Sevens star Rosko Specman draws inspiration from ‘dangerous’ Springboks

When the Springboks came together “as one” at last year’s Rugby World Cup in France, they went on a historic run of one-point wins as they defended their crown. Now, the South Africa men’s sevens side hasn’t given up on doing the same.

Playing at the very same venue where Boks captain Siya Kolisi lifted the Webb Ellis Cup up in triumph for the second time last October, the sevens side took the field at Stade de France in the pursuit of their own shot at history.

South Africa qualified for the Pairs Olympic Games in the Monaco repechage tournament last month after beating Great Britain in the decider. That gave them a chance, but so far, it hasn’t gone their way at the Games.

The South Africans were beaten by Ireland 10-5 to start their campaign before falling to arch-rivals New Zealand 17-5 in the final match on day one. They need to beat Japan by a big margin on day two and hope other results go their way if they want to have a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.

While they’re down, the South Africans aren’t out just yet.

Rugby sevens veteran Rosko Specman, who has been capped by the Springboks after a stint in rugby's other format, did draw inspiration from South Africa 15s team after they were beaten by the Irish.

“First of all, I say that I feel old. I’m kidding,” Specman said on the Olympic broadcast, as seen on Stan Sport in Australia.

“It was a great experience for me to go back and play 15s and my goal was always to become a Springbok and I achieved that goal and now I’m back with my boys.

“We know this team, when the team fights for one another, and we do everything for each other, we can be a dangerous team.

“As you know in the 15 (player) code, it’s dangerous when they come together as one and we might just ourselves this weekend still, and I promise you, this is not the end that you’ve seen so far. (There’s still) good things to come from this team.”

In that match against Ireland, South Africa had to do a lot of defending during the first half but they took some confidence out of only conceding one try.

When it was their turn, as Specman pointed out, “We had the ball for 30 seconds and we scored a try.”

“I think from the beginning, Ireland kept the ball for six minutes and there’s no way that you can defend for six minutes.

“It just means (we need) more focus when we need to attack the breakdown. We cannot attack all the breakdowns to try and get the ball back – sometimes we must sacrifice them.

“When we go side to side, we’ve got momentum but it just lacks concentration and when we get the ball we must capitalise when we have the ball.”

It’s been a frustrating year so far for South Africa who, after taking out the first Cup Final of the year in Dubai, didn’t come close to challenging for another title.

South Africa ended up finishing seventh overall on the SVNS Series which included bottom-four finishes during the two North American legs in Vancouver and Los Angeles.