Habana brings experience to young Boks
National coach Allister Coetzee believes Byran Habana brings much needed experience to a youthful Springbok outfit.
The Springbok wing returns to the fold after a year out of the mix. A combination of commitments to French club Toulon as well as the Blitzbokke ruled Habana out of selection over the past year – but he returns to the side for this weekend’s Rugby Championship opener against Argentina in Nelspruit.
With over 100 Tests cap, he brings a massive amount of experience to the Bok backline - which is admittedly lacking experience in the Test arena.
“If you look at the backs and the number of caps there are a 153 in total. You take Bryan’s 117 caps away and we’re sitting with 36. It just shows how young the backline division is and we experienced that in the Irish Test series,” Springbok coach Allister Coetzee said earlier this week.
“With regards Bryan’s role here, he knows he has to perform and play well. Secondly he has to make sure he shares and imparts his knowledge to that young group of backs. We’ve got Elton who will manage the backline but obviously with Bryan supporting all the time.”
Having been out of the Springbok fold since last year’s Rugby World Cup, Habana has returned to a new look environment. With a number of Springbok stalwarts now retired from Test rugby, the 33-year-old admitted that he felt like an old head among youngsters.
“There has been a lot of experience that has left the Springbok group over the last eight months and it’s definitely a new experience for me. It’s the first time I’m coming back into the group as the oldest player so the guys have been pulling out the wheelchair jokes,” Habana said.
“Coming back I know that I have to put my hand up firstly on the field. Then hopefully impart as much knowledge to what is an exciting but very youthful backline.”
Habana will also share the leadership duties with captain Adriaan Strauss, who has taken the mantle this year. The Springbok skipper said that Habana brings a wealth of knowledge to the setup.
“Bryan has more caps than the whole backline combined but off the field he’s a very proud Springbok rugby player - he embodies it. He helps me a lot off the field with the culture and he speaks quite well so he takes over most of the English speeches as well – that helps,” Strauss said.
“He’s a great guy to have in the squad and the junior guys really look up to him. This week, we gave him the opportunity to say a couple of words and I could see it in the youngsters eyes that they really respect him and took that to heart.”
The Boks face Argentina at 17h00 on Saturday.
Twitter - @gazza_jenks @ECRSportswave
Facebook - ECRSportswave