I am a 5 ft 10 , 200 lbs centre, turning 17 very soon. Here is the thing, I want to try and become a high level rugby player and currently my style of play is much of contact and hard hits. I am currently gyming hard to put on more muscle mass. What I have noticed is that most very powerful centres like Tuilagi are 6 ft +, will my height handicap me in terms of power, hard hits and crossing the gain line?I am a 5 ft 10 , 200 lbs centre, turning 17 very soon. Here is the thing, I want to try and become a high level rugby player and currently my style of play is much of contact and hard hits. I am currently gyming hard to put on more muscle mass. What I have noticed is that most very powerful centres like Tuilagi are 6 ft +, will my height handicap me in terms of power, hard hits and crossing the gain line?

No your lack of height will make it hard for tacklers to get underneath you and in turn will make it easier for you to tackle lower.

I don't see why it would, you may even have an advantage if you run into them hard enough with that lower center of gravity (assuming weights are the same). The only limitation height might have is your maximum speed, but that's nothing you can't work on. Modern rugby has a long tradition of weight over brain, but players get picked to think as well as smash into people, weight and height are redundant if you can't use your brain, at the end of the day it's how smart you play that get's you picked.