Skipper Nadine Roos powers SA’s Sevens surge

The Springbok Women’s Sevens squad have had a blistering run in the HSBC SVNS series so far this year.

Out of 10 games played across two tournaments, the team have only lost one.

From the outset, skipper Nadine Roos has been pivotal in her role, leading from the front. Her intense dedication to the game has proved contagious among her teammates, helping drive the side to second place in SVNS 2 so far.

“I think it’s the dedication that really stands out to me, like the work that she puts in on the field, the discipline, the commitment,” Cecil Afrika, head coach of the women’s Sevens side, told Daily Maverick. “You can see every game that she plays, she gives literally everything, and you can see through the way she plays what it means to her.”

In both the 15s and Sevens format, Roos serves as the national team’s primary attacking weapon, and its main playmaker in the short format, while also handling all kicking responsibilities in the short format, both for territory and at goal.

“We truly blessed to have her as a leader,” said Afrika. “Nadine is more of a show type of leader in the way she leads, the way she plays, the way she trains, and she inspires the team with that type of leadership. The team follows her with her intensity, and then they feed off that energy.”

Dedication and commitment

The Springbok Women Sevens side had to start the year off competing in the third division of the HSBC SVNS series.

In 2025, South Africa came up short in the Los Angeles leg of the SVNS series, and the new changes in the format meant they had to take the continental route to qualify for the third division of the HSBC series.

In January, the side competed in Dubai in SVNS 3, securing gold in the final having won every single game that weekend and promoting them alongside Argentina to SVNS 2.

“[We have been] playing some good rugby because the girls kept working throughout the festive season,” said Afrika. “We didn’t really have a festive season, if I can call it like that, because we had an early start in January, so we had to sacrifice over the Christmas break.”

Over the two tournaments, Roos has scored a total of 75 points, further boasting a 74% conversion rate.

It was Roos’ experience in knowing how to manage the game that made her so dangerous in the short format, said Afrika.

“It’s of the utmost importance to make sure that you bring the intensity where it’s needed, but we are also about managing the game well; knowing when to bring the intensity and when to slow the game down,” said Afrika.

“I think [Roos] finds the balance really well. She knows when to pick up intensity and when to slow it, because obviously you can’t go from minute one to minute 14 with high intensity.

“It’s just depending on the defensive side of things, we bring a lot of intensity, and then when we have the opportunity to really get the ball in the pack, and then we manage the game nicely and convert our opportunities into points.

“But with her leadership, she knows when to bring intensity to the game and slow the game down, and then the rest of her teammates just follow with that.”

Roos made her debut for the Bok Sevens in 2016 at the Dubai World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series.

Since then, she has gone on to represent South Africa in the Commonwealth Games, the 2018 World Cup Sevens tournament and captained the side in the 2022 edition of the tournament. She represented South Africa in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as well as helped her side reach a historic quarterfinals in the 2025 Rugby World Cup in the 15s format.

This year she has been nominated for the SA Rugby Women’s Play of the Year award. If she wins, it will be her third time in four years. In 2022 and 2025 she received the coveted award.

“She wants to give everything that she has through the game, knowing that rugby is just a short part of our lives,” said Afrika. “She wants to make sure that the day she retires she doesn’t have any regrets, making sure that she left everything out there and through dedication and commitment that she can inspire her teammates and the next generation of ladies.”

Consistency is key

The Sevens women’s squad still have two more tournaments to play in the second division, in which they need to place in the top four to be promoted to SVNS 1.

For Afrika, the difference is going to come from the women’s consistency and discipline.

“It’s about the athletes understanding when to go to sleep, how you recover, what to eat, all of that stuff,” said Afrika. “I think that’s going to play a massive role in trying to ensure that we do get to SVNS 1, and I believe its going to be the difference in making sure that we can compete at that level consistently.”

In the SVNS 3 Challenger Series the Blitzboks were setting hefty margins, thrashing Mexico 61-0 and Thailand 33-5, for example.

In the first SVNS 2 tournament this past weekend on 14 and 15 February in Nairobi, Kenya, the margins got smaller as South Africa faced tougher teams. The only team the women lost to was Brazil, who are last on the log.

However, the women placed a convincing second in the tournament, one point behind Argentina who earned a losing bonus point against South Africa in a game that went to sudden death.

The head coach and former Sevens player knows that going into SVNS 1 will be even more competitive and demanding.

“We know that the intensity is going to be much higher and the physicality is going to be much higher,” said Afrika. “I think it’s about being much more clinical in all the aspects of our game, especially from the defensive side of things. The speed at SVNS 1 and globally is quite fast, so we’ve got to be disciplined there.”

The squad will contest their next tournament in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 21 and 22 March, the second stop of the SVNS 2 division. DM