He’s fast! Blitzbok Rosko Specman
Blink and you’ll miss him – that’s how fast Blitzbok Rosko Specman is when he gets his hands on the ball
SPARKS fly and flames shoot from his feet as he blazes past seven opponents. On the screen is a built-in rev counter and it’s red all the time – just a little indicator showing the rip-roaring speed at which Rosko Specman moves.
It’s no surprise someone edited a video of Specman in action to compare him to a racing car to highlight his remarkable ability on the field. His recent performances have seemed almost as unreal as the clip on social media.
The try featured in the clip was definitely one of the most memorable long-distance solo efforts at the World Rugby Sevens Series tournament in Vancouver, Canada – but for Rosko it was just another day at the office.
During the past few tournaments he’s scored similar tries against teams such as England and Fiji, some of the Blitzbokke’s strongest opponents.
Almost anywhere on the field the strapping Grahamstown-born player finds himself he grabs the opportunity to display his lightning pace and fancy footwork.
Fans reckon with his skills Rosko doesn’t even need an inch to beat a defender. And if he gets some space on the field, it usually results in a try.
After Seabelo Senatla, who recently made the move to Super Rugby, he’s the Blitzbokke’s leading try-scorer so far this season – and with the team sitting atop the World Series points log it’s a nice place to be.
During the Las Vegas tournament in the USA he scored five tries and was named the player of the final.
“Specman is now the player who can turn a game on its head,” the governing body, World Rugby, declared in a posttournament analysis.
He was also named a member of the “Dream Team” – a list of seven top performers chosen from all 15 participating teams – after that Las Vegas tournament.
And most recently, in Vancouver, he made the Dream Team list again.
WHEN we meet Rosko (27) and his girlfriend, Amber Cupido (25), in Stellenbosch before a match against Hong Kong, his attention is focused on the task ahead – winning a second World Series for South Africa (they’d won a series title in the 2008-’09 season).
The team have a comfortable lead on the points log but, Rosko says, “we can’t get into our comfort zone”.
At this stage the three teams who can possibly rob the Blitzbokke of glory are England, Fiji and New Zealand, he adds.
But Rosko reckons SA are now reaping the seeds they’ve sown. “It’s taken us three years of working together as a team. The nice thing is how the coach, players, everyone has grown in the past
few seasons. “Look at me, for example. Last season I was still just trying to do everything as fast as possible. This season I’ve been more disciplined.
“I won’t just try to score from first phase any more. I’ll rather wait for an opportunity like a turnover, when their defence structure is in disarray. Then I can hurt many teams when I get the ball. That said, it’s my teammates who create the space for me. I just add the finishing touches.”
But that’s not always the case, and quite a few unlikely long-distance tries can attest to that.
“Rosko is one of those X-factor players who can create something out of nothing,” Blitzbokke coach Neil Powell says. “It’s very difficult to put just one defender on him. And he’s faster than people think – and not just over that first 40 m. He’s very explosive and elusive.”
ROSKO – who attended Mary Waters High School in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape and later moved to private school Kingswood College on a sports bursary – says he has his father, Joseph, to thank for much of his talent and skill. His dad played for Border in the 15-player version of the game, at both centre and wing.
Rosko also excelled at other sports, such as cricket and athletics. In fact, he was U19 100-m champion in the Eastern Cape. But rugby, and later sevens, won in the end.
Although his dad was the greatest influence on his game, he also met Fabian Juries in Grahamstown once. Fabian became a sevens legend and for a long time held the record as the Blitzbokke’s top try-scorer.
“One day, when I was about 13, I was walking past a rugby field and he called, ‘Come catch the ball for a bit’,” Rosko recalls.
Since 2009 Rosko has been playing more sevens but he also did well in the 15-man code.
It hasn’t always been plain sailing. Soon after making his Blitzbokke debut in 2014 he suffered the worst setback of his career. “In my third game, which happened to be in Vegas against Kenya, I tore my ankle ligament. I was out for six months and didn’t think I’d ever be the same Rosko again.”
But he also wanted to show his mettle. “I just kept working through it all slowly.”
He says one of the nicest things was to get the call from “coach Neil” to rejoin the Blitzbokke at their headquarters at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport.
“Then I told myself, ‘Okay, you have one more chance.’ Eventually I made the full-time team, and after that I never looked back.”
He met Amber, who’s doing her honours in political science at Stellenbosch University, at a rugby team house in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, in 2013.
S“I went to visit my sister and her husband, who happened to be his teammate,” Amber tells us. At the time Danwel Demas and Rosko were playing for the Pumas.
“It wasn’t love at first sight. We were friends first and started spending more time together.”
Initially she thought he was quite quiet and serious. “But as soon as he gets to know someone, he opens up,” she says, smiling when she adds that he’s also a bit of a joker. “You can’t take anything he says too seriously.” OME may be keen to see those turbocharged feet making a few turns in the 15-man code again but for the moment Rosko is sticking with the short format. “I’m really enjoying sevens. The fast pace of the game, to be standing on the podium and seeing all the happy people.”
And, of course, there’s the camaraderie. “That’s a big factor in our success. There are no ‘senior’ or ‘junior’ guys. If we’re on tour and the bus needs to be loaded, everyone pitches in, including the coach.”
The pressure of large crowds and swathes of cameras in world cities can be intense, he confirms.
“But if the coach supports you in everything and tells you to go out and enjoy yourself, you’re here for a reason, you have the talent – then you run out with a smile and you always want to give your best. For your coach, your teammates and your country.”