‘The Chiropractor’. All Blacks legend Colin Meads was ‘Pinetree’ and we all remember Springboks bruiser ‘Os’ du Randt – a translation of ‘Ox’. Jason Leonard became the ‘Fun Bus’, Lewis Moody went by ‘Mad Dog’, Keith Wood was ‘Uncle Fester’, Gareth Thomas was ‘Alfie’… There are loads more going through the annals.
In modern times we’ve got Nick ‘The Honey Badger’ Cummins. There’s Jonathan ‘Fox’ Davies and his younger brother James, who is ‘Cubby’. Tendai Mtawarira is ‘The Beast’, Mamuka Gorgodze is ‘Gorgodzilla’ and Gethin Jenkins is ‘Melon’. Billy Twelvetrees is ’36’ because in a certain accent, 12 x 3 = 36. Wales hooker Ken Owens is known as ‘Sheriff’.
But when one of our team asked in a Tweet for other favourites, not just from the elite game but the amateur ranks too, boy did you respond!
What are the best nicknames you've ever heard in rugby (amateur level or elite)?
In Dundee there was a huge guy known as 'Hungry'. When his much-smaller brother rocked up, he became 'Peckish'…— Alan Dymock (@AlanDymock) March 19, 2019
Here are a selection of a few of the crackers sent through in reply.
As you’ll notice, a few players got involved too…
Studsy. So far up the coaches **** that you can only see his studs ?
— Richard Vernon (@richievernon) March 19, 2019
We had a guy who was called Skills-because he actually had none
Another was OHIP- (it was the abbreviation for our provincial medical coverage) …& when it came to selection,it seemed like he was always hurt
Ruckless-played in the backrow & never ever hit one
— Al Charron (@TheBlade27) March 21, 2019
We had a winger who was a little larger than most, he was ‘brackets’ as the II on his back was stretched to look like ( ) even the Refs used to call him brackets
— Mick Skehan (@mickskehan) March 19, 2019
Fella in my Dad’s Alloa Aulds team had a winger called Milo after Venus de Milo, who was also not known for ever catching a ball, even in the best of conditions. pic.twitter.com/WVb9ZBa5Pl
— Ali Currie (@Ali_Creates) March 19, 2019
Related: Sean Cronin discusses his many nicknames
In a similar vein… Gethin Jenkins was nicknamed 'Melon' because of the size of his head. When Rhys Gill came along with his large but not quite Gethin-sized head, Cardiff Blues players dubbed him 'Mango'.
— Dafydd Pritchard (@DafPritchard) March 19, 2019
Ulster boys call Kyle McCall "Wiggum". pic.twitter.com/EJWse6Ys3q
— Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh (@Ciaran_O) March 19, 2019
Steve Redfern @LeicesterTigers was known as Granite, his younger smaller brother was called Pebble
— Terry Burwell (@26eltel) March 20, 2019
We had a South African lad join us during summer training who trained in a sleeveless top and was immediately called… “Joost van der Vest-wearer”
— Muddy Rhino (@MuddyRhino) March 19, 2019
Related: Sean Maitland on being called ‘Skux’
A really big pest in a team was called Pothole because they should always be avoided
— Heath R Tessmann (@heathtessmann) March 21, 2019
Biscuit. He was bald and his name was Gary….. (Garibaldi)
— Andrew Barnett (@adb82) March 19, 2019
Liverpool Uni RUFC had a winger called Chris Hicks. Because he appeared on the team sheet as 'C. Hicks' he was just known as Foxy
— Iain 'Will' Scarlett (@IainScarlett) March 20, 2019
And because, well, there always has to be some that are slightly off-colour, there are some more pretty funny replies if you scroll through the replies to the original tweet… Do it anyway, there’s plenty of gold in there!
So what’s in a name? Some of the above are exceptional and we haven’t even gotten onto the subject of touring team names yet!
Feel free to get in touch with us with a few more via our social media channels, or drop us an email with any good stories about the origin of any player nicknames or touring team names – but please keep it clean.
We can be reached via rugbyworldletter@ti-media.com
But as you can see above, the bar for monikers has been set pretty high so far!