Wilco Louw showed off his incredible strength in Harlequins’ win over the Sharks at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday.
Harlequins booked their place in the Champions Cup knockout stages by beating the Sharks 39-29 in a thrilling encounter.
Nick David scored a stunning solo try in the match while Danny Care, Alex Dombrandt, Cadan Murley and Stephan Lewies all dotted down in the bonus-point victory.
Louw’s strength
However, one moment that won’t be raved about on the back pages of Sunday’s newspapers was Wilco Louw’s display of incredible strength.
The Springbok tighthead prop lifted his club captain Lewies over his head after lifting the second rower when the Sharks kicked off from a goal-line dropout.
Lewies over-extended when plucking the ball out of the air, but Louw prevented the lock from falling awkwardly.
UREAL strength pic.twitter.com/I7p4ygYBE2
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Unfortunately for the Quins faithful, Louw is in his final season with the club, as he has signed a deal to join the Bulls ahead of the new season.
Common occurrence
This show of strength is somewhat of a common occurrence from South African front rowers, with former Springbok prop Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira doing the same during his career.
He did it on two notable occasions for the Sharks, holding Anton Bresler above his head against the Stormers in 2012.
Beast did the same with flanker Keegan Daniels against the Cheetahs.
Last year, Malcolm Marx replicated the feat for the Springboks, superbly holding Pieter-Steph du Toit over his head with his arms fully extended.
Incredible strength from Malcolm Marx 😳
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Quins march on
The win for Harlequins ended a run of four straight losses across all competitions and advances them into the Champions Cup round of 16.
The game was also special for scrum-half Danny Care, who was making his 350th appearance for Quins.