Alvaro Garcia Iandolino

Alvaro Garcia Iandolino is 1.98m and 116kg and was born on 5 December 2005. Most second rows do not carry that weight until their mid-twenties.

He is a lock at Bayonne, and one of five players in the squad standing 1.98m or taller.

Beyond the measurements there is nothing published. A search across nine languages turns up no encyclopedia entry, no age-grade international appearance recorded for him, and nothing in the club’s own season summaries.

The lock room he has joined is the tallest part of a tall squad: Ewan Johnson at 2.03m, Baptiste Chouzenoux at 2.00m and Lucas Paulos at 1.99m are all ahead of him, and all three are senior professionals.

What his build does mean is that he will not need to grow into the position, which is the usual obstacle for a young second row. Lineout work and scrummaging are learned rather than inherited, and a player who already has the frame can spend his early twenties learning them instead of eating.

He is twenty, on the roster of a Top 14 club, and undocumented. That combination is ordinary at his age and says nothing either way about what follows.

This page gets rewritten the moment there is a debut to record.