‘Baa Baas not last chance’
11 May 2009
Keo.co.za spoke to BJ Botha about his selection for the Barbarians and Brent Russell on Clermont’s Top 14 title hopes.
Botha was selected for the Barbarians last week to play England on 30 May and Australia on 6 June. It will be his debut appearance for the invitational side and will catapult him onto the international stage for the first time in a year, but Botha doesn’t consider it the last chance to prove himself for the Lions series.
‘My intentions are to enjoy being part of the team and enjoy playing internationals again,’ Botha told keo.co.za. ‘Every game I’ve played for Ulster, whether it has been Heineken Cup or Magners League, I’ve played as though I’m still in consideration for the Boks.
‘Baa Baas fixtures will be loose, while there’s not much time to build combinations, but that’s what makes it special. I don’t view it as my last chance as I’ve been trying to perform the whole year,’ he said.
The Boks’ policy on overseas players is unclear, but Botha could be an outside candidate for the Lions series, especially with CJ van der Linde ruled out of the rest of Leinster’s season.
‘I haven’t had much contact, but I’ve tried to give them a reason to select me with my performances. It’s difficult with not much TV coverage, so selections are made on a guy’s past profile, but I know every South African overseas wants to play for the Boks again.’
Botha’s Ulster, alongside team-mate Robbie Diack, downed Connacht 14-12 in the Magners League on Friday.
‘The weather was atrocious – it was like Hurricane Katrina out there!’
Meanwhile, Russell’s Clermont savaged already relegated Mont-de-Marsan 66-3. Russell’s team face the bottom-placed Dax this weekend and the original pocket rocket says the team have altered their approach as they have already qualified for the play-offs.
‘We are playing against weaker sides but we decided we will train like we are playing the semi already,’ said Russell. ‘The week before the semi, we will ease off a bit as the fitness and preparation will be done, it will just be a case of concentrating on the actual game.’
Russell has been used predominantly at fullback and flyhalf and he has enjoyed a return to pivot.
‘I’ve never been in a side with so much competition, in our back three alone we have five other internationals [Benoit Baby, Napolioni Nalaga, Anthony Floch, Julien Malzieu and Aurelien Rougerie]. Brock James is first choice No 10, but I’ve enjoyed starting there the last few weeks. I haven’t had an extended run since my days at the Pumas, so I’m enjoying the decision-making and taking control.’
The other semi-finalists include Shaun Sowerby, Daan Human and Gaffie du Toit’s Toulouse, Stade Francais (Noel Oelschig’s club), as well as Perpignan.
‘You won’t believe how many South Africans are here, after-match functions are like a reunion for us,’ said Russell. ’[Former Shark] Steve Meyer is playing well at flyhalf for Perpignan, while Gerrie Britz seems to score every week.
‘I’m loving French rugby compared to the English Premiership, it definitely suits my game. The one thing I can complain about is the refereeing – in one of the highest paid leagues we don’t have professional officials, so they are very inconsistent.’
The semis will be played at neutral venues on 23 May.
Scorers in the Top 14 were littered with South African names this weekend, as former Lions centre Rudi Coetzee touched down for Bourgoin, as did Coos Basson. Jacques Schutte (Montpellier) and Johan van Zyl (Brive) scored in their match, as did Gavin Hume for Perpignan.
In the Premiership semis, despite Michael Claassens’s try Bath were knocked out by Leicester (who Marco Wentzel plays for), while Gary Botha and De Wet Barry’s Harlequins lost to Danie Coetzee’s London Irish.
By Grant Ball
13 Comments
11 May 2009, 00:49 am
BJ the Dragon!!!!!!!!!
11 May 2009, 00:54 am
Where to the French get all the money from to fund “Vodacom Cup” level rugby…………or worse……SA would be better off to join the Northern Hemisphere club competitions. Over time it will only get stronger and NZ and Aus will have to be content to do karate kicks against the mini men from Japan! SA rugby out of Southern Hemisphere = level can only go down. SA rugby join Northern Hemisphere = level can only go up….over time that is.
11 May 2009, 01:10 am
Cootzee? Coos Basson?
11 May 2009, 02:13 am
#2 savethespringbok:
“SA rugby out of Southern Hemisphere”
Strange notion that considering RSA teams consistently prop up the bottom of both the S14 and 3N logs…
11 May 2009, 03:21 am
#4 money_man: Exactly right, this shows the embarrasing arrogance present in South Africa. Even boks returning from Europe on test duty look well off the pace. The English always say how much better quality rugby is played in the Guiness Premiership and then get smashed by all the southern hemisphere teams. The reason that S14 produces better players is not reliant on south african teams although they contribute well to the success of it. It is better all round if South Africa stay in S14, mostly better for SA. We already play the most english/boring game of the tri nations, should not make it worse by moving to the plodders up north
11 May 2009, 04:20 am
#5 JacquesVoosloo:
Fair comment. I agree SA should remain in the S14. But not if they are going to be dictated to by Oz and NZ. The S14 needs a revamp of sorts and there are long standing issues that need sorting out. I think it would be a joke if SA gets another side in a bigger comp, although we could then have a botton of the table comp with semi’s and finalists to see which is the ******* SA side
11 May 2009, 05:03 am
#6 whatever:
The main “gripe” about the way the S14 competition is structured seems to be the unfairness of the travel schedule. The SA teams need to spend longer away – and this is “unfair”.
But look at these facts – perhaps you can find a magic wand:
- SA has 5 teams.
- NZ & Australia have 9 teams between them.
- All teams have the same number of Home and Away matches (on a 2 year rotating basis because there’s an odd number (13) of round-robin matches).
It’s not rocket science that SA is going to have to spend longer in Aus/NZ than the other way around.
All teams only make the 1 long trip (between SA and Aus/NZ, or reverse) only once. SA teams are not being asked to travel the 18 hour flight more than the Aus/NZ teams. They DO have to travel a bit more within and between Aus & NZ, but apart from Perth (which they tend to visit as the 1st game on the way out, or the last game on the way back) this is more like a “local’ flight anyway – 3 hours at most.
So, the issue seems to be spending another week on the road, away from home. Hey guys, this is professional sport! Get over it. Look at the games/trips the US baseball and basketball players have to contend with.
Your SA cricket team seems to cope with being away from home for weeks on end – they still manage to win in Aus & NZ. What’s with the rugby guys – are they woosses?
What is your answer?
For SA teams to have more home matches – which would be more unfair, but might be one way of helping SA teams compete more consistently (not that I think many of you would feel that comfortable with the thought that SA rugby needed special consideration to be able to compete on a level footing).
For SA to have more teams in the comp? But, the win/loss performance, and regular cellar dwelling of SA teams at the bottom of the log would suggest that SA doesn’t have the required depth, and that this would only weaken the standards of the overall comp. (Perhaps a bit like the Currie Cup – where you now have regular calls that “strength should play strength”. This is what you’d be doing to the S14.
To have less teams in Aus and NZ – ie, go back to a Super 10. The problem here is that the concentration of strength in Aus/NZ from compressing 9 teams into 5 would mean that SA would likely do even less well in an S10 comp – and you’d all be bleating again that its unfair, and we should go and play up North (where the standards are patently lower).
No boetjies – there’s only one answer – SA teams have to stop whinging and “harden up”. Operate at a more professional level.
You know I’m right!
11 May 2009, 06:01 am
#7 BillTong:
You make many many good and valid points. I particularly like the fact that you compared cricket, the “stiff upper lip, sissy” summer cousin to the “hard nosed, thick skulled” winter rugby.
To add to what you said. Its not like the cricket teams stay in one spot for a very long time. The time between Pro20′s and ODI’s are of such a sort that they have to jump on a jet the moment the wickets are pulled out. Not taxing on the players? How many times have we seen a batsmen pull out with a cramp, drenched in sweet and dehydrating? Is it at all possible for a bowler not to get tired in a test match when they have to to up at high pace over and over and over (excuse the pun).
Not to mention verbal abuse that goes with playing in Aus.
I think the only problem with the S14 is though that Aus and NZ (more particularly the former) are pushing for (1.) TV coverage and deals and (2.) competing with rugby laugue. Add to the S14 schedule the 3N, EOY and June tours as well as the Currie Cup, and the rugby season does become more and more taxing.
As far as the over-seas based players, I like PdV’s policy. I know its a professional sport and bla bla bla, but Im sure that, especially in a SA context where 40% + of the country is unemployed, these players earn enough. The players should have more to think about when they leave the country. It’s a shames, yes, but its not the coach who chose to send those players over seas.
PdV’s idea is simple. The Green and Gold should be a reward for outstanding performances and service done to the country. And yes, the S14 is an international competition, where the pride of SA, as much as the pride of the unions, are on the line.
11 May 2009, 06:42 am
#7 BillTong:
There is obviously more more course of action.
That is, for SA to forget about the S14 altogether – and find other people to play with.
I think that would be a shame – but if your need to “win” outweighs your need to participate in and watch a higher standard of rugby, then perhaps that’s what you’d better do.
11 May 2009, 06:47 am
“more more” – “one more”
11 May 2009, 08:36 am
Grant, just wanted to point out a couple of mistakes – sorry to be a bore!
Its Stade Francais, Stade de France is the national stadium. Also Coenie Basson (not Coos)…
Very true that there are loads of Saffers in Europe at the moment, its quite seldom that there aren’t any on the park!
Guess the lure of the Euro and pound is just too much to resist! And with Saracens rumoured to be adding even more…there won’t be any decent players left in SA!
11 May 2009, 13:25 pm
in my opinion either cj or bj have to be at 3 …
11 May 2009, 13:45 pm
#4 money_man: Monkeyman,
explain why in the world the Cheetahs and Lions looked COMPLETELY like different teams when playing in SA?????
Cheetahs, bottom of the log, beat the Sharks and Crusaders and almost beat the Bulls in THE best game of the year away from home. Travelling is a huge factor for the guys, go ask the Blues coach or any other NZ coach for an honest opinion, they hate being away from home more than 2 weeks, which a lot of the Australatian teams seem to be in the Republic very little more than 2 weeks.
Some idiot was questioning the depth of SA rugby, ask Murray Mexted (however you spell his name) and he will tell you how he is amazed at the depth of SA rugby. Yes, the guys need to travel better, and have not figured it out except for the Bulls here lately. Stop being jealous though, and stop recruiting players from Fiji and Samoa and ruin the game there!
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