Speed Predictor for 100 meter times and Rugby Players

Last month’s article Maximum Speed Predictor for 100 meter times and Soccer Players raised several questions.

One of them was how fast can a RUGBY player run the 100 meters?

Well, take all those fancy Excel spreadsheets and throw them away.

Get six or eight of the fastest rugby players in the world and line them up!  Simple as that!  Isn’t that what competition is all about?  (Please, use FAT timing, and not some silly hand time by non-officials)

It turns out (no pun intended) Lachie Turner ran 11.10 for the 100 meters at the Gatorade 100m Bolt in Australia… a time very respectable, at least at the Canadian Provincial level.  There’s a big difference (and a heck of a lot of sprinters) between 10.00 and 11.00.  9.58 is another planet.

Second and third was 11.15 and 11.20.  I would love to get the 40 meter or 60 meter split times.  Then it would be clear that elite 100 meter sprinters have great speed endurance (maintenance) as well as great top end speed. 

However, you won’t see me on a Rugby pitch anytime soon, despite the persuasion from my high school buddies Rob Holdaway and Willy Scott!  Sorry guys!

From the Northern District Times,

EASTWOOD and Wallabies winger Lachie Turner was crowned Australia’s fastest man of all the football codes after his come from behind win in the Gatorade 100m Bolt, hosted by the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, at Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre last night.

Turner’s win, in 11.10 seconds, earned him the $20,000 first-prize.

Turner pipped fellow Eastwood winger John Grant (11.15 seconds) with Parramatta Eels’ fullback Jarryd Hayne third (11.20 seconds).

The race had been built as a two-man war between Hayne and Greg Inglis, the Melbourne Storm utility back who recently signed on with the Brisbane Broncos for 2011.