TACKLING Le Roux Roets should be X-rated — well perhaps XXXXX-rated!
Sale’s new cult hero, at over 6ft 8in and 21st 12lbs, needed an SOS call to the club’s kit manufacturers for a XXXXXL shirt.
And the bbq steak-loving second row revealed he has to watch his weight – or he would break the scales.
Monster South African Roets, 29, who also has size 14 boots, is literally the biggest Premiership signing of the season.
He told SunSport: “If I ate as much as I wanted I wouldn’t stick at 138kg.
“If I fed the beast you’d see me probably at 150kg. I do love food. I just can’t always give in to the urges.
“I love to braai (barbecue) and I was lucky to arrive in England before we said goodbye to the sun so I capitalised on that opportunity to light the fire.
“But I have to stay pretty disciplined. The boring part of being a rugby player is you need to stay healthy.”
Sharks got him a shirt big enough just in time for Roets’ first Premiership appearance against Gloucester last week.
He added: “I was always a big kid. In my final year at high school when I was 18 I weighed 127kg.
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“I’ve always been one of the big boys. But I have size 14 boots so everything we can talk about is in proportion.”
Gravel-voiced enforcer Roets arrived in the north-west with wife Samantha and two-year-old daughter Olivia from the Sharks’ namesakes in Durban where he understudied Springbok legend Eben Etzebeth.
He said: “I have been privileged to learn from some of the best. What I learned from Eben was to play like it is your last game and always give it your all for the jersey.
Sale boss Alex Sanderson was delighted to have got his man after an attempt to sign him two years ago fell through because of work permit issues.
He said: “He sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator and he is a big man but honestly it’s the size of his personality which was most attractive.
“It’s a big ask to get someone to move continents with a young family so I needed to know he was in it for the right reasons and how passionately he spoke about stepping out from the shadow of Etzebeth and proving himself just excited me.
“Second to his character was his movement. He doesn’t move like he is 22st, he moves like he is a lot lighter with his ability to get off the deck, to reload in attack and to get set to smash people.”
After a power-packed debut off the bench, which helped extend Sale’s unbeaten league record to five matches, Roets is in action again on Friday night at the Salford Community Stadium against Newcastle.
“I’m looking to help the team wherever I’m needed but the priority will be scrum, lineout and getting go-forward on the gainline,” he said.
“I enjoyed being out there on the field with my new club and my new brothers.
“It was time for me to make a change and I’m ready for this opportunity.”
