Rugby teams coming up against Taupō Sports will have to be at their best for the full 80 minutes after the Taupō side was crowned the fittest in the King Country.
With three games completed in the 2022 club rugby season, Taupō Sports can be officially named the fittest team.
Prior to the season, all King Country rugby clubs could enter the Great Lake Physio Bronco Challenge, where clubs enter their average Bronco fitness test times for their players.
What is the Bronco test? It's a simple fitness test. Place four markers at 0m, 20m, 40m and 60m. Run from 0m-20m-0m-40m-0m-60m-0m (total distance of 240m). That is one repetition, you need to complete five repetitions as fast as possible.
It is a test used by professional sports teams all over the world, much like the beep test used to be, to establish the fitness level of players.
The prize of $500 was sponsored by Great Lake Physio and was aimed at adding some extra incentive to raise fitness levels and preseason preparation.
The challenge was set by Great Lake Physio which provides physiotherapy cover for King Country Rugby. Owner Jenny Voss says the Taupō Sports team averaged a very quick five minutes, two seconds over the 1.2km shuttle run, beating other clubs to the prize.
The Taupō Sports average time was closely followed by Tongariro United and Taupō Marist.
King Country Rugby general manager Kurt McQuilkin says Taupō Sports' Bronco time is very quick for a club competition and is close to what we expect for provincial-level teams. This shows Taupō Sports have taken the challenge on and deserve the prize.
McQuilkin says fitness is clearly a performance advantage and it shows on the field where Taupō Sports have won their first three club games against Waitete, Taupō Marist and Taumarunui Sports.
Taupō Sports team trainer Josh Dais says the prize is a vindication of plenty of hours of hard work preseason by the players.
Taupō Sports coach Gene Waller says the team has decided to donate the prize money to one of their club members Ricky Anderson, who is battling cancer. Both Ricky and his family need all the help and support the club can offer at the moment.
In a generous act of solidarity, Taupō Marist presented Taupō Sports with a contribution to the fund for Ricky to show their support for a fellow rugby player. Anyone who wants to help Ricky and his family are encouraged to visit the Go Fund me page https://gofund.me/27246aa4
The King Country Premier Rugby season has a strong lineup of 10 teams for 2022 and will continue to mid-June.
Credit: NZHerald.co.nz
