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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

20 stone schoolboy front-row with lightning speed goes big on the internet

Front-row, 20 stone and six feet two inches tall. It's hard enough for a professional adult player to tackle that, but this schoolboy has captured the attention of the internet for his incredible presence on the field.

Richie Tupuailei plays for St Thomas of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. RugbyPass created a highlights reel of his exploits in a recent match and it is evident the towering loosehead has a bright future ahead of him.

St Thomas were taking on Nelson's College in a big top of the table clash. The video shows Richie dominating with ball in hand, as St Thomas clinched a 33-31 victory in dramatic fashion.

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Richie also operates as number eight, but he packed down in the front-row for this match. After 14 minutes he made his presence known to everyone, putting the afterburners on after opting for the pick-and-go.

Six minutes later it's another pick-and-go, but this time he's barely a metre out from the whitewash, and makes no mistake with a robust finish. His next try is the epitome of flair and fluidity.

St Thomas go for the tap-and-go, with Richie standing menacingly behind the ball. However, he pops the ball immediately to Tino Leuta. The pair of them completely fool the opposition as Richie runs a slick line behind Leuta, receiving a neat pop pass back to him from the number eight.

From there it was strong running all the way, shrugging off three players as if they were a mere inconvenience to him.

The loose head slotted in at number eight towards the end of the match, again running strongly. He was unlucky with a quick break down the short side before his clever pop pass didn't make it to the wide man.

This isn't the first time Richie has made the headlines. Playing at eight a few weeks ago, he ran most of the pitch before setting up his team mates for the score.

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