What is the right height and weight for a Centre in rugby?

Question

Inside Centre and Outside Centre

Answer 1

The centre position is traditionally the most skilful on the field. (after the flyhalf )
They have to have exceptional defence as they patrol the middle. They need to have a great kicking game- to relieve pressure and setup attacks.
Good hands to keep the ball moving the ball.
I think the best player in the world is a center. Brian o' Driscoll of Leinster and Ireland. He is about 6 feet tall and 220 pounds.
This is about the average, but it does not matter as long as you have speed and strength, and are able to read the game.....

Answer 2

I found this off the internet, and I'll post the heights and weights of some insides and outsides.

The outside is typically the lighter, more agile of the two centres. They are the "rapiers" that are given the ball, normally via the fly half, to make breaks through the opposition backs before offloading to the wingers after drawing the last line of defence.

The inside centre tends to be the larger of the two centres. In defence or attack, the inside centre is always in the thick of the action, drawing the opposition's defence, making the breaks to make the space for the outside centre and dishing out the tackles in defence along with the forwards. Some of the skills of the fly-half, such as distribution and kicking, can be advantageous to inside centres, as they may be expected to act as fly-halves if the normal fly-half is involved in a ruck or maul.

Outside Centres:

Brian O'Driscoll
Height 1.80 m
Weight 95 kg

Frank Bruce
Height: 1.80 m
Weight: 85 kg

Tana Umaga
Height 1.88 m
Weight 102 kg

Inside Centres:

Yannick Jauzion
Height 1.9 m
Weight 101 kg

Jean de Viliers
Height 1.90 m
Weight 98 kg

Will Greenwood
Height 1.93 m
Weight 100 kg

Gavin Henson
Height 1.84 m
Weight 104 kg

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

There is no real advantage to being tall as a centre, other than the psychological aspect of appearing physically dominant. Generally centres tend not to be shorter than 5'10" simply because any smaller than that and you're likely to lack weight or lost speed as a result of having to much bulk for your frame.

Weight is significant as weight effects the amount of power you're going to be able to generate and what force you're capable of exerting in the contact area, however without exceptional speed off the mark and the defensive skills of a backrow forward you'll get nowhere at centre.

Centre is one of the positions in rugby where a variety of different builds can play in that position - look at Horgan of Ireland compared with Matt Giteau of Australia - they're like chalk and cheese.

Answer 4

1 - defense! Apart from the flankers, the two centers are generally the players who make the most tackles. It is up to either the inside or outside centre to organize the backline defense. Discuss this with your centre partner and coach. 2- distribution! If the halves decide which direction the attacking play goes, you decide just about everything else in terms of who you pass to (outside or a cut-in runner or you take it up for a break or to ground to get recycled) and the timing as well (do you have an overlap out wide and the ball needs to get to the wing quick? then cut pass as soon as you recieve the ball or are the defense rushing up out wide? probably keep hold of the ball and take it up yourself or if the defense is drifting, a step inside by you or passing to a player on an angled run might create an opening). The Austalian internationals have the best ditribution skills IMO. 3- take the ball up! The higher up you play (from amateur/youth to club/pro rugby) the less space the opposition tends to give you and you will most likely have to take the ball into contact more often than not. So a bit off poweer to get over the advantage line just makes it so much easier for your team to maintain momentum. If you have the skill to offload the ball in the tackle you can really cause headaches for your opposition but your mates should know to play off of your shouler looking for an offload and should communicate. Best international example is probably Sonny Bill Williams of New Zealand or Jannick Jauzion of France. A good kicking game can be advantagious as this could take some pressure off of your flyhalf but isn't necessary or as imprtant as being able to do the rest. Inside centres with a decent kicking game; Luke McAllister of NZ and Australia's Berrick Barnes. In short you need to be good at three things; tackling, passing and running strongly (more so than fast although some smaller centres make up for this through being very agile and hard to get a good hit on. Example of test players; Matt Giteau and James O'Connor from Australia) You should find some reels of the players I mentioned to help illustrate.