Students at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary have been treated to a visit by South Africa's national rugby sevens team, the Springbok Sevens.

Sevens is a slimmed down version of rugby union with teams of seven players competing in 14-minute games. South Africa, the world's number one sevens team, were in Vancouver to participate in the Canada Sevens international series and Tupper rugby coach Joseph Lee invited them to the school.

"I just wanted to give our students the opportunity to meet professional athletes," said Lee. "These are some of the best athletes in the world and for students to be able to shake their hands gives them the chance to see that in the end they are just regular people."

Students questioned the squad about playing rugby on a world stage, including whether they find being televised distracting while playing and what conditions they're used to training in. The team was a little nervous about playing in Vancouver's snowy and rainy conditions.

After the question period, students, many of whom play rugby, chatted and took photos with the team.

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