Special tests for rugby hopefuls

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 42

Special tests for rugby hopefuls

PA New Plymouth. New Zealand’s top rugby players will be given special fitness tests before the All Blacs trials at Wellington next month.

The tests, a new feature of the trials, will be for stamina, speed, agility and strength, and the results could provide a useful guide for the national selectors when they consider the All Black teams to play the touring Scottish and South African teams.

“I’m quite happy for the tests to be made,” said the convenor of the selection panel, Mr Peter Burke, at New Plymouth yesterday. “The selectors will certainly be interested in the outcome of the tests, especially in association with performances in the'trials. They will provide useful information for us and for the individual player,” he said. The tests have been included at the instigation of the New Zealand Rugby Union’s medical advisory committee headed by Dr Hugh Burry, of Wellington, a

former Canterbury All Black.

They will be held during the training session of the four All Black trial teams on Thursday, May 21. The trial matches are on Saturday, May 23.

The tests will be administered to every player at the trials.

They are: — A 12-minute fun for distance to test stamina; — A 100 m “shuttle-run” against the stopwatch, consisting of four 25m springs, to test agility; — Standing jump upwards to test leaping ability; — Bent knee sit-ups for 30 seconds; ■ /

— A sprint over 50m to test speed; — Leg, back and grip strength tests measured with special equipment. Dr Burry said it was planned to test one team at a time: “We don’t want to interrupt the teams’ training to an unnecessary degree,” he said. He expected the tests would take about two hours to complete.