So, you think you’re fit enough to play in an HSBC SVNS 2024 tournament?

Sevens is a tough sport. Players are getting stronger, faster and fitter every year. The shortened form of the game necessitates fast, flowing, physical rugby and players need to be prepared for that. 

But how fit do you need to be and what does the training look like at the highest level? 

I sat down with good friend and Great Britain’s head strength and conditioning coach James Nolan to add some science to my anecdotal experience. 

The first tournament you play on the HSBC SVNS series feels like you’re in a washing machine on fast spin, while you’re on fire and being pushed down a hill. After the final whistle of your last game, you are physically and mentally drained.  

Rugby sevens poses a unique fitness conundrum; the games are short and sharp at maximal intensity but spread out over a long weekend with teams playing five or six games. 

Managing the high energy of the warm-ups and games, the comparatively low energy of the recovery, as well as nutrition and analysis is the key to a successful weekend. 

Nolan has the critical job of preparing Great Britain’s men and women for the high-paced HSBC SVNS 2024 series. Asked to describe fitness for rugby sevens, he said: “Rugby sevens requires a fusion of physical abilities where strength underpins, muscle power dominates, speed can kill – but conditioning wins.”

On average, players will run between 1.8 and 2.2 kilometres in a game. Over a tournament, players easily cover more than 10km in short bursts of speed. 

High-speed metres (HSM) is a key metric that every team monitors. During a game, players cover between 115 to 215 metres of high-speed running (HSR). This is any running between 5.5 to 7.5 metres per second. It’s not all-out sprint speed, but a fast run. 

Anything over 7.5m/s is considered very high-speed running (VHSR) and most teams will also have a metric for each player to monitor when they run at more than 90 per cent of their maximum speed. This is a good indicator of training volumes and how fatigued a player is. 

Conditioning for sevens is tough but necessary for every elite sevens team. Nolan said: “With the high general fitness of all players on the series, conditioning them to have the ability to repeat sprint and repeat contact at or above game-level work/rest ratios can be the difference in the game results.”

But what does the training look like? 

With eight HSBC SVNS 2024 series tournaments spanning a seven-month season, there is plenty of time in a year for consistent training. This is key to fitness levels that sevens players can achieve when compared to 15s players who play every week. 

This is one of the main reasons I would always suggest that new players should spend at least six months in a sevens programme. This is the minimum time I believe they would need to benefit from the progressive overload for speed endurance and overall conditioning and improve their game understanding to HSBC SVNS 2024 levels. 

In any given week, most professional teams train for four days. The fifth day, normally a Wednesday, is a recovery day. Each day consists of a big rugby session, which often has extra fitness or speed work attached, a gym workout and a skills session. 

Within these rugby sessions, players typically cover five to eight kilometres. Over a week this is between 20 and 32kms – or 800 to 1,280kms a year based on a 40-week training season.

Everyone will wear a global positioning system unit (GPS) in their jerseys, so the strength and conditioning coach can monitor distances and load. They can then push players on if they need it with top-ups in fitness and speed, or pull them back if they are clocking up high numbers. 

Speed sessions are critical as frequent exposure to high-speed running helps protect the players from hamstring injuries and make them more efficient around the field. Most teams will have two dedicated sessions per week, one concentrating on accelerating and the other on top-end speed.  

Weight sessions are intended to complement on-field training and they vary during the season. As tournaments approach, sessions will be strength-based in pre-season and move towards power-based sessions. Most teams will aim to complete two upper-body and two lower-body sessions a week. 

Players will have individual needs based on age, experience and physical condition. Strength and conditioning coaches will use the GPS and gym data to adjust player loads but they will also use different fitness tests. 

Currently, the most common test used in rugby is the dreaded Bronco test. This involves starting on the try-line and running out and back to 20ms, 40ms and 60ms for five reps. Your total time is recorded and this is used to adjust what fitness group you are assigned for the next block of training. 

Nolan’s guideline Bronco results for men’s and women’s teams look, roughly, like this:

Men’s Bronco times

<4:15 WORLD RECORD LEVEL
4:15-4:25 ELITE
4:25-4:35 OUTSTANDING
4:35-4:45 VERY GOOD
4:45-4:55 GOOD
4:55-5:15 AVERAGE
>5:15 POOR

Women’s Bronco times

<4:26 WORLD RECORD LEVEL
4:26-4:36 ELITE
4:36-4:46 OUTSTANDING
4:46-4:56 VERY GOOD
4:56-5:06 GOOD
5:06-5:26 AVERAGE
>5:26 POOR

At a minimum, players need to hit a ‘GOOD’ level to be able to compete in HSBC SVNS 2024 tournaments. Anything lower and they will struggle and risk injury. Anything better than that will allow them to excel by having frequent positive impacts on a game. 

A Bronco test is easy to set up, so why not go and see how you compare to the top players in the world…

By Luke Treharne