Habana needs help
8 Mar 2011
GAVIN RICH, writing in SA Rugby magazine, says Bryan Habana needs creative players around him if he’s to start scoring tries at Test level again.
Not since Percy Montgomery and his white boots invoked the ire of the Loftus crowd in a Tri-Nations match in 1999 has a Springbok been jeered and heckled as mercilessly as Bryan Habana was by the Bloemfontein crowd last season. Poor Habana looked like he had no place to hide as his own supporters turned on him during a first half against Australia in which he was cruelly exposed several times on defence and in which he looked incapable of catching the ball without making a mistake.
For Habana it was surely the nadir of a career which was highlighted by him winning the IRB Player of the Year award just three seasons previously. The award in 2007 was always going to go to the top performer at the World Cup, and Habana’s eight tries in the tournament, including four in the opening match against Samoa, equalled the record set by Jonah Lomu in 1999 for the number of tries scored by an individual at rugby’s showpiece event.
So it has been quite a slide for Habana, and the statistics appear to back up the perception of his critics that his match-winning abilities are on the wane. At the end of 2007, after three full seasons in the green and gold, Habana had scored 30 tries for his country. Back then you would have predicted that by now he would have advanced to a point where his number of tries matched Jacques Kallis’s batting average. But Habana is nowhere near the mid-50s, and Joost van der Westhuizen’s aggregate tally of 38 Test tries for the Boks still has to be eclipsed. That is the number of tries next to Habana’s name now, yet he equalled Van der Westhuizen’s record as long ago as June of last year.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers said during the Tri-Nations that what was stumping Habana was his eagerness to break the record. Yet that cannot explain why in the three years since the World Cup he has only scored eight times. He wasn’t on the cusp of the record in 2008, when he only scored two tries in the entire season.
Neither is it just Habana’s strike rate that has bred him a phalanx of critics questioning his worth. It was his defensive play more than any weaknesses in his attacking game that most contributed to the crescendo of boos and jeers in the Bloemfontein Test.
In that game and the one in Pretoria the previous week, the Wallabies were all over the Boks in the first half – and the misalignment of Habana’s spot tackles were a contributing factor in forcing the Boks to play catch-up on both occasions.
It was Habana, as much as the then out-of-form skipper John Smit, the critics were thinking of when they slammed De Villiers for not being strong enough to make big selection calls and sacrifice senior players.
And yet, for all this black and white statistical evidence weighing against Habana, there are a few things which just don’t add up and which should prompt deeper probing and analysis of where and why it appears to be going wrong for him.
For a start, where were the question marks over Habana’s pace and finishing ability when he scored two tries in his first Newlands appearance in a Stormers jersey against the Waratahs last February? Yes, there was carping from some Cape critics who think every ball should be thrown to the wing and who felt that Habana’s attacking ability was not utilised properly in the Stormers’ system.
But Habana never once let the Stormers down; he scored tries when it was on to do so, and it is hard to recall him producing the errors that blighted him at Springbok level. Moreover, the Stormers ended the Super 14 with a phenomenal defensive record and there were none of the question marks that were to plague Habana in the Tri-Nations.
The Stormers conceded an average of just over one try per match, so clearly there was no defensive weakness. Neither was it a case of Habana losing form in the Tri-Nations and then going into an irreversible slide. Some aspects of the claims made by the Bok management after a series of tests conducted during the Bok camp last September were questioned, but there was no reason to disbelieve the contention that Habana was quicker than ever.
Certainly when he returned to rugby for Western Province against the Sharks at Newlands he showed the kind of pace that has played such a big part in his success. Habana was sharp in the WP jersey, and it led us to expect him to be the same for the Boks in the UK and Ireland. He wasn’t, so why is that?
There are no clear answers, but the question could be at least partially answered if you go back to Habana’s humble speech when he accepted his IRB Player of the Year award in Paris. He refused to accept all the credit for what he achieved, and instead pointed to those around him.
He reminded everyone that rugby is a team game, and the man he singled out for particular mention as the architect of what had gone right for both himself and the Boks was scrumhalf Fourie du Preez.
Some might say it was false modesty, but those who have heard former All Blacks wing Jeff Wilson talk at coaching courses will get a strong sense of what Habana was on about. It is Wilson’s view that a wing is almost completely reliant on the creators around him.
Wilson does have a point. Jonah Lomu, with his massive bulk and strength, was a rare and almost unique example of a winger who could force his way over for tries from almost impossible situations. For the most part wings tend to take credit for what has been done around them, just as goal-kickers often steal the limelight from the hard-working forwards who create the pressure that leads to the penalties.
Is it stretching it to suggest that part of the reason Habana looks off for the Boks but remains sharp in a Stormers jersey is because in one team he has Morné Steyn as his flyhalf and in the other he has Peter Grant? One player asks questions of the opposing defences, thus creating more opportunities out wide, the other does it much less so.
It wasn’t just Habana who looked bankrupt on attack in the Bok jersey last season, the entire backline did. There was a rush to blame Bok assistant coach Dick Muir for this, but there has been nothing wrong with the attacking potency of the other backlines that Muir has coached.
Unfortunately no one had the guts to do what should have been done by giving Pat Lambie an opportunity to start in a Test, but all the Bok management – and this includes De Villiers – were astounded at the effect that the 20-year-old Sharks flyhalf had on the backs in training sessions during the last end-of-year tour.
Lambie did show how effective the backs could be with him at pivot in his brief cameo in his debut match in Dublin. Those who doubt this view should take a look at the try scored by Gio Aplon when Lambie was on the field – where did it come from and who created it? Lambie’s ability to take the ball and pass it accurately from the gainline played a big part.
There wasn’t too much of that last year from the Boks, and, to be honest, neither was there in South Africa’s successful 2009 season, where percentage rugby was the key to the resounding Tri-Nations triumph.
During that southern hemisphere competition there was a moment when the Boks might have given some insight into why Habana may appear to be struggling. In the match in Perth the Boks shocked the Aussies by running the ball. It was their best running performance in ages, and Habana scored a brace.
Of course, given the strategy of the Bulls and Bok teams he has played for, it would be no surprise to find that a high percentage of Habana’s tries across all levels have come off kick and chase, and several were also the product of intercepts which capitalise on the panic of opponents who have been squeezed.
But given the opportunity, Habana has been as fine a finisher of opportunities that have been created for him as anyone who has played the game. So it would probably be reasonable to assume Habana would have added significantly to his try-scoring tally had he been in the side on the other day (apart from Perth) in recent memory when the Boks were in the business of creating tries for their wings.
That was in the 53-8 win over Australia in the last Tri-Nations match of 2008. Jongi Nokwe scored four tries, but every one of those tries was laid on a platter for Nokwe, all he needed was his pace to finish off.
What was significant about that game was that it was the last that Butch James played as the first-choice starting flyhalf. In the initial days of De Villiers’s reign as national coach the Boks suffered from confusion in the messages sent out, and James was an obvious victim, but he showed at Ellis Park against the Aussies just why someone like Habana thrived more prior to 2007 than he has subsequently.
Although often accused of being too conservative, one thing that the previous Bok coach Jake White was always set against was a flyhalf who made a habit of standing in the pocket. It was why Willem de Waal never got to feature under White, not even for an end-of-year tour where some critics felt he might prove beneficial, and Derick Hougaard only played for the Bok ‘B team’ in the 2007 Tri-Nations.
Some may now ask why it was that Habana scored so many tries for the Bulls when Hougaard was wearing No 10, but there is an easy answer for that which goes back again to Habana’s acceptance speech in Paris in 2007 – Fourie du Preez.
It is all about the men on the inside asking questions of the opposition, and Du Preez does that in abundance. It is probably the reason that Steyn looks a more potent attacking force and attacking catalyst when he is present. Of course Du Preez wasn’t present last year, and the Bok kicking game and attacking game suffered, and as a consequence Habana was made to look second rate.
Lambie probably hasn’t been given enough Test experience to be risked as a starter at a World Cup and the Boks are unlikely to move Ruan Pienaar back to flyhalf now, but the return of Du Preez, even more so if coupled with the selection of James, could just see Habana repeat in 2011 what he did in 2007.
– This article first appeared in the March issue of SA Rugby magazine. The April issue will be on sale from 16 March.
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112 Comments
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8 Mar 2011, 21:10 pm
@SpringbokSarah(SpringbokSarah)-99: lol
8 Mar 2011, 21:18 pm
Since Ms took over in Butchs absence,Habanas scoring has come to an abrupt end.That guy is absolutely and completely skilless and brainless.No vision,only pass is an intercept or over the head into touch,often gets the outa hand kicking 25 metres out.Hes a plank.At kicking for poles yes,hes the best since rugby was founded and will be for the next 200 years,but its effectively selecting a rugby ball cannon,as he has never ever ever done a single thing good on a rugby field nut kick.He has bmt but only for kicking at poles.Lambie has BMT for everything,he thrives on the biggest game possible and makes impossible things happen,things you couldnt even dream.If MS plays in the world cup,I wont be watching .He should get in the queue behing Lambie and butch.
8 Mar 2011, 21:23 pm
@Treehugger(Treehugger)-100: Wouldn’t dare argue about shopping…. Did that once with my banshee and the outside shed was a good option for a couple of days But Mr Price jeans…? Thought they were square (dont fit the curves) and made for considerablyl voluminous
But hey I suppose if Mr Price pants are what you wear when running around saving the little bobbejans from the evil bad farmers or feeding Bambi then its a free country still and its all your choice 
8 Mar 2011, 21:33 pm
If Habana needs help, then I dont wanna know what that useless Pierre Spies need
Missed tackles allover, Drop kicks – wannabe Zinzan,
8 Mar 2011, 21:35 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-103:
seems Banshee is the only person who knows how to sort you out, Mr Price is just a normal average store of not good quality stuff BUT the jeans do come in different sizes.
8 Mar 2011, 21:37 pm
@Mighty Horua(Mighty Horua)-104: Ever one seems to think Spies is rubbish as well so no one is just picking on Habana
8 Mar 2011, 21:41 pm
The on-Habana picking issue has been coming since the BIL tour
9 Mar 2011, 07:39 am
Reading these blogs is a laugh. Habana is class fullstop – temp loss of form yes. All top sportsman will tell you that it takes a try, a game, a moment of luck whatever and that form/class kicks back in. So why take the risk of dumping one of the all-time great wingers (who has clearly not lost pace nor his desire to compete) at such a crucial stage of the season – besides he is a senior player at the Stormers and has added invaluable experience to the ranks – the Stormers results have proven this since Habana’s arrival. Stop the whining…Habana will be back soon
9 Mar 2011, 07:53 am
OH MY GOSH
i stopped reading once i saw
“Unfortunately no one had the guts to do what should have been done by giving Pat Lambie an opportunity to start in a Test”
what on earth!!!!
9 Mar 2011, 07:55 am
how can ppl be thinking Lambie is our answer?
he just spoke about the difference when playing under Grant and Steyn
then suggests putting Lambie in
we love to build ppl up only to bring them down
did Habana not perform when playing for the bulls under Steyn
stop shouldering the blame
Habana’s poor form is because of…HABANA
9 Mar 2011, 07:57 am
@Honkie(Honkie)-108: temporary form of loss carrying over a year?
Class he is but you shoudlnt reward poor performances
look at Jantjies and Januarie
because Januarie broke the duck in NZ does it mean his poor play should continually be rewarded??/
NO
9 Mar 2011, 22:43 pm
Since he broke up with his rugby wife Dupreez, his game was destroyed. I think habana should play for the most entertaining Super 14 Franchise in SA, and this is the Lions.
I am a Shark, but they play a brand of rugby I enjoy watching. As a Bok fan, I must say that New Zealand and Ozz play a more expansive and entertaining brand of rugby which is easy on the eye. now this is not to say that the Physicality of SA rugby is not entertaining, however I feel our disciplined physical approach is fine and well, but their will come a time where oppositions get bigger and match our physicality. Well done LIONS!!
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