Habana hits back
19 Jun 2012
Bryan Habana has answered his critics in the best possible way this season – through his performances on the field.
After a disappointing 2011, Habana re-emerged in the 2012 Super Rugby competition as one of the form wings and returned to the national set-up rejuvenated and renewed. He turned in consistent showings for the Stormers, solid performances shot through with a characteristic crowd-raising brilliance. And if the man himself is to be believed, that was just a starting point.
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‘I’ve gone back to basics,’ he says in the new issue of SA Rugby magazine. ‘I’ve found myself in the right place at the right time, whereas in the past year or two maybe I wasn’t in that kind of position.
‘When things aren’t going your way, you tend to overwork yourself. You know you should allow the ball to come to you in space, but when it doesn’t, you go looking for it, sometimes unnecessarily. This season, certain things have made all the difference.’
Habana goes on to explain what those things are, while Stormers attack coach Robbie Fleck provides some insight into Habana’s struggles last year.
The winger also talks about what it’s like working with Heyneke Meyer, competition for the Bok No 11 jersey and mentoring tomorrow’s stars.
Also in the new issue:
Adriaan Strauss – page 58
– Keo on why the Kings should not have appointed a Kiwi coach
– How Cheetahs hooker Adriaan Strauss powered his way into Springbok contention
– The Bulls have given JJ Engelbrecht the opportunities he was denied at the Stormers
– Tim Whitehead has helped to solve the Sharks’ problems in midfield
– Former France prop Pieter de Villiers on how he got into coaching, the technical aspects of the scrum, and why it is such an important part of the game
– A once-proud New Zealand franchise has fallen on hard times. The big question is: Can the Blues find a way back?
– In his most revealing interview since winning the World Cup, Graham Henry talks about the pressures of the All Blacks job, the effect it had on his family, and what he’s up to now
JJ Engelbrecht – page 64
– Wallabies captain David Pocock is not your average rugby player
– Ruan Pienaar had an outstanding season for Ulster
– Former Free State prop Daniel Kotze has become the cornerstone of the Clermont scrum
– Gary Gold on his short stint at Newcastle, the challenge he faces at Bath, and the issue that fractured his relationship with Peter de Villiers
– The Blitzboks‘ poor World Series campaign highlighted flaws in the national sevens system
– All professional rugby players should have a post-retirement plan
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318 Comments
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19 Jun 2012, 12:24 pm
@mshiniwami(mshiniwami)-97: Any story that does not have a heyneke meyer stamp of approval is dead in the water @ HSM, they’ve already had an article on siya kolisi it followed this angle why meyer should not pick kolisi until he is absolutely sure he is ready”
expect a jaque potgieter article next month, about how ingenious of meyer to pluck him from the kings and 8 super rugby games, injury later he is a BOK and nothing about how ready jaque is for the big time
throw in there, the RESURRECTION of jano vermaak…
19 Jun 2012, 12:30 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-93:
I have noticed that, thus far, Heyneke Meyer hasn’t picked a single woman. That is probably unconstitutional as well. In short, Heyneke seems to be both a sexist and a shortist, and justice will not prevail until we see at least one she-dwarf (preferably a lesbian one) on the bench.
19 Jun 2012, 12:30 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-101: Take a look at the link I gave on the previous page. Great interview with Siya for the Stormers online magazine.
19 Jun 2012, 12:31 pm
@Thucydides(Thucydides)-102:
Isn’t that why Olivier’s there?
19 Jun 2012, 12:33 pm
CAN SOMEBODY ANSWER ME THIS:
When will Hasbeenana be over the hill and be done with test rugby? When he decides to retire or will HM one day call him in and break it to him that the youngsters time has come…?
He’s playing decent rugby, but he’s not the standout best wing in the country! His experience is the reason why he is ahead of guys like Mvovo, Basson and Aplon… When will they be granted a chance to gain experience? (Mvovo and Basson are tied second in the leading try scoring stats for super rugby this season).
A series against England was a good opportunity to give a few young wings time to settle into test rugby. Imo
This obsession with Habana should stop for the benefit of the team. Imo
19 Jun 2012, 12:35 pm
i’m a huge Siya Kolisi fan, he should be in the squad. But Coetzee is awesome as well, but Kolisi above DaNIELS.
Kolisi suits HM’s ball carry style perfectly and tackles like a demon
19 Jun 2012, 12:36 pm
I just looked at the respective ages of the match 22 on Saturday. Did you guys noticed that 12 of the 22 are 27 years or older?
So, more than 50% of this team will need to be replaced in the next two years in order to give youngster experience for the 2015 RWC or will we have another PdV scenario where we do fairly well with the experience guys in the 1st two years of HM’s reign as coach and then take the majority of those players to the next RWC?
Will be interesting to see how he goes about evolving the team.
19 Jun 2012, 12:36 pm
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged by Mad Eye Productions.(The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food)-103: will do thanks
19 Jun 2012, 12:36 pm
@Thucydides(Thucydides)-102:
Lol and there better be brail instead of grip dimples on the rugby ball!
19 Jun 2012, 12:37 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-105: When he gets 100 test caps
19 Jun 2012, 12:38 pm
@David(David)-104:
I see your point, but she wouldn’t quite qualify as a dwarf, would she?
19 Jun 2012, 12:38 pm
99PotBlou
Beg to differ
Jeff Wilson
Doug Howlett
Joe Roff
Tana Umaga
19 Jun 2012, 12:38 pm
@nama1(nama1)-107: \
I believe he mentioned that he will build a younger team with time. The old guys will start dropping away one by one in the next few years…
19 Jun 2012, 12:40 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-93:
It comes down to asking whether being tall and/or large is an inherent requirement of the job.
Otherwise the discrimination is justified and ergo constitutional.
I believe there was a case being made that minimum height requirements on SAA were discriminatory towards certain ethnic groupings because those groupings were on average shorter than certain other ethnic groupings.
It all gets very confusing…
19 Jun 2012, 12:40 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-105:
I kind of share this view. Habana is adequate at the moment (surprisingly).
But he is not close to, and never will be again – to the player he was in 2007. That pace is gone for good.
19 Jun 2012, 12:43 pm
@Unplugged(Unplugged)-110:
No no guys like Habana will then start to chase the next record by becoming the most test capped bok…It never ends unless he gets dropped…
19 Jun 2012, 12:44 pm
101 Transie
Yep I know,so sad the bullsh*t one is fed on these mags
Stopped buying mag around 3yrs ago coz of this ****
19 Jun 2012, 12:44 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-105: You must be high as a kite.
19 Jun 2012, 12:45 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-115: So when will he step down, like FDP did? Or will HM drop him in the foreseeable future?
19 Jun 2012, 12:46 pm
Habana has been in great form recently, and some of you are calling him a has been? Seriously, you guys deserve to have P-Divvy back at the helm.
19 Jun 2012, 12:48 pm
Transie
I saw Siya,Chilli,Elton out by Cubana 2weeks ago.Good blokes,had a chat with them.Siya especially polite,granite handshake too.nit all that large but he must be superstring the way he handles ppl behind advantage line at will.massive ticker that kick.
19 Jun 2012, 12:48 pm
@David(David)-104:
Bwahahahaha
@Jeez(Jeez)-105:
See my p.105.
It’s not just Habana.
You said the same thing about the “obsession” with JS?
19 Jun 2012, 12:48 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-118:
Good argument
19 Jun 2012, 12:49 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-119:
No I think Habana’s gonna hang around as long as he can.
Meyer already took him off after halftime and shifted Hougaard to wing this weekend.
Apparently the English were open about their intention to target Habana as they see him as a weak link on defense.
He had one good game – the opening test of the season – although he still gave away a try by going for the intercept in that game.
I don’t think he’s going to keep it up. I don’t think Mvovo has his general skillset, and I don’t think Basson is as solid on defense as a Bok wing should be, so at the moment I think Habana is just hanging in there until a clearly superior replacement arrives on the scene.
19 Jun 2012, 12:53 pm
@Thucydides(Thucydides)-102: And my sources on the inside have informed me that NAKSSRFU* are planning a crippling country-wide strike if their demands for fair representation are not met in the third test.
(*National Allied Khoi-San Second Row Forward Union)
19 Jun 2012, 12:53 pm
@nama1(nama1)-107:
You have to look at it in context.
Jannie Dup is 29 and is playing his best rugby.
But Coenie Oosthuizen will be groomed to slot in as first-choice 3.
Bismark is 27/28 but most of his test career has involved cameo bursts in the second half, so he still has plenty of rugby left in him – injury-permitting.
Alberts is 28 but is a relative newcomer to the test arena, so he too has a fair bit of rugby in him, although he is prone to injury.
That said, SA has plenty depth in loose forward department.
Gio Aplon too is 29 but is as fast as lightning and is also relatively new to test arena.
It’s guys like Habana, JDV and Schalk who are getting on in years and who have played a mammoth amount of rugby over the past ten years.
It is here where decent succession planning must take place.
Habana is back in top form and it is wonderful to see, but Boks have Basson, Mvovo and Le Roux in the wings.
When Schalk returns from injury, I reckon a horde of rabid huns will struggle to pry him from the game.
He’ll play on with one working limb if he has to!
JDV is an interesting case.
He’s 31 already and he takes a helluva beating every time he takes the field – centres often do because of the traffic that goes down their channels.
But if you look at pros like O Driscoll and Mortlock they have soldiered on and sustained quality.
Okay, Mortlock was injured quite a bit over the last few years…
It will be interesting to see how far JDV can go.
I reckon Bekker – who is now 28, I think – may struggle to make it to 2015 RWC because he is so injury-prone.
Meyer must consider this and look to keep Kruger as his starting 5.
But Bekker will be hungry to make the World Cup, considering he missed out on the last one.
19 Jun 2012, 12:54 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-123: That wasn’t an argument, just an observation. The argument followed two posts later. The observation still stands though.
19 Jun 2012, 12:55 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-105: Habana is’nt that much older then Aplon, Mvovo and Basson. I think Aplon is older then Habana.
19 Jun 2012, 12:56 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-120:
Its a question of when it will end. Not that he’s playing brilliant, decent, okish, mediocre or bad rugga. Its a discussion based on the stupid article “Hitting back” which is not asking the right questions.
He’s not the best at the moment, wont improve to become brilliant (like in 2007) and does not have the x factor anymore…. So now that he’s playing ‘good’ rugby again(like many other wings who are younger), will this mean that he will be automatically picked,like in the past when he did not deserve to be in the starting 15. Or will he eventually be replaced with a promising youngster who will at some point have to build experience at test level…
19 Jun 2012, 12:56 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-105: Because actually he is the best left wing in the country at the moment. Basson is a great finisher and great in the air, but his defence is almost nonexistent.
19 Jun 2012, 12:57 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-105: Actually a good question. Habana has been playing decent rugger over the last few games thankfully but it is time to have the legend back scoring tries like he was doing 5 yrs back.
He has been one of the most fortunate players to be picked for the Boks on reputation alone… and yes his status as an Icon in World Rugger might have justified this to a certain extent.
But it is time for him to be the strike runner he used to be – even 80% of that would be good enough… In line with the team mantra “No excuses”
19 Jun 2012, 12:59 pm
@Unplugged(Unplugged)-128:
He’s not older than Hasbeen. If he was, at least he’s got more of an dangerous x factor than Hasbeen at present…
19 Jun 2012, 13:00 pm
@Mike H(Mike H)-106: Kolisi has been fantastic and so has Coetzee. Coetzee has taken his chance with both hands and has had a great start to his Bok career. Kolisi is definitely next cab off the rank though.
19 Jun 2012, 13:00 pm
@nama1(nama1)-107: 27 is maybe too low for a cut off. That means in four years time they will be just 31. In the case of Bismark, Jannie and the other forwards, that might not be too bad. In the backline it is only Jean and Habana? HM must bring in some new guys in anycase. I think that squad of youngsters training with the Boks will be part of the team within the next two years.
19 Jun 2012, 13:00 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-129: Contrary to what you may think, all those “facts” you stated to back up your argument are in fact opinions. And you know what they say about opinions, hey.
Many, including myself, believe he’s almost back to his best. And his best is the best in the world – something the IRB agrees with.
None of the other names you mention are close to him, at this stage. Mvovo has talent and could possibly get there, but right now he’s not even in sight.
19 Jun 2012, 13:01 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-59:
yer but Piri has been very good in the past thats the difference and he’s also not starting anymore
19 Jun 2012, 13:02 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-132: Actually, he is. Almost a year older. So another “fact” you pulled from Uranus.
19 Jun 2012, 13:03 pm
@stormer in a teacup(stormer in a teacup)-130: No he’s not. He still hardly scores any tries. Blame it on the Stormers ‘bulls style’ of rugby, but he definitely doesnt make the opposition nervous any more. A wing should firstly be a strong finisher. The rest can be improved. If a wing has lost the instinct to score tries then his time has come to move over for a wing who can score tries…
19 Jun 2012, 13:04 pm
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-136: No one’s talking about Piri here. That must be somewhere else. Good luck.
19 Jun 2012, 13:05 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-138:
What is that brown stuff around your mouth?
19 Jun 2012, 13:06 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-135:
I thought the IRB didn’t have any credibility in the republic, aren’t all those IRB awards rigged or is that just when a kiwi wins it , honest question?
19 Jun 2012, 13:08 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-139:
its wasn’t me pal it was your mate Tranny
19 Jun 2012, 13:09 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-135: Well at least my opinions are objective. Stating that a player is better than others without mentioning or giving a few reasons for those opinions wont convince anyone. You are a good example why the statement that there is an obsession with Habana is a valid one. If you cant be objective dont argue with someone who tries to be… Just a suggestion.
19 Jun 2012, 13:09 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-132:
Basson = 25
Aplon = 29 ( turns 30 in October)
Mvovo = 26
Habana = 29 ( birthday was 2 week ago)
19 Jun 2012, 13:10 pm
Now this is fun to watch! Pity I must leave soon.
19 Jun 2012, 13:13 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-138: Jeez, we are of course all entitled to our opinions. You are in danger though, of becoming another Alucard. Just saying.
19 Jun 2012, 13:14 pm
@>^..^< katman(katman)-137: Who said anything about facts? I sure didnt. Aplon a dangerous attacking player and has a better kicking game than Habana. This is an opinion. His age was a guess. But does that change anything not quite imo.
19 Jun 2012, 13:15 pm
@stormer in a teacup(stormer in a teacup)-146:
19 Jun 2012, 13:16 pm
@Jeez(Jeez)-143: Mate, you want to drop Habana for a “promising youngster”. Heyneke and I don’t. You have your opinion, we have ours.
19 Jun 2012, 13:17 pm
@stormer in a teacup(stormer in a teacup)-146: Dude im not attacking people’s opinions, that exactly what Im trying to communicate to Katman… regarding my comment on your comment, im just comparing observations. @Unplugged(Unplugged)-144: read 147
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