Duane Vermeulen's bench press record smashed by Ireland flanker
Duane Vermeulen might have a World Cup winners medal, over 60 caps for the Springboks and be regarded as one of the finest back rows of his generation, but his Ulster teammate has one very important thing over him.
All those accolades are swiftly forgotten if your bench pressing game is not up to scratch, and that is where the Bok legend falls short against Ireland international and fellow back row Nick Timoney.
Timoney might not have the caps to rival the 36-year-old, nor has he reached the lofty heights of the game, but he can bench 8 kgs more than Vermeulen, and that means a lot.
In a recent Q&A with Ulster, the three cap Irishman confirmed his best ever bench is 188kg, which are some seriously impressive numbers even for a professional rugby player. This happened while he was out injured, which obviously meant he could spend a lot of time in the gym. On the other hand, Vermeulen said that he could only reach 180kg when he was out injured.
Timoney missed out on Andy Farrell's squa for this year's Six Nations, but his Ulster teammate Tom Stewart received a call up this week as cover for the injured Ronan Kelleher.
Ireland Squad 2023 Guinness Six Nations
Backs (17)
Bundee Aki (Connacht/Galwegians) 41 caps
Ross Byrne (Leinster/UCD) 14 caps
Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) 7 caps
Jack Crowley (Munster/Cork Constitution) 2 caps
Keith Earls (Munster/Young Munster) 98 caps
Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 23 caps
Mack Hansen (Connacht) 8 caps
Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 25 caps
Jordan Larmour (Leinster/St Marys College) 30 caps
James Lowe (Leinster) 15 caps
Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor) 9 caps
Conor Murray (Munster/Garryowen) 100 caps
Jimmy O’Brien (Leinster/Naas) 3 caps
Jamie Osborne (Leinster/Naas) *
Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) 47 caps
Johnny Sexton (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 109 caps (c)
Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan) 35 caps
Forwards (20)
Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) 8 caps
Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers) 27 caps
Tadhg Beirne (Munster/Lansdowne) 36 caps
Jack Conan (Leinster/Old Belvedere) 33 caps
Gavin Coombes (Munster/Young Munster) 2 caps
Caelan Doris (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 23 caps
Tadhg Furlong (Leinster/Clontarf) 63 caps
Cian Healy (Leinster/Clontarf) 121 caps
Iain Henderson (Ulster/Academy) 68 caps
Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 31 caps
Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 18 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) 48 caps
Joe McCarthy (Leinster/Dublin University) 1 cap
Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 89 caps
Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 4 caps
Andrew Porter (Leinster/UCD) 48 caps
Cian Prendergast (Connacht/Corinthians) 1 cap
James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) 48 caps
Dan Sheehan (Leinster/Lansdowne) 13 caps
Tom Stewart (Ulster/Ballynahinch) *
Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 45 caps
*denotes uncapped player