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Specman’s self-reflection helped him realise his dream

rugby18 June 2021 05:48| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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Rosko Specman © Gallo Images

He knows he is only halfway there and he didn’t know his father will have reminded him, but Rosko Specman’s selection into the Springbok squad for the series against the British and Irish Lions is the realisation of a dream that was set in motion in 2017.


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That was the year the Blitzbok, who had already by then made quite a name for himself in the Sevens code, decided he had a future in the 15-man game and that he wanted to become a Springbok in the conventional code.

“It was a decision I made in 2017 when I first went to the Cheetahs,” recalls Specman. “I decided then that I didn’t just want to be a Sevens player. My experience at the Cheetahs showed me that I could play fifteens. Then in 2018 when I joined the Bulls and really started playing well, that is when the thought of playing for the Boks started to become my goal.”

That goal could easily have been ruined though were it not for Specman’s willingness to put in some self-reflection and be honest with himself after his stint at the Bulls came to an unhappy end. Leaving the Bulls wasn’t his choice, and the disappointment he felt at the time could easily have put paid to his ambitions of becoming a fifteens Bok. It would have been easy for him to just go back to focusing on Sevens.

BULLS DEPARTURE OPENED A DOOR

“When one door closes another opens,” says Specman in reflecting back on his return to the Cheetahs.

“When I left the Bulls it was not on my terms. But that period was also a turning point in my career. It was then that I sat down and thought about it, and instead of blaming the Bulls coach for what had happened and thinking something else might be the problem, I started to wonder if maybe I was the problem. Maybe I needed a shift in attitude.

“I decided that maybe it wasn’t a problem with the coach, but a problem with me. I looked at it and thought maybe Rosko is the problem. I realised then that you have to accept at this level of the game that you can be a hero one week after scoring a hattrick of tries but then the next week comes along and you have to perform then too or you are not there anymore.”

That was when he decided to re-internalise something his father, Joseph, who was a club rugby player in the Specman home town of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, always tried to instil in him.

“If it wasn’t for my dad I wouldn’t be here. He used to always drum into me that discipline and hard work is always the most important thing and the key to achieving any kind of success, it is even more important than talent,” said Specman.

THE HARD WORK STARTS NOW

And that is pretty much the message that Specman senior had for his son when the hard work put in subsequent to his departure from the Bulls paid off with his selection to the 46-man squad selected for the three-match series against the Lions as well as the warm-up games against Georgia and the South Africa A game against the tourists.

“He told me when I was selected that this is when the hard work starts. I may be in the wider squad, which is great, but I still have to do what is necessary to show that I can be part of the team that plays the Lions,” said the speedy wing.

It seems bizarre to think about it now, but the pace that has become Specman’s signature and drives his X-factor wasn’t always something he was known for. On the contrary, as Specman told supersport.com's Brenden Nel after his match winning exploits for the Bulls against the Stormers in 2019, that was pretty much something that was manufactured through tortuous hard work.

At school in Grahamstown, Specman found himself playing a lot at scrumhalf and outside centre. He felt then that he wasn’t as fast as he could be. It was after seeking advice from his father that the plan to get his speed up was put in place.

“We have to go old school and there will be no turning back,” is what Joseph told him.

“There is a gravel hill outside Grahamstown – a very steep uphill. The call it Selfmoord (Suicide hill). For a year I had to attach a tyre to me and drag it up the hill,” explained Rosko.

“(Initially) I didn’t feel it was working. It was tough on me, here all my friends were playing street cricket and touch rugby and I was dragging the tyre up and down in the sun. At one stage I decided it is time to try out for athletics and see if it was working.”

That was when the proof arrived. Specman recorded an 11 second flat 100 metre sprint, a time he had not come close to before.

“My dad said it shows you, you have to go old school,” concluded Specman.

The old school approach paid off by rewarding Specman with a stellar career in Sevens and now the pay-off of inclusion in the Springbok 15-man squad. Listening to him talk though it is clear he doesn’t think he has arrived at his destination yet, he wants to take the next step by playing test match rugby.

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