What is a good Bronco test time?
A ten-year study of Super Rugby players (Weakley et al., 2026) reports average Bronco times of 4:57 for male backs and 5:21 for male forwards, and 5:52 for female backs and 6:38 for female forwards. A good time is one that is fast for your sex and position. These are averages of professional players, not a pass mark: no governing body publishes an official good or poor time.
The published averages
The largest data set we found covers ten years of Bronco tests in Super Rugby: 462 athletes, 303 men and 159 women, and 1,668 tests. These are the average times.
| Group | Average time | Average speed |
|---|---|---|
| Men, all positions | 5:11 | 13.9 km/h |
| Men, backs | 4:57 | 14.5 km/h |
| Men, forwards | 5:21 | 13.5 km/h |
| Women, all positions | 6:19 | 11.4 km/h |
| Women, backs | 5:52 | 12.3 km/h |
| Women, forwards | 6:38 | 10.9 km/h |
Speed is 1,200 m divided by the time. It includes the 30 turns of the course, so it sits well below the speed of a straight run.
How to read them
These are averages of professionals. Half of each group runs faster than its average, half slower. A male forward at 5:10 is faster than the average man, but slower than the average back.
Position matters. Backs beat forwards in both sexes. Among men the gap between the group averages is 24 seconds. Halfbacks are the fastest men, the back three the fastest women, and front-row players the slowest in both.
Sex matters. The gap between men and women is very large (effect size 1.78). Never compare a woman’s time with a men’s average.
There is no official standard. No union or federation publishes a pass or fail time for the Bronco. Time ranges by level appear on blogs and test sites, but we found no primary source behind them. Treat them as habit, not as a standard.
What to do with your own time
- Pick the right group. Use your sex and your position, not the all-player average.
- Compare with your last test. Inside one squad, this is what the Bronco measures best. A gain of 5 to 10 seconds over a season tells you more than a gap to an average.
- Keep conditions identical. Same pitch, same time of day, same warm-up, lines measured with a tape.
If you want running speeds for conditioning work, the Bronco is not the right tool. A beep test gives a maximal aerobic speed directly, and the page on Bronco vs beep test explains when to use which. The format itself is on the Bronco test page.
What is still missing
The percentile thresholds in the full paper would give real cut-offs by sex and position. We have not read those values in the article itself, so we do not quote them.
Go further
Frequently asked questions
Is a Bronco under 5 minutes good?
For men, yes. The average male back in Super Rugby runs 4:57 and the average male forward 5:21, so sub-5:00 puts a forward well ahead of his group. For women it would be exceptional, since the average female back runs 5:52. For amateur players no benchmark is published.
Why are women's Bronco times slower?
The study measured an average gap of 5:11 for men against 6:19 for women, a very large effect (d = 1.78). Compare women with women's averages. The paper also saw wider spread among women and links it to the development of the women's game.
Where are the percentile benchmarks?
The authors calculated percentile thresholds by sex and positional group. They are in the full article, which we could not read. This page quotes only the averages from the abstract.
Sources
- Weakley J. et al., “A 10-Year Analysis of the Bronco Fitness Test in Male and Female Super Rugby Athletes: The Effect of Sex and Positional Group”, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2026 — 462 athletes, 1,668 observations; average times read in the abstract and its record, checked 2026-10-15; percentile tables not consulted (full text behind a paywall)
- Bronco test (1200 m shuttle), Topend Sports — other benchmarks in circulation, with no primary source; not used here