WS MoreOrLess: The Rise of the Giants?
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2015
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The average rugby pack is much bigger than it was 20 years ago but has the growth finally plateaued? Living Blue Planet Index Populations of marine mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have declined by 49% since 1970, a report says. But what does this actually mean?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the short edition of more or less, first broadcast on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.0 | Thank you for downloading from the BBC. |
| 0:08.0 | The details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use go to BBC World Service.com slash |
| 0:14.9 | podcasts. |
| 0:17.6 | Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service. We're your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Harford. |
| 0:28.0 | Over the course of the next six weeks, millions of people will watch the Rugby Union World Cup, a spectacle that has given us some memorable sporting moments. |
| 0:37.0 | But while only some of the more or less team are fans of rugby, all of the more or less team are fans of statistics and the statistics show that the game of rugby is changing. |
| 0:47.0 | Rugby players seem to be getting bigger. |
| 0:49.5 | For example, this tournament Wales could pick a backline, those are the speedy little chaps who run around a lot, |
| 0:55.0 | which is on average heavier than the New Zealand forwards were when they won the first World Cup back in 1987. |
| 1:01.0 | Our very own big unit, David Rhodes, has been looking into this for us. |
| 1:05.5 | Hello David. |
| 1:06.5 | Hi Tim. Is it true that the Welsh backline is representative of a wider trend? |
| 1:10.7 | Have rugby players got bigger? |
| 1:12.8 | Yes, we have numbers compiled by the National Institute of Sport and Physical Education in France. |
| 1:19.1 | They found that in 1987 the average weight of a forward was 102.4 kilograms that's about 16 |
| 1:26.5 | stone whilst the backs weighed in at 83 kilograms or 13 stone And what are they now? |
| 1:33.0 | Well, the forwards are now up to 111.3 kilograms and the backs now weigh 91.5 kilograms. |
| 1:41.0 | So they're both almost 9 kilograms heavier or more than a stone heavier than |
| 1:46.0 | there used to be three decades ago. |
| 1:48.6 | And has this been a gradual increase or was there a sudden shift at some point in the size of players? |
| 1:53.4 | Well, the biggest increase in player size occurred between the 1991 World Cup and the 1995 |
... |
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