Meet the Chessum brothers, Lewis and Ollie. All 13ft 4in and 38st (239kg) of them. So large their size 16 feet could be mistaken for pleasure boats as they walk beside the River Thames.
Squeezing on to a bench, they explain how finding clothes can be a struggle. Nineteen-year-old Lewis laughs, stretching out his arms so his sleeves ride halfway up his forearms. At 6ft 9in, he is two inches taller than his brother.
‘Trainer shopping is a dangerous place to be,’ says Ollie, 22, with a laugh. ‘You get them from wherever you can find them!’
Here they are dressed head to toe in England gear. Lewis is captain of the Under-20s and Ollie is the man in possession of the No5 jersey in the senior team. England’s next bruise brothers? Don’t bet against it.
Their journey began in Lincolnshire. Sons to Paddy, 6ft5, and Michelle, 6ft2. They went to a state school lost to rugby’s fast-track programmes and worked in the family trailer-making business before their big break.
Lewis and Ollie Chessum smile during a photo shoot at England’s Teddington training base
The brothers grew up in a football-oriented household but the family are now ‘rugby mad’ (left to right – Ollie, Dylan and Lewis)
‘I left school expecting to work in the family firm,’ says Ollie. ‘Rugby didn’t look like it was going to happen for me. I was pretty much full-time on the yard. My responsibility was welding drill bars for trailers, axles, doing a few bit and bobs. You’d be lifting big sheets of metal around. I don’t know how much they weigh but it takes two of you and some facials! The business is in its third generation. Aunties, uncles, cousins, their partners, our mum. It was good fun.’
Lewis says: ‘Our dad worked in the prison service but he was a plasterer for a while.
He dragged us along as soon as we were tall enough to hold up the ceiling boards. Stood there like a wedge. He used us for all our worth during the school holidays. Paid us in McDonald’s breakfasts!’
On a heavy training day, their agile build requires 6,000 calories of food to maintain weight. They prepared for the rigours of senior rugby at Nottingham, dovetailing with Leicester Tigers after Steve Borthwick spotted their potential. Ollie has taken it by storm and Lewis is not far behind.
‘Rugby was never really on at home when we were growing up,’ says Lewis. ‘The internationals would be on but that was it. Get home, chuck on the TV and wait for a Sunday roast. Those double servings. Mum’s probably happy the food bill’s reduced since we left home!
‘Dad played a bit for the prison service back in the day but everyone else was football. Now the whole family’s rugby mad. Season tickets at Leicester. You have to keep mum strapped in the seat. You look around and she’s disappeared. When it gets close towards the end she can’t bear to watch it. She goes walkabout!’
The most recent family outing was for Ollie’s England victory over Italy last week. ‘Poor chap who was sat behind you, Lewis!’ jokes the elder. Cut from a similar mould to Tom Croft, Ollie’s frame makes him a valuable weapon in Borthwick’s set-piece-heavy strategy. They secured 21 from 21 lineouts last week and have been working closely with former England lock George Kruis.
‘You’ve got to love it,’ says Ollie. ‘As a second row, that’s your bread and butter. That’s your area of expertise. You’ve got to nail it down, similar to the front-row with scrummaging. Steve has always said look at what George Kruis did because he rates him so highly. It’s been really good to have him in camp with that extra pair of eyes. He’s been really helpful.
‘Steve was a lineout caller himself when he was a player. He’s often referred to as one of the best in the business at that sort of stuff, so he hangs his hat on the lineout, the maul and set-piece work. It’s only natural that he brought a big focus on that into the way he coaches.
‘It takes up so much of your time off the field, so if you didn’t enjoy it then you just wouldn’t enjoy playing rugby. A lot of people don’t understand the complexity. Lineouts are basically problem solving. It keeps your brain ticking along.’
Ollie Chessum has taken his step up to the senior side like a duck to water and his brother is not far behind
Steve Borthwick has played a key role in the development of Ollie Chessum so far in his career
Lewis Chessum was one of a number of age-group players called up to train with England
After every match, Lewis messages his older brother for feedback on his own lineout operation. He speaks about him like his biggest idol, marvelling about the night Ollie presented his U20 jersey before the Italy fixture. They trained together at the Lensbury this week, with a group of age-group players invited to join up with the senior team.
‘It’s been a bit of a surreal week, training with all the names you’ve grown up watching,’ says Lewis. ‘A lot of these guys have been at the top of their game for a while. It was a bit of a shock to the system. I’m just trying to take away as much as I can. Playing for England would be a massive dream come true.’
Two years apart at school, the brothers are still waiting for the day they are picked for the same team. Neither have been to a game at the Principality Stadium but they will travel to Cardiff in tow this week, with the U20s taking on Wales the night before the main event. The dream is, one day, they get to step out together.
‘I dreamt of playing for England once, so to have done it a couple of times is pretty cool,’ says Ollie. ‘To do it with my brother, sing the anthem and play together, would be something extra special.’
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