Roos, who scored a try in their heart-breaking defeat by 14-12 to Japan earlier on Saturday, crossed for four of South Africa’s five tries in one of the best individual performances of the tournament so far.

But Roos didn’t operate on her own and was helped by a great team effort, with defensive pressure often forcing the Colombians into mistakes on which the South Africans capitalised to make the scoreboard tick over.

Co-captain Sizophila Solontsi was a relieved woman after the game and said the victory felt amazing: “We are happy as a team with this game and it shows how great we can be if we just implement the game plan and everything the coaches are telling us to do.

“Kudos to our coaches for allowing us to feel what we were feeling after the Japan loss, and to then pick ourselves up as a team. So, what we did was stick together, talk about it, talk about what went wrong and how we could fix that and focus more on what we can do great.”

Solontsi also praised Roos for her part in the victory: “It’s always great to have a player like Nadine in the team. She brings that intensity every game and today she brought everything, that was it. That's what we've got in the team if we just focus on what we do best.”

Roos said the hurt from losing their first two games drove them to lift their game against Colombia.

“I think it was a massive performance from the team, bouncing back from our losses against France and Japan – it hurt so much because we knew we had that game,” said Roos.

Mathrin Simmers goes over for her try against Colombia.

“It took massive regrouping from the team and coming back today to give this performance for this crowd, for the younger, little kids getting to watch this kind of performance.

“There are a lot of women’s teams who have performed really well and showcased the talent, and show the ladies that what is [going on] out here, is something they can chase after.”

The first half against Colombia was quite an arm wrestle, with no inch given on attack by either team, but the deadlock was finally broken after five minutes when Roos won a penalty on the ground, took the quick tap, raced away and beat the Colombian defence to score under the posts. Eloise Webb converted to hand South Africa a 7-0.

It looked like that was going to be the score at the break, but after the hooter – from their own half after a downfield kick by the Colombians – Roos started a great counter-attack and after some sublime interplay with Ayanda Malinga, the blonde speedster raced away for her second try to make the half-time score 12-0 to South Africa.

Roos was at it again less than two minutes into the second half, when the host nation won a turnover in their opponents’ 22 and the ball was shifted wide to the speedster to go over in the corner – the third hat-trick of tries by a Springbok Women’s Sevens player in Rugby World Cup Sevens history.

Moments later she made it four, again from a turnover, with Roos showing great pace to go over in the other corner. At 22-0 with three minutes to go, it was South Africa’s game to lose. With this five-pointer, she became only the fourth women to score four tries in a RWC 7s match.

Mathrin Simmers then got in on the action, with the South Africans turning defensive pressure into a turnover for the co-captain to go over for their fifth try, just before Roos left the field to great applause from the appreciative crowd as the Springbok Women’s Sevens got their first win of the tournament in categorical fashion.

Scorers:

Springbok Women’s Sevens 27 (12) – Tries: Nadine Roos (4), Mathrin Simmers. Conversion: Eloise Webb.

Colombia 0

Celebrating Sizophila Solontsi's try against Japan.

In their first match on Saturday, the Springbok Women's Sevens team came within inches of upsetting Japan, in the end going down by 14-12 in a clash they could have won. Both teams scored two tries each in their Challenge quarter-final, but Japan's extra conversion was enough to break the SA women’s hearts.

It was a much-improved performance by the Springbok Women's Sevens, but their failure to win proper first phase possession and hold onto the ball, and defensive lapses in the wide channels, ended up costly.

The South Africans started the game in the best possible way, scoring a try after a mistake by Japan with the kick-off. Zintle Mpupha cleverly grubbered behind the Japanese defensive line, hacked it ahead again and the ball bounced into the hands of Nadine Roos.

Unfortunately, a missed tackle a few minutes later led to a try for Japan, by Chiharu Nakamura, and the conversion put them in the lead by 7-5.

But Roos wasn't done yet and a minute before the break, a superb kick ahead by her - which started from a penalty just outside their own 22 - led to SA's second try, by Sizophila Solontsi, under the uprights.

Roos added the extras and the host nation went into the break leading by 12-7.

Japan started the second half with a try when they found space out wide, and Wakaba Hara dotted down. Yume Okuroda had no issues with the conversion, which put her team back in the lead, 14-12.

The Springbok Women's Sevens then got their hands back on the ball and gradually worked their way upfield, only to lose possession at crucial stages on attack, the last of which came with time up on the clock and the women in green hot on the attack, only five metres from the Japanese tryline.

Roos said it was disappointing to lose their second game in Cape Town on the weekend: "We really looked to win this game but we made some unfortunate errors. We didn’t keep the ball when we had to and we didn’t stick to our processes the whole time, and that’s the result you get when that happens."

On a nerve-racking second half, during which the South Africans came very close to scoring on a few occasions, Roos said: "You get quite tense when you see time running out on the clock but you try to stay calm and composed. Sometimes the pressure gets to you and, at the end of the day, I think that’s what happened to us."

Roos was very proud of her own performance though and said: "It’s always an honour to play in the Springbok jersey, I always want to present the country with pride and passion."

Scorers:

Springbok Women's Sevens 12 (12) – Tries: Nadine Roos, Sizophila Solontsi. Conversion: Roos.

Japan 14 (7) – Tries: Chiharu Nakamura, Wakaba Hara. Conversions: Yume Okuroda (2).