The first time Rosko Specman played at the HSBC SVNS Canada in Vancouver, his teammates included Bryan Habana and Ryan Kankowski, and the Springbok Sevens lost to New Zealand in the final.
It took them just over 30 hours to get from Cape Town to Vancouver, but for the Springbok Sevens it is all part of the job and uncomfortable travel will not deter their ambition to deliver a winning performance in Canada this weekend.
The Springboks will get the wheels in motion for the 2024 season in Cape Town in the first week of March with the first in-person coaches’ strategic session and a two-day alignment camp with a group of 43 players, which will mark the team’s first gathering following their Rugby World Cup triumph in France in 2023.
Saturday’s return leg Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash between the Hollywoodbets Sharks and DHL Stormers at Hollywoodbets Kings Park promises to bring fireworks for the fans.
When it comes to this weekend’s Gauteng Derby between the Emirates Lions and Vodacom Bulls, which also forms part of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship’s Origins Rounds, Sanele Nohamba recalls how playing in the dusty streets of the Eastern Cape gave him a rugby mindset that he still uses today.
Springbok Sevens head coach Sandile Ngcobo made five changes to his travelling squad for the next two HSBC SVNS tournaments, in Vancouver next weekend and Los Angeles a week later.
The Vodacom Bulls head into this weekend’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship fixture against the Emirates Lions well aware that mistakes are costly at this point in the season, and that the local Derbies in particular can expose this even further.
Jean de Villiers says the Vodacom United Rugby Championship is doing an incredible job of preparing a new generation of young players for the demands of Test rugby, and that this past weekend’s Six Nations action was another prime example of this.
Rassie Erasmus – the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles of 2019 and 2023 – has returned to the role of head coach for the next four years, following the departure of Jacques Nienaber to Leinster.
Springbok superstar Cheslin Kolbe has interestingly signed an ambassadorship deal with a golf company in Japan that aims to support his social outreach initiatives.