Who is the heaviest player in the Six Nations?

Ahead of the first Six Nations match of the year, with France taking on Wales, the hosts named a group of forwards that was dubbed “the heaviest pack in history”. Weighing in at a approximately 962kg (give or take) it was a whopper scrum.

Which got us wondering – who is the heaviest player, according to the official stats? So we asked our mates at Opta, who keep tabs on this kind of thing. They provided us with this table of heavyweights from the current squads below.

It is no surprise that the gargantuan La Rochelle prop Uini Atonio is at the top of the list.  Next down is England’s Harry Williams – with Exeter team-mate Tomas Francis just a few kilograms behind.

Second on the list: England’s Harry Williams (Getty Images)

It is a who’s who of forwards talent, with a little Mathieu Bastareaud thrown in. You may be surprised not to see Mako Vunipola or Tadhg Furlong in there, but according to Opta they have shaved off a few clicks in recent times (on Saturday, against England, Furlong was listed as 119kg in the match programme).

There are a few fans’ favourites on that list of hefty players, for sure.

But what about the average squad weight?

Remember we’ve used the words ‘average’ and ‘squad’ here, so every member of the wider training group is accounted for in this number. England come out on top, Italy are at the bottom. Who knows, maybe this is what the final Six Nations table will look like too…

Surprised that France don’t top this list? Turns out they have more shapes and sizes than you thought. Looks like England have just that little bit more heft.

Thanks to Opta for the statistics.