Tom Varndell ran the 100m in 10.82sec on grass, in socks. Every rugby fan worth their salt knew this bizarrely caveated explanation of the England wing’s speed in the Noughties. It was used as an opening sentence in these pages on January 6, 2008, as proof that Varndell could give “Bryan Habana and his cheetah a run for their money”.

We love to hypothesise about the speed of sports stars without ever quite getting to the bottom of the story. A decade ago, Sydney hosted the Gatorade Bolt 100m, a race between the fastest men in Australia’s football codes, with rugby union’s Lachie Turner coming out on top. In the UK, talk of rugby players’ speed and strength is a rumour mill, with hushed tones