GPS First XV rugby: Who were the biggest boppers of them all?
The GPS First XV rugby’s big boppers includes one young giant who, at 197cm tall and weighing 145kg, is a big Australian rugby tighthead prospect. Oh and he is only 15-years-old. FULL LIST
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GPS First XV rugby swings into round 4 this weekend heaved along by an army of fine big boppers.
One such prospect is Churchie tighthead prop Sio Kite, a young giant who stands just over 197cm in height and tipping the scales at 145kg.
A year 10 student, he hails from a well known Brisbane rugby family and will be learning plenty during his debut season in the GPS First XV competition.
Kite is the biggest bopper of all big boppers in the competition this season and it would shock to know that he is just 15 years of age.
But there are others whom we feature in this story.
GPS FIRST XV RUGBY’S BIG BOPPERS
Kingsley Uys (TSS)
Signed by the Queensland Reds, this imposing 16-year-old loosehead prop was one of the biggest in the competition as a Year 10 student last season.
Now in his second year of First XV rugby with Australian Under-16s experience under his belt, Uys is again proving hard to handle not just in pick-and-drive play but in open space where he moves like a backrower.
Jonah Rangiwai (TSS)
Another bulldozing prop with some Reds Under-16s experience behind him, Rangiwai is at the epicentre of TSS’s scrum which has been dominant in three games to date.
A representative rugby league player in the past for Tweed, big Rangiwai is hard to chop down and is one of the biggest lifters in the school’s gym.
Agapetos Lote-Felo (TSS)
The kid has tree trunks for legs and it is not fat, it is straight muscle. Muscle that he uses to power through defensive lines and move TSS’s dominant scrum further forward.
Bolstered by strapping tape around his head, Gold Coast Eagles weapon Lote-Felo goes looking for work and in the opening two minutes of play in Saturday’s game against TGS, he made five tackles.
Kilarney Lavender (TSS)
Lavender is an athletic young giant who impacts matches with strength, size, pace and power.
Support players around him know an offload is coming if he is cornered, so hard is he to handle.
Dan Wells and Hayden Keldie-Genner (TSS)
They are not quite the Angus Blyths, Fergus Gillan or Harry Hockings of past TSS teams but with a good pair of boots on they’d be close.
The TSS twin towers would be close to the tallest lock pairing in the competition, behind Nudgee’s Ed Kasprowicz and Bennett Armistead, and they do their jobs like true professionals.
Viliami Fifita (TSS)
Walking past TSS training must be like glimpsing into the Land of the Giants, and yet another athletic big man is loose forward Fifita, the younger brother of Gold Coast Titans winger Jojo.
Harry Scheibel (IGS)
He stands like an old gum in the forest, an immovable object who, when he lends his weight to what is needed, is a tremendous asset for IGS.
The big fella, a Met West regular and junior representative, is mobile as well, and almost scored from a line out blindside trick play last Saturday.
Jack Calleja (IGS)
IGS sure have size this year. Just look at Harry Scheibel (No.5), Mostyn Bowen (No.4) and flanker Jack Celleja (No.6) next time you are watching them play.
Calleja looks like he’s been jumping in lineouts all his life and if your life depended on him securing a lineout, consider yourself saved. The bounding blindside flanker has you covered.
Ezalle Matautia (IGS)
Ipswich Grammar’s No.8 this year, Matautia is one of the more athletically gifted forwards in the competition.
A player whose legs would feel like granite when tackled, Matautia draws inspiration from his christian faith and is a key cog in an IGS pack as good as any this season.
Teina Graham (Nudgee)
A Melbourne lad now honing his craft at rugby stronghold Nudgee, Reds Under-18s No.8 selection Graham has that power game typical Nudgee No.8s in the past - a little like
Sam Hyne last season and Liam Leblanc before that.
Ed Kasprowicz (Nudgee)
Kasprowicz is traditional tall timber, a line out ace who secures his ball and disrupts opposition attacking line-outs.
His contribution perfectly balances out the well oiled Nudgee machine.
Bennett Armistead (Nudgee)
Highly thought of by Australian Under-16s coaches Tim Rapp, Cam Blades, and Ryan Schultz, Nudgee lock Armistead is one of the babies of the team but has experience beyond his years.
A hardworking, no-nonsense, Armistead is at the front and centre of Nudgee’s clinical set-piece play.
Levi Slater (Nudgee)
What is it with Nudgee and passionate, powerful props.
Last year the side had Princeton Ioane, Macarius Pereira and Finlay King on the outside of hooker Oli Barrett and this year, on the outside of big John Grenfell is Isaac Rauluni and the formidable Slater, a tighthead terror who has cemented his spot with two impressive showings.
Frank Howarth (BBC)
Howarth is built like a brick out house and off the back of his crash ball running, BBC have a firm foundation on which to capitalise on front foot ball. Howarth is also a strong defender.
Lucas Bakker (BBC)
BBC’s hooker Lucas Bakker is about as swole as any in this competition, extremely muscular and thunderously powerful when he gets going.
A first year First XV player, Bakker has taken off Cooper Hoare and in two games has done a stellar job leading the scrum and throwing straight in the lineout.
Tavita Loughland and Cooper Eagle (BBC)
BBC were a sizeable pack as they always are with lock Loughland a towering type who gallops from A to B. Meanwhile, forward leader Eagle, a second year player, was only a hair or two shorter with muscle as armour.
Rupeni Baravilala (TGS)
A schoolboy in a man’s body, big Baravilala is a country boy from Maryborough and he plays that rugged, tough country style of footy which has got him into past Reds Academy teams.
The younger but bigger brother of classy fly half and vice-captain Ili, Rupeni adds fear factor to the forward pack.
Sebastian Hepner (TGS)
A rolling maul specialist, lock Hepner is fortified by strapping tape around his head and legs and with his height, wins lineout ball for the Toowoomba side.
Rhymen Tusi (TGS)
Exciting Toowoomba Grammar youngster Tusi is big, and is only in Year 10 so expect him to grow to be even bigger over the coming years.
An outside back or backrower, Tusi looked and played like a man among boys at the Emerging Reds Cup last year in the 15 Years age group and this season he has been impressive when you consider how young he is and his reliability with general play kicking duties.
Cyrus Suniala and Elyjah Sau (BSHS)
If you are wondering why Brisbane State High are two-from-two to begin their season look no further than their big boppers in the front row - hooker Cyrus Suniala and tighthead prop Elyjah Sau.
Both boys have a thirst for contact, and are willing to put their heads in places their mothers would have nightmares about.
They are not just big however, they are skilful too - that is why Year 11 student Suniala made the Australian Schoolboys and how Sau was one of the best on the hallowed Miskin Oval turf a fortnight ago.
Eli Langi (BSHS)
Brisbane State High’s lineout battleship, Langi himself is a tall timber with good hands and all the fundamentals down pat.
The team captain, Langi was a big time performer at BBC in round two and has built on last year’s experience to be a genuine lineout winning lock.
Roman Siulepa (BSHS)
He is signed by the Tasmanian JackJumpers for a reason.
The 18-year-old phenom has height, 202cm of it, and he has the athletic ability to put it to use in the lineouts, off the back of the scrum and in the wider channels where he puts to use his god given gifts to get away offloads and shed tackles.
Oli Akhavan (BGS)
Big Akhavan has returned for his second year of First XV rugby with a bang, influencing every area of play for Brisbane Grammar,
Tall with the ferocity to match it with the best in the competition, lock Akhavan has a v8 engine and on Saturday at Northgate got through a mountain of work.
Barry Smith, Tim Allport and Tristan Knudsen (BGS)
Wow. Brisbane Grammar have a triple treat of big boppers packing down the scrum in props Barry Smith and Tristan Knudsen and hooker Tim Allport.
The colossal trio are blue collar workers through and through, blokes that just get the job done and are awfully hard to stop when they approach the tryline.
Dyer Akauola (BGS)
The kid is still young, just 16 years of age and already one of the bigger No.8s in the competition.
Agile like a centre, Akauola uses his strength, size and determination to make telling defensive plays for a team entering a new era for rugby at the school.
Nathan Wines (Terrace)
While Gregory Terrace have players like Oli Nasser, Rupert McGrath, Will Devine and Charlie Cross offering plenty of size, it was big man Wines who stood tallest at the back of the scrum.
A fierce competitor with a big frame to grow into, Wines is impressively following in the footprints of Tom Robinson, Terrace’s inspirational 2022 and 2023 First XV backrower.
ROUND 4 TEAMS
TGS v Churchie
Churchie: 1. Deavin Tauakipulu, 2. Harry Solofa, 3. Sio Kite, 4. Caleb Godfrey, 5. Sam Williams, 6. Tom Wood, 7. George Ward, 8. Jye Crothers, 9. Alfie Bowman, 10. Fletcher Austin, 11. Will Bloxham, 12. Max Blanch, 13. Liam Gordon, 14. Oliver Chancellor, 15. Treyvon Pritchard.
TGS: 1. Archie Campbell, 2. Ruben Kruger, 3. Harrison Humphreys, 4. Sebastian Hepner, 5. Rupeni Baravilala, 6.Ethan Ramsay 7. Joe Gray (Capt), 8. Thomas Bailey, 9. Sam Elms, 10. Illy Baravilala, 11. Adam Davis, 12. Trace Beattie 13. Azariah Toki-Mautairi, 14. Ben Burgess, 15. Myles Rosemond.
BBC v TSS
BBC: 1. Oscar Donovan, Tyler Maybery ©, Conrad Scott, Cooper Eagle, Tavita Loughland, Jack Randall, Gray O’Neill, Kiama Jione, Isaac Kefu, Toby Kennedy, Ryder Koia, Frank Howarth, Tai Taka, DJ Colaivalu, Andres Ayache
TSS: 1. Kingsley Uys, 2. Blaze Moana (C), 3. Jonah Rangiwai, 4. Hayden Keldie-Genner, 5. Daniel Wells, 6. Viliami Fifita, 7. Clint Hoare, 8. Agapetos Lote-Felo, 9. Tom Goldie (VC), 10. Dallas Ingram, 11. Jake Lane, 12. Eli Vea, 13. Kilarney Lavender, 14. Kingston Seve, 15. Dylan Terblanche.
Nudgee v BGS
Nudgee: Nudgee: 1. Isaac Rauluni, 2. John Grenfell (c), 3. Levi Slater, 4. Bennett Armistead, 5. Ed Kasprowicz, 6. Adam Latham, 7. Ben DiDonna, 8.Hugo Hart, 9. Sam Watson, 10. Archie Mesritz, 11. Oli Paterson, 12. Carter Welfare, 13. Max Rohan, 14. Nick Conway, 15. Jacob Johnson.
BGS: 1. Barry Smith, 1. Tim Allport, 3. Tristian Knudsen, 4. Sam Bolam, 5. Alec Fitzgerald, 6. Lincoln Manual, 7. Lincoln Dalton, 8. Dyer Akauloa, 9. Flynn Horton, 10. Zac Reader ©, 11. Seth Kennedy, 12. Tom Siganto, 13. Max Romer, 14. Liam Huntley, 15. Elijah Breen.
BSHS v IGS
BSHS: 1. Tyrece Herniman, 2. Cyrus Suniula, 3. Elijah Sau, 4. Manasa Vunibola, 5. Luke Thornton, 6. Eli Langi, 7. Trent Picot, 8.Jesse Maugatai, 9. Marley Ngatai, 10. Seamus Boakes, 11. Jackson Hill, 12. Junior Latu, 13. Laquan Afamiliona, 14. Paddy McInally, 15. Angus Tagicakibau.
IGS: 1. H Hattingh, 2. Jean-Paul Sia, 3. William Pamenter (C), 4. Mostyn Bowen, 5. Harry Scheibel, 6. Jack Calleja, 7. Tannar Baker, 8. Ezalle Matautia, 9. Joseph Post (VC), 10. Tyson Walker, 11. Brock Coombes, 12. Finn Kendall, 13. James Grey, 14. Marlon Frost, 15. Amaziah Murgha
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