How Cheslin Kolbe and one remarkable grandmother have Springbok Women’s star Nadine Roos daring to dream ahead of Black Ferns clash
Nadine Roos in action for South Africa.
If the odds were meant to dispirit South Africa rugby star Nadine Roos they picked the wrong person.
Roos was abandoned by her parents when she was three, left outside a creche by her mother. Her odds weren’t great then either. She went on to compete in the Olympics.
Saved from South Africa‘s welfare system by her grandmother, she was bullied at school and felt scared to tell others she had no mum and dad at home.
Yet Roos won an athletic scholarship to university and has since represented her country at Cross-Fit and rugby.
Huge underdogs
So when the 29-year old is informed that Springbok Women are 66/1 long shots to beat the Black Ferns and deny the six-time winners a semi-final place at the Women’s Rugby World Cup, she shrugs.
“The quarter-final is a play-off and play-offs come down to who wants it the most and who will fight the hardest,” Roos says. “We want to win and we have nothing to lose. The pressure is all on them.
“We came into this World Cup as underdogs and we have made history by reaching the knockout stages. We’re going to go out with a big fight on Saturday.”
So speaks a player who cites Cheslin Kolbe as her role model. Kolbe was told he was too small to make it at the top of rugby. Before he won back-to-back World Cups.
Her choice of inspiration is revealing. Like Kolbe, who came from sevens and has played wing, full-back and fly-half, Roos cut her teeth in the shorter format and is at ease wearing the 15, 10 or, as she will this weekend, 9 jersey.
Like Kolbe, who used criticism to fuel his desire to work harder and prove his doubters wrong, Roos has never allowed either her circumstances or the opinion of others to place limitations on her.
“I’m a player that always works hard, pays attention to detail and makes sure I know my role and responsibility,” she says. “I love watching Cheslin because he brings something different, something magical for the size he is. I have learned a lot from him.”
Roos’ back story is well told. How one morning she was, without warning, left at day-care by her mum who did not come to pick her up.
How after being cared for by staff for three days, she was picked up by her grandmother, Ouma, who drove 150 miles to scoop her up and take her back to the farm where she lived rather than see her to sent to an orphanage.
“My mother was too busy with other kinds of stuff in her life: drug abuse, smoking, alcohol,” she told Fight for the Fatherless. “That was her life when she decided not to be there for me as a mother.”
Her grandmother passed last year but not before seeing what a rich success Nadine had made of her life.
“Everything I have I basically owe to her,” she says now. “The values that have helped me reach this point are the ones she instilled in me from a very young age: hard work, discipline, as in always be on time and always take your work seriously.
“Those things you don’t learn by hearing about them. You learn them by seeing and living them. My grandmother taught me that in order to get somewhere in life I really need to work hard. It won’t just fall into my lap. And if there’s an opportunity, take it.”
Roos does not need to wonder for too long what Ouma would have made of the opportunity available to her granddaughter and South Africa this weekend.
Five hours after the All Blacks and Springboks meet in Wellington in a Rugby Championship rematch the bookies see as too close to call, Nadine and her history makers look to spring the shock of this Women’s World Cup and, perhaps, any other.
The Bok Women actually won their last meeting with the Kiwis in August, though that was a much-changed Black Ferns XV. “This is the biggest game of our lives,” Roos says. “We are facing the world champions.”
Inspiring South Africans
Win or lose she hopes to inspire the younger generation as she herself was influenced by Kolbe and his team of Springbok world beaters.
“We want to be an inspiration for young girls and boys not to fear going out and chasing after their dreams. We want to show that women are also fearless and strong.
“It’s paving the way for those who come after us, breaking down barriers. Showing you are not limited in what you can reach.
“You don’t have to sit in a corner because you don’t have everything. You don’t have to be beaten down. Go and get what you want.”