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Fastest Player

Who is Fastest??

  • Total voters
    130
The poll was made before Ngwenya burst onto the scene though (not many knew of him until the 07 world cup)
 
ranger said:
Could i ask where you are getting these times from? It sounds like chinese whispers to me. Also, even if this guy does miraculously run 10.5, just because he gets burnt on the outside sometimes doesn't mean everyone he plays against is an olympic level sprinter..

You do realise that on the 2010 list of the 10 fastest times registered in the entire country of South Africa BY REAL FULLTIME PROFESSIONAL SPRINTERS; that the time of 10.5 would make you the 10th fastest man in the entire country?

Is that right mate? It seems that if you were under 20 and ran 10.6 then you would be the second fastest youth in the entire country of South Africa!
These times you say are completely made up. Just because someone looks fast on a rugby pitch doesnt mean you can assign a random low 100m time to them and pass it off as fact.

Rod Davies was an actual sprinter, who has a PB for the 100m recognised by offical athletic associations. If there are so many of these rugby players that could instantly walk into the South African Olympic team, show me some facts.
Click to expand...

All fast people in SA don't do track they play rugby...that is where the money is and we luv rugby... I get info from the players themselves and teammates, also have a guy that goes to all the press conferences and ask these questions during pre-season conferences. Sharksworld.co.za...we (robdylan) have people all over the place following the team closely. Ask robdylan on Sharksworld.co.za...he gets info from lots of guys...check with him if you want confirmation.
 
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JJR said:
All fast people in SA don't do track they play rugby...that is where the money is and we luv rugby... I get info from the players themselves and teammates, also have a guy that goes to all the press conferences and ask these questions during pre-season conferences. Sharksworld.co.za...we (robdylan) have people all over the place following the team closely. Ask robdylan on Sharksworld.co.za...he gets info from lots of guys...check with him if you want confirmation.
Click to expand...

That is bullshit quite simply. So there are 20 guys in South African youth rugby every year that could walk into the junior olympic team, but dont because "you guys luv rugby"?
Youre facts are all wrong quite frankly. the times you have listed are completely unrealistic, the average international winger would be lucky to break 11 seconds. Having so many people at 10.5-.6 is just fantasy.
 
ranger said:
That is bullshit quite simply. So there are 20 guys in South African youth rugby every year that could walk into the junior olympic team, but dont because "you guys luv rugby"?
Youre facts are all wrong quite frankly. the times you have listed are completely unrealistic, the average international winger would be lucky to break 11 seconds. Having so many people at 10.5-.6 is just fantasy.
Click to expand...

What he said, if South Africa had that many people who without proper sprint training can run that fast then on a track with proper shoes they must all run it faster than Hussain Bolt, because on grass for a winger to break 10.8 like Rodney Davies did on a track, that would then have to transfer into them being able to break 10.2 on a track.
 
Ok, let's take one thing for granted. A professional sprinter is a man whose entire diet and training regime is devoted to improving his reaction times, improving his technique, maximising the power he can generate from certain muscles and so on.

This is a different regime from that of a rugby player, who has to run around for 80mins and take physical hits, not to mention having to learn and enhance a whole load of other skills.

Now let's look at the top brass of professional sprinters. Yes, the world record stands at 9.58, but the time most top class sprinters have worried about for the past 30 odd years is 9.99 secs, and it is around this time that most of them run. And only the really top guys break 10 seconds. Even the UK, which can draw from a sizeable population of African/ Caribbeans, and can provide world class training facilities, has only seen Dwain Chambers break the 10 second barrier in the past 10 years. Most professional sprinters outside of major champtionships and US college events are happy to run something in the region of 10.2

Given the fact that rugby players are not training to sprint professionally, then it's quite obvious that their 100m times aren't going to be anywhere near 10.2. But of course we don't know this, because they're never timed, so all we hear is speculation on their schoolboy times. The reason is quite simple - they were quicker as schoolboys, because they hadn't put on all the extra bulk required for pro rugby.

So, if they were incredibly quick as schoolboys, how quick were they? Well, a quick look over recent results in World Junior Athletics Championships shows that even the top youth sprinters in the world are recording times ranging from about 10.2 to 10.8. So if all these rugby players were as quick as some of these fanboys say they are, they would quite probably have been competing at high levels in athletics. As it is, none of them have made it even to their national youth teams.

Who's the fastest rugby player out there? Hard to tell. Out of well-known players, my guess is that it would be someone from the group of Ngwenya, Chavhanga, Varndell, Davies etc. But since there's no one publishing times for them, and there's no race (like there is, for example, in Super League) then we'll have to quit debating. It doesn't really matter that much anyway...
 
ranger said:
That is bullshit quite simply. So there are 20 guys in South African youth rugby every year that could walk into the junior olympic team, but dont because "you guys luv rugby"?
Youre facts are all wrong quite frankly. the times you have listed are completely unrealistic, the average international winger would be lucky to break 11 seconds. Having so many people at 10.5-.6 is just fantasy.
Click to expand...


I voted "other" because, obviously, my choice (Ngwenya of Biarritz) isn't there. This guy has got to be the fastest player in rugby boots that I have seen in a long, long time.

I know this video has been posted before, but take a look at the time coding...



He gets the ball 10m from his own line at 0:03, and crosses the Ospreys goal-line at 0:14. That is 90m in 11 seconds. That equates to 100m in just over 12 seconds, admittedly with a flying start, but with a couple of disadvantages too....

1. He's running on grass.
2. He's wearing rugby boots.
3. He has to swerve slightly to avoid tackles from two Ospreys defenders
4. He has to slow down to score the try.

Now stick this guy in custom fitted running spikes, on a synthetic track with starting blocks and a few tips from Usain Bolt, and I reckon he could push 10.5 for the 100m
 
Last edited by a moderator:
smartcooky said:
I voted "other" because, obviously, my choice (Ngwenya of Biarritz) isn't there. This guy has got to be the fastest player in rugby boots that I have seen in a long, long time.

I know this video has been posted before, but take a look at the time coding...



He gets the ball 10m from his own line at 0:03, and crosses the Ospreys goal-line at 0:14. That is 90m in 11 seconds. That equates to 100m in just over 12 seconds, admittedly with a flying start, but with a couple of disadvantages too....

1. He's running on grass.
2. He's wearing rugby boots.
3. He has to swerve slightly to avoid tackles from two Ospreys defenders
4. He has to slow down to score the try.

Now stick this guy in custom fitted running spikes, on a synthetic track with starting blocks and a few tips from Usain Bolt, and I reckon he could push 10.5 for the 100m
Click to expand...


He doesn't need any tips from Usain Bolt, before he was a professional rugby player he used to be a competitive sprinter. His personal best when he was an actual sprinter was 10.5, although he has admitted that that was done with handtiming in practice. His best time in competition was around the 10.7 mark.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
smartcooky said:
I voted "other" because, obviously, my choice (Ngwenya of Biarritz) isn't there. This guy has got to be the fastest player in rugby boots that I have seen in a long, long time.

I know this video has been posted before, but take a look at the time coding...



He gets the ball 10m from his own line at 0:03, and crosses the Ospreys goal-line at 0:14. That is 90m in 11 seconds. That equates to 100m in just over 12 seconds, admittedly with a flying start, but with a couple of disadvantages too....

1. He's running on grass.
2. He's wearing rugby boots.
3. He has to swerve slightly to avoid tackles from two Ospreys defenders
4. He has to slow down to score the try.

Now stick this guy in custom fitted running spikes, on a synthetic track with starting blocks and a few tips from Usain Bolt, and I reckon he could push 10.5 for the 100m
Click to expand...


http://web.usarugby.org/cgi-bin/viad...l?playerId=379
That's the time USA rugby claim.
gingergenius said:
Ok, let's take one thing for granted. A professional sprinter is a man whose entire diet and training regime is devoted to improving his reaction times, improving his technique, maximising the power he can generate from certain muscles and so on.

This is a different regime from that of a rugby player, who has to run around for 80mins and take physical hits, not to mention having to learn and enhance a whole load of other skills.

Now let's look at the top brass of professional sprinters. Yes, the world record stands at 9.58, but the time most top class sprinters have worried about for the past 30 odd years is 9.99 secs, and it is around this time that most of them run. And only the really top guys break 10 seconds. Even the UK, which can draw from a sizeable population of African/ Caribbeans, and can provide world class training facilities, has only seen Dwain Chambers break the 10 second barrier in the past 10 years. Most professional sprinters outside of major champtionships and US college events are happy to run something in the region of 10.2

Given the fact that rugby players are not training to sprint professionally, then it's quite obvious that their 100m times aren't going to be anywhere near 10.2. But of course we don't know this, because they're never timed, so all we hear is speculation on their schoolboy times. The reason is quite simple - they were quicker as schoolboys, because they hadn't put on all the extra bulk required for pro rugby.

So, if they were incredibly quick as schoolboys, how quick were they? Well, a quick look over recent results in World Junior Athletics Championships shows that even the top youth sprinters in the world are recording times ranging from about 10.2 to 10.8. So if all these rugby players were as quick as some of these fanboys say they are, they would quite probably have been competing at high levels in athletics. As it is, none of them have made it even to their national youth teams.

Who's the fastest rugby player out there? Hard to tell. Out of well-known players, my guess is that it would be someone from the group of Ngwenya, Chavhanga, Varndell, Davies etc. But since there's no one publishing times for them, and there's no race (like there is, for example, in Super League) then we'll have to quit debating. It doesn't really matter that much anyway...
Click to expand...

Exactly. As I have said though, the fastest rugby player to play anything like top class rugby, is an American sprinter called Dallas Robinson, who ran at something like 10.02 seconds over 100m, and he is 220lbs and 6'5''. I posted a link in an earlier post.
 
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Some of the times thrown around here seem complete bullshit. Even for track times in very good conditions never mind in a rugby game setup so I won't even go there.

True, track and field or athletics as we call is completely dead in SA and the only spectators will be the moms and dads of the athletes. No spectators and no sponsors translate to no money but still, the cream still compete for the sake of competing and I doubt that those with true talent don't compete in SA athletics. As a 3rd world country we don't have decent training and facilities at hand to everyone but once you reach a certain point I highly doubt that you won't find your way to the few world class facilities and trainers that we do have at the major urban centers. That said I do agree that many guys with potential don't go that route because they get sanpped up by rugby scouts first but from that point onward they get rugby training which hardly focusses on pure speed. I am sure guys like Tonderai Chavanga and Jongi Nokwe would post faster times if they had never heard of rugby.

10.50 for a 100m in SA was a winning time in SA schools when I was still at school and most guys where running 10.6/10.7. These guys who as rugby players run 10.50 off hand just sound too much to be true. Maybe with times taken by hand and with wind at their backs that would disqualify their times in a real athletics meet but you could hardly use that as a comparitive tool. In any case, a time over 100m counts for little in rugby as the guy who runs fastest over 100m is rarely the guy who runs fastest over 20m which is what counts in rugby.

I guess what I am saying is that it is useless arguing using times for 100m found somewhere as you can't compare apples with apples even when using that as there are lots of variables still.
 
stormer2010 said:
Some of the times thrown around here seem complete bullshit. Even for track times in very good conditions never mind in a rugby game setup so I won't even go there.

True, track and field or athletics as we call is completely dead in SA and the only spectators will be the moms and dads of the athletes. No spectators and no sponsors translate to no money but still, the cream still compete for the sake of competing and I doubt that those with true talent don't compete in SA athletics. As a 3rd world country we don't have decent training and facilities at hand to everyone but once you reach a certain point I highly doubt that you won't find your way to the few world class facilities and trainers that we do have at the major urban centers. That said I do agree that many guys with potential don't go that route because they get sanpped up by rugby scouts first but from that point onward they get rugby training which hardly focusses on pure speed. I am sure guys like Tonderai Chavanga and Jongi Nokwe would post faster times if they had never heard of rugby.

10.50 for a 100m in SA was a winning time in SA schools when I was still at school and most guys where running 10.6/10.7. These guys who as rugby players run 10.50 off hand just sound too much to be true. Maybe with times taken by hand and with wind at their backs that would disqualify their times in a real athletics meet but you could hardly use that as a comparitive tool. In any case, a time over 100m counts for little in rugby as the guy who runs fastest over 100m is rarely the guy who runs fastest over 20m which is what counts in rugby.

I guess what I am saying is that it is useless arguing using times for 100m found somewhere as you can't compare apples with apples even when using that as there are lots of variables still.
Click to expand...

I think the real issue is people having ridiculous expectations of how fast rugby players and even humans are.
To put it in perspective, the all time New Zealand 4x100m relay record is 38.99 seconds. The personal best 100m time for one of the sprinters in that relay team (David Falelili) was 10.6.
10.6 seconds and he is a memeber of the fastest relay team NZ has ever produced.

People need to realise that if a rugby player is running 100m under 12 then he is rapid. This expectation that every top rugby player must be 10.5 is just ridiculous
 
what about someone like ugo monye who supposed to run the 100m in the low ten's, or jongi nokwe (not too sure on spelling) ?
 
Sam Owen said:
LOL...

I wonder what the times are, thats the only way we'll know for sure. Out of the Aussie players, I think Lachie Turner is the fastest but Im not sure, Im only going by this 100m sprint race he had with other Aussie Rugby and League players.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I saw that race but I think there are players that didn't compete that would actually beat all those present like Rod Davies who was an actual sprinter before signing up with the Reds.

These discussions will always be sooooo subjective. The only way to settle it would be to have an actual foot race with these players facing each other off.

I'd still say its a race between Jongi Nokwe and Tonderai Chavanaga. Habana has lost wahaayyyy too much pace over the last 2 years to even be considered although he could have been considered the fastest man in rugby in 2006. Ngwenya and the rest will have to race for 3rd place behind those 2 I mentioned first IMO
 

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