The South African Rugby Union (SARU) called winger Bryan Habana an iconic player on Monday after he became the first Springbok and just the sixth man in history to score 50 Test tries.
Habana’s second try against Samoa in South Africa’s 56-23 win on Saturday took him level with former England winger Rory Underwood and tied for fifth on the all-time list.
Only Japanese wingers Hirotoki Onozawa (55 tries) and all-time leader Daisuke Ohata (69), Wales’ Shane Williams (60) and Australia’s David Campese (64) have scored more Test tries.
Habana’s 50 came in 86 Tests and SARU President Oregan Hoskins said the 2007 World Cup winner had “set a mark that will take a very special player to eclipse”.
Five-eighth Morne Steyn became the second South African to pass 500 Test points in the match against Samoa.
felix
Guest
Stupid I hate the organisation & the people that run it lately are killing the whole Stormers culture,gone are the good old days,oom Danie will be spinning in his grave.
Felix the scary thing is what will happen to Piet v Zyl if he has to play the Stormers way. At the Cheetahs he has more freedom to play the way he sees it.
felix
Guest
BB I dont understand why the stormers are busy buying P. Van Zyl,Senatla would be a better buy considering Habana's Toulon move,What will happen to young N.Groom,I know he isnt the best but he's got great passing potential.
The point is when player power and PDV were in charge he never got the ball, I thought that would be obvious. And no, SA rugby doesn't work only one way at the highest level.
Ben.S
Roar Guru
I don't get your point? Habana scoring fewer tries in SA's most successful season and Habana scoring more tries in less successful seasons? SA rugby basically only works one way at the highest level.
It isn't bad, but better than Raymond Rhule.
Angus MacMillan
Guest
Biltong he looks very good but how is his defence ????
One word. Pace = Senatla. ;)
IvanN
Guest
Whenever im sad, i go look at the 3N 2004 game against Australia where Habana scored two length of the field tries - Blitzing everyone for pace, absolutely love how he flies past the linesmen. ahhhh good times. But when it comes to pace, I dont think I have ever seen anyone (not even Carlin Isles) move as fast as Chavanga on the field. That one super rugby game against hte Blues where he flies past rockocoko like he was running backwards... mind boggling how we didnt manage that guy better.
atlas
Guest
14 more tests, could do that by end 2014, but what's his availability for future tests? he has signed with Toulon on a three year contract from the end of this Super season, do they release him straight away that month to play in this year's Rugby Championship? And again for EOYT? and again . . .
Rusty
Roar Guru
Hope he gets to his 100 tests too
Rusty
Roar Guru
Magnificent player! One of my all time favourites and as alluded to already, even better that he managed to get out of what was a pretty poor run of form at national and super level. He truly looks hungry again without the try hard madness that saw calls for him to be dropped.
Jerry
Guest
It's not that simple - his form drop off can't be written off as PDV's fault, IMO. For a start, a huge proportion of Habana's tries - even when in form - have come from him getting opportunistic turnovers (eg swooping on loose balls or getting turnovers) rather than set plays.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Actually, Nonu has played 79 tests. There's an outside possibility that he can make it to 100, which would be remarkable considering the number of tests he played between 2003-07.
mania
Guest
thats all habana could get his hands on . in the NZ games habana had to go looking for the tries and all were opportunistic. credit to the man that even tho ball didnt come his way he was still out looking and chasing. i blame player power equally with PDV
The sad statistic about Habana is under PDV he scored 10 tries in 38 tests, in his other 48 tests he scored 40 tries.
mania
Guest
wow bizarre stat. richie having played 20% of NZ total of tests. amazing
Jerry
Guest
Pogo - there's very little chance of Nonu, Weepu etc making it. They'd need at least 3 more seasons and I doubt they'll hang around. Mania - true, but that's the case with all the members of the 100 club from other countries too. But it is quite amazing to think of how much rugby is played these days - the test the other day was only the 500th AB test, meaning McCaw has played in more than 20% of all NZ test matches. Colin Meads played 14 seasons for only 55 tests, whereas Kieran Read will reach that number halfway through his 6th season. Even in the modern era, Sean Fitzpatrick didn't miss a test for something like 9 seasons which was only 75 odd tests. All told, he played 11 seasons for 92 tests.
mania
Guest
playerPower took over after PDV's first season. that one season against the lions in 2009 was successfull but how to do u explain the rest ? the harlem globetrotters style was PDV trying to introduce expansive rugby. the way he went about it may have been wrong but at least he tried. as opposed to player power going to the kick and pressure gameplan that worked great vs the ABs in 2009 but was totally outdated by 2010 yet the PP stuck with it. anyway this is about a tribute to the great habana not me harping on about recriminations of the boks.
Ben.S
Roar Guru
From memory (feel free to correct) Habana scored off a set-piece against the Lions in the 2nd Test, as did Pietersen. And as for player power, we saw how disastrous it was when PDV decided the Boks were the Harlem Globetrotters... That player power brought them their single most successful season in the professional era.