‘Spec Magic’ Rosko promises to bring home the bacon for Blitzboks in Paris

Rugby sevens star Rosko Specman is upbeat about the Blitzboks’ Olympic tournament opener against Ireland on Wednesday afternoon, promising “Spec Magic” is going to deliver.

The veteran player, the sole survivor of the outfit that took bronze at Rio 2016, along with coach Philip Snyman, is among a few Team South Africa competitors looking to ascend the Olympic podium after an eight-year hiatus, the national record for the longest gap between medals.

The others are track king Wayde van Niekerk, triathlete Henri Schoeman and swimming star Chad le Clos, who all last finished in the top three in Brazil, though London 2012 gold medallist rower John Smith is aiming at 12 years.

The Blitzboks have had a torrid time this season, finishing seventh overall at the world sevens series, a result that forced them into an unprecedented late Olympic qualifier where they managed to beat Great Britain to win their ticket to Paris.

Specman pointed out the Blitzboks and Ireland had won one match each in their last two encounters.

“We’ll make it 2-1,” he vowed.

“I guess Ireland is always back and forwards, it’s always the team that punches first. We have seen, they have given us a hard time throughout this season, but we have all the pictures now, we know what they’re going to bring and how we can counter-ruck that,” he said.

In the last sevens tournament of the world series in Madrid at the end of May, South Africa went down 21-26 to the Irish, finishing without a win in a tough group that also included New Zealand, another group opponent they face later on Wednesday, and Fiji.

The Blitzboks beat Ireland 22-17 in their pool match in Hong Kong in early April.

That’s 43 points each, though before that the picture was not as pretty, with the South Africans going down to the Irish 0-17 in Los Angeles in March, 10-22 in Vancouver in February and 12-14 in Cape Town last year.

But that is a distant memory.

“I think this team is ready,” said Specman.

“You’ll see in the first game, the energy, the coach has a nice plan for us to go against this Ireland team and you know there’s a big history because from all the codes it’s always a big thing. But this time we’ll have the upper hand.”

Making the podium would see rugby sevens become only the second South African code outside athletics and swimming to win more than one Olympic medal since readmission at Barcelona 1992. Rowing has three. 

Specman believes the Blitzboks continue to enjoy good support from the fans at home.

“Our fans will always be behind us because they like the energy this team brings and I know they’ll be awake when ‘Spec Magic’ is doing his thing. When ‘Spec Magic’ is there on the field, they know it’s always a magic moment.”

The Blitzboks face Ireland at 5.30pm on Wednesday and then take on the Kiwis in their second pool match at 9.30pm. They play Japan — another team that has beaten them in the sevens series — on Thursday at 4pm with the quarterfinals scheduled for later that evening.

Should South Africa claim a medal on Saturday, they will give the country its first opening day gong since at least readmission.