Bryan Habana to become Springbok Centurion No 4.
Bryan Habana will on Saturday become the fourth Springbok and 33rd player overall to play in 100 Tests when South Africa take on Australia in the third round of the Castle Lager Rugby Championship at Patersons Stadium in Perth (kickoff 12h05 SA time).
The 31-year-old Habana, who made his debut for South Africa against England at Twickenham on 20 November 2004, holds the record for the most Test tries in a Springbok jersey. His 56 Test tries places him fourth on the list of all-time international try scorers.
The three-time South African Rugby Player of the Year (2004, 2007 and 2012), who was also named the IRB Rugby Player of the Year in 2007, will lead the Springboks out on Saturday as he follows Percy Montgomery, John Smit and Victor Matfield in amassing 100 Tests in the green and gold.
“This is an unbelievable achievement by Bryan, who is someone every South African can be immensely proud of,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.
“Bryan is a true professional and someone who never gives anything but his best, on the field and off it. For him to reach this magnificent milestone is just reward for years of dedication and hard work.
“Apart from scoring tries and always giving 100% on the field, Bryan is also a humble servant to the game and a true ambassador for his family, his friends and his country. He will go down in history as one of the greatest rugby players of all time.
“He is always looking for improvement – I’ve never seen him play a bad game in the Springbok jersey.”
In total, the starting line-up shows six changes from the team which beat Argentina in Salta recently. Jan Serfontein and Morne Steyn will start in the backline, while Marcell Coetzee, Victor Matfield, Adriaan Strauss and Tendai Mtawarira have been included in the pack.
As a result of these changes, Bismarck du Plessis, Lood de Jager and Damian de Allende shift to the bench, while Trevor Nyakane, Marcel van der Merwe and Pat Lambie will join the uncapped Warren Whiteley on the bench.
“We were always planning in moving our personnel around during the competition,” said Meyer.
“The only new player in the team is Warren, whom I’m very happy for and excited to see what he can do. He covers all three positions in the loose trio and can make an impact later in the game.
“It’s also good to see Pat back in the frame. He’s completed his comeback from a long-term injury and will provide necessary bench cover for flyhalf and fullback.
“Saturday’s Test against Australia will take a massive effort from every member of our squad. We’re not looking at their recent result against New Zealand and we know they will be a tough opponent.
“Similarly, we need to move on from our victories over Argentina, which are now in the past. This is a new challenge and one we have to overcome to stay alive in the competition.”
Springboks:
15 Willie le Roux (17 Tests, 35 points)
14 Cornal Hendricks (5 Tests, 15 points)
13 Jan Serfontein (12 Tests, 5 points)
12 Jean de Villiers (Captain – 98 Tests, 125 points)
11 Bryan Habana (99 Tests, 280 points)
10 Morné Steyn (58 Tests, 670 points)
9 Ruan Pienaar (78 Tests, 135 points)
8 Duane Vermeulen (21 Tests, 10 points)
7 Marcell Coetzee (18 Tests, 20 points)
6 Francois Louw (32 Tests, 25 points)
5 Victor Matfield (Vice-captain – 113 Tests, 35 points)
4 Eben Etzebeth (25 Tests, 0 points)
3 Jannie du Plessis (56 Tests, 5 points)
2 Adriaan Strauss (36 Tests, 25 points)
1 Tendai Mtawarira (57 Tests, 10 points)
Replacements:
16 Bismarck du Plessis (62 Tests, 45 points)
17 Trevor Nyakane (5 Tests, 5 points)
18 Marcel van der Merwe (1 Test, 0 points)
19 Lood de Jager (5 Tests, 10 points)
20 Warren Whiteley (uncapped)
21 Francois Hougaard (29 Tests, 20 points)
22 Pat Lambie (32 Tests, 68 points)
23 Damian de Allende (2 Tests, 0 points)
Stats and facts:
- The Springbok starting team boasts a total of 725 Test caps (358 in the backline and 367 in the forwards), while there a further 136 caps worth of experience on the bench.
- South Africa and Australia have played each other 78 times since 1933, with the Springboks winning 44 Tests, losing 33 and one was drawn. The Springboks have scored 1,501 points and 179 tries and conceded 1,357 points and 139 tries for an average score of 19-17.
- South Africa and Australia last met on 28 September 2013 at DHL Newlands in Cape Town, when the Springboks won 28-8.
- Bryan Habana will be playing in his 100th Test for South Africa, making him only the fourth Springbok in history to reach this milestone. The others are Victor Matfield (113), John Smit (111) and Percy Montgomery (102).
- Habana will also extend his record as the most-capped Springbok wing, with 98 Tests in this position and if he scores a try, will extend his record of 56 Test tries for South Africa as well as his Castle Lager Rugby Championship record of 18 tries and will extend his own SA record of nine career tries against Australia.
- Jean de Villiers will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok centre, with 83 Tests in this position. He will also extend his own SA record of 46 Rugby Championship games and will captain South Africa for the 27th time – fourth behind John Smit (83), Gary Teichmann (36) and Francois Pienaar (29).
- Victor Matfield will extend his own record as the most capped Springbok in history (113 Tests). He will also be playing against Australia for the 25th time to become the sole holder of the record he shared with John Smit previously.
- Morné Steyn will extend his record as the most-capped Springbok flyhalf, with 56 Tests in this position. If he scores a try, he will also extend his record of eight Test tries as a flyhalf for South Africa. Steyn scored 137 points in his career against Australia, just three points short of Percy Montgomery’s record of 140 points. He will also extend his own career record for most conversions (16), most penalty goals (32) and most drop goals (3) against Australia.
- If he goes on and scores a try, Bismarck du Plessis will extend his own record of eight test tries for South Africa as a hooker.
- If he goes on Warren Whiteley will become Springbok No 863.
- The referee is George Clancy of Ireland and this will be his ninth Test involving South Africa. In the previous eight South Africa have won six and lost two. His last Test was on 7 September 2013 in the corresponding game of last year’s tournament at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane when the Springboks beat the Wallabies 38-12.
Springbok Test match records at Paterson Stadium, Perth (previously known as Subiaco Oval):
- Most points – 15 by Joost van der Westhuizen (3t) against Uruguay on 11 October 2003.
- Most tries – three by Joost van der Westhuizen against Uruguay on 11 October 2003.
- Most conversions – five by Louis Koen against Uruguay on 11 October 2003.
- Most penalty goals – three by Percy Montgomery against Australia on 18 July 1998; by Braam van Straaten against Australia on 18 August 2001; by Percy Montgomery against Australia on 31 July 2004 and by Percy Montgomery against Australia on 20 August, 2005.
- Most drop goals – one by Percy Montgomery against Australia on 20 August 2005.
- This will be the Springboks’ 10th Test overall at Patersons Stadium in Perth since 1998. In the previous nine, South Africa have won four, lost four and one was drawn. The Springboks have scored 214 points (24 tries) with 174 points against (16 tries). It is a winning percentage of 44% and an average score of 24-19.
@ John Galt:
Strange then, wouldn’t you say, that WP plays Carr (at 8), & Kolisi (an 8 or 7) at 6 (probably because in his wisdom HM sees Kolisi as a 6, & not a 7, & has requested WP to play him there?).
For me Carr is a much more robust, physical player than Whiteley – so if you have little confidence in Carr one-on-one vs. Palu or Read, how can you countenance Whiteley in such showdowns?
@ Nama:
114
The world isn’t an equal opportunities driven fair place 🙁
Ask Lambie 😉
68 @ Scrumdown:
ahh well there you go even more reason to defect to north of the Jukskei! Sorry about thinking you were a public school boy, but coming from the Midlands and going for rugby instead of football just had me pigeon holing you as a posh one 
@ John Galt:
Don’t underestimate the influence of the subconscious in decision making (especially when such decisions make little sense upon closer scrutiny)
@ Nama:
Maybe Whitely learnt the calls quicker?
It is also an open book that possible players like Kruger get emailed lienout calls so why not other players as well?
What lame trolling
99 @ John Galt:
Hi John, such a skilled technical position that we once won a World Cup playing a lock at number 8, just saying
@ Angostura:
Because Ive seen Whitely against the best 8s in Super Rugby. And hes been a standout player at 8 for 3 or 4 years now. Playing with a shit team he performs week in and week out, Ive never seen him get manhandled.
I haven’t seen Carr there because Thor is an 8 during SR.
This is a question of pure 8 skills in a test match environment. Carr may be getting close to a Bok call up but Whitely has been playing like this for years now.
@ Nama:
I got you from day one.
😆
@ Bullscot:
For one game and because we had a game plan that dictated it.
How many more times did he play at 8? Lets think more long term here please.
HM asked Coetzee to play Siya at 6?
Was this last year as well?
@ John Galt:
@ Hondo:
@ Angostura:
Hondo verifies my point re the subconscious
No wait – in his case it is all unconscionably conscious 😀
@ Angostura:
Hondo fell into the subconscious cauldron as a baby.
😆
@ Angostura:
Hondo is thick, please don’t let him verify anything for you.
Hes not a fair reflection on anything.
74 @ ryecatcher:
Ha ha
Well done Rye
OK, ciao bruvvas
(Wonder if ole rye has popped in at the liquor store for some Angostura Bitters?)
Angostura wrote:
Difference is JJE’s selections came after a good SR season.
JDJ on the other hand was average in SR that year and only shined in the Currie Cup Final.
129 @ John Galt:
Yes the fact that is was only one game proves the point even more, seemed to work out ok on that day. I saw last season in the Pro12 that another player Leone Nakarawa made the transition from lock to number 8 for a while seamlessly, so much so that I thought it could be worth Glasgow Warriors considering alternating him and Josh Strauss but I think with middle row injury hassles and now an up and coming youngster (Ashe) who seems to be earmarked for the long term at 8 doubt we will see much more of that but hope I am wrong as Nakarawa was really impressive, so to me it shows that if you are a clever enough player it shouldn’t be that hard to adapt.
ryecatcher wrote:
Lol, quote of the day
gunther wrote:
Clear as night and day 😆
Nama wrote:
Should Cobus Reinach and Schalk Britz be offended by that?
123 @ Bullscot:
Bwahahaha.
Binley Park was a “special” comprehensive that actually only played Rugby. We thought we were a half decent Rugby school.
My brothers 5th form team (2 years ahead of me) never lost a game in 5 years.
Then they played against Henry VIII’s 3rd side and got smacked by 60 odd points.
Just something in the grammer school’s genes that make them great Rugby schools I guess.
@ nortierd:
Some robust debate head prefect.
😆
@ Bullscot:
Fair enough but put yourself in HMs shoes. As head coach in South Africa.
Would you take that risk? Against Aus in Aus?
I would much rather have an answer and be fundamentally correct in my selection process if we lost.
Much easier to answer questions from the masses by saying, ‘yes we chose Whitely because hes a specialist 8, its just unfortunate we didn’t win this time.’ than ‘We took a gamble and it never paid off.’
Can you imagine? Hed be drawn and quartered by everyone.
@ Scrumdown:
Indeed some of the toughest games of rugby we played at school were against grammar schools.
@ gunther:
Yep, which is always good
Angostura wrote:
conscious, schmonscious 😉
143 @ John Galt:
Yeah that does make sense and I would be on of the last one’s questioning Mr Meyer’s selections, the point to me was as much as you have specialists that players (especially those on the bench) need to be good enough rugby players to be able to adapt to situations.
Mr Meyer will have his critics regardless, if playing well they just get a little less vocal until it doesn’t go well again, I don’t think he should necessarily be looking over his shoulder and feeling he always needs to justify his choices to the people that ask the questions unless it is his employers, unless he is making the same crazy picks test in and test out and they are not working. For all the planning in the world a lot of results come down to how each individual player performs on the day in that game, so if one player who is normally very good has a game to forget (eg at place kicking or knocking on with the tryline beckoning) you can’t blame that on the coach.
Like the team
Welcome back Jan
@ Scrumdown:
Speaks to me about flights.
Gosh how much test rugby is being played these days?
Etsebeth 25 test matches in 2.5 years..
If he can stay fit and focused he can easily crack 150 test matches.
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