Bond Pirates sign 158 kilogram giant Manasseh Alaga for GCDRU season

The monstrous prop will make an oversized cannonball at 193 centimetres and 158 kilograms but it will be up to defences to stop him once he gets rolling on the pitch.

Warringah v Manly 1st Grade Manly Oval. Saturday 3rd June 2017 Rats def Manly 17-16. Manasseh Alaga carries the ball © Karen Watson 2017

The Bond Pirates are readying the cannons for the 2020 GCDRU first grade season with the addition of the competition’s largest player into their front row.

Tighthead prop Manasseh Alaga will make an oversized cannonball at 193 centimetres and 158 kilograms but it will be up to defences to stop him once he gets rolling on the pitch.

Warringah v Manly 1st Grade Manly Oval. Saturday 3rd June 2017 Rats def Manly 17-16. Manasseh Alaga carries the ball © Karen Watson 2017

The 28-year-old New Zealander is a veteran of nearly 100 Shute Shield games with the Warringah Rats in Sydney’s top club competition since departing his native Porirua in 2013.

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Moving closer to his family and church community on the Gold Coast this year led him to the Pirates’ door.

Manasseh Alaga on the charg for Warringah. Picture: Supplied

The monster prop credits an off-season with the New South Wales Waratahs in 2016 as the turning point of his transformation from a scrummager reliant on his size to one of the Shute Shield’s most imposing props.

“It was a great experience for me, learning off International players like Angus Ta’avao, Tolu Latu, Paddy Ryan and the rest,” Alaga said.

“It was a hard gig because I had to go to training, work as a builder and then back to training but it was a great experience.

“I learned how to use my weight more effectively (as a scrummager).

“It’s possible to be light with great technique and be effective but now I know how to use my technique with my weight instead of just relying on it.”

Alaga took the field as a Pirate for the first time last night with plenty of work to do to reaching his ideal playing weight of 140 kilograms.

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