John Philip “Bakkies” Botha, born 22 September 1979 in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal has had a glittering international career that drew to a close on 22 November 2014.
He will continue to play for his French Club Toulon and has even hinted at retiring in South Africa with the Currie Cup.
In his professional career Botha has won everything there is to win.
With the Blue Bulls he won the Vodacom Cup in 2001 and then went on to add three Currie Cup titles to his name in 2002, 2004 and 2009.
With the Bulls in Super Rugby, Botha was part of the first South African team to lift the trophy in 2007 (in the professional era – with Transvaal winning the Super 10 in 1993), and then again in 2009 and 2010.
rugby365
For the Springboks he has won the World Cup in 2007, the Tri-nations in 2004 and 2009 as well as a British and Irish Lions Series Trophy in 2009.
Botha has also picked up the Mandela Challenge plate in 2005 and 2009 against the Wallabies and the Freedom cup against the All Blacks in 2004 and 2009.
For Toulon, Botha won the European cup back-to-back in 2013 and 2014 as well as scooping the Top 14 League in 2014.
A true giant of the game in every sense, it is easy to smile when watching this clip…
grootblousmile wrote:
Were you 44 ADU near Hammanskraal?
My Dad was based there for a few years
@ grootblousmile:
107 The Great War was 1914-1918-Mankind at its worst.And most
heroic.
Time for you to read war poets.Rupert Brook.The mud,the lice
and the corpses in the trenches.(“The Sentry”
And then read about Delville Wood where a full on forest we defended(SA troops)
left no tree not reduced to splinters.200 shells a minute for more
than a week.In 1950,s we mocked a lift attendant survivor by making loud
noises which would cause him
to shake uncontrollably.
He is now dead,but my shame lingers
Rye
cane wrote:
Richard Loe, filthy eye gouging thug
Same as the old All Black Thug Kevin Skinner
The Sheepshaggers used a heavyweight boxer to beat up our props, they couldn’t win a scrum any other way.
They actually swopped their props around after the first scrum to get the thug opposite our prop
Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!– An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.–
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
121 @ Victoriabok:
Yip, 250 ADAG… not far from Hammanskraal
(250 Air Defence Artillery Group)…. with the Scrorpion as our Unit badge…
Was 44 ADU before that, I think…
Also called simply “Die Plaas”
… en daar het ons afgekak, en van Tant Betta se beskuite rondgedra (big sement boulders)….
I was of the 1st intake to be trained on the Russian 23mm Anti-Aircraft Guns… the ZSU 23 / 2.
ryecatcher wrote:
I always admired Richie Richardson, batting with his wide brimmed hat facing the fastest bowlers in the world
grootblousmile wrote:
You’re right 250 ADU, my Dad had a bottle of wine with the Scorpion on, his farewell gift from them
And don’t forget the Hore………… 😕
127 @ Victoriabok:
When was your dad there, what was his rank… and when did he leave?
grootblousmile wrote:
My Dad worked for the Air Force, he was in comms
They had a section inside the base
Sammajoor
shooter wrote:
I’ll never forget the Hore
I got 10 000 and another milestone
Charles beat us all though
grootblousmile wrote:
He was there from about 1980 – 1985
Then he went to the “Vlootgebou” across Munitoria
130 @ Victoriabok:
I remember the Comms section in the Sinkgeboutjies…
Flok, when we arrived there, on the back of Bedford Trucks, blankets over our heads for hours, we did not even know where in South Africa we were… for a whole month… they simply did not tell us!
@ Stormersboy:124
Wonderful.And emotional.Thanks pal
132 @ Victoriabok:
Him and me were there, same time… ask him if he remembers the first arrival of the 23mm Canons… as well as the 2 SAM 9’s
I was there, 1984 & 1985… eventually, as Lt Geldenhuys
Bradley Davies… into the hospital.
@ Victoriabok:
charles got 5!
i got 3 🙂
132 @ Victoriabok:
Check here, I am the one in the Browns….
Lean Mean muscle… with 2kg of throbbing babboon bait!
I remember the 3 troops in the Blue Overalls as well… Ackerman the Ammo loader behind the gun muzzles, Aucamp sitting in the Gunner position next to me (I’m sitting in the Gun commander position) and Combrinck the ohter Ammo loader.
All three of them became Instructors!
Attachment:
@ grootblousmile:
It’s the 23mm Soviet AA ?
I see the guys in Libya and Iraq loads it on a Hilux and use it to take on ground forces
@ grootblousmile:
“2kg of throbbing babboon bait!”
Really, how many female baboons did you get? 😈
139 @ Victoriabok:
Yip, the Russian One!
Those Arabs who put it on the back of Bakkies are totally farking nuts and very shabbily trained.
One needs to have a crew of 4 on it and the Gun Commander is extremely important as he sets the lead- and dive angles on the mechanical “Computer”… in other words one needs to shoot somewhat in front of and below a plane which is on a dive angle… so you need to know roughly how fast that plane would be travelling as well as set the gun for a number of characteristics.
The Gunner must however take dead aim in the cross-hairs of the optical sight, the “Computer” will establish the lead and dive angles ect…
The weapon is ideal for air and ground forces… and packs a mean punch with belts loaded with Armour Piercing Rounds combined with High Explosive Rounds and Tracers… fok ‘n tank so op dat mens die ouens binne optel as maalvleis.
140 @ Victoriabok:
I had a steady girl at the time… die Dominee se Dogter… hehehe
grootblousmile wrote:
You don’t need all the training to shoot at stationary targets
Mostly shooting at other shabbily trained arabs
I saw them use a 5 ton truck with a 57mm cannon on the back on the news the other day
grootblousmile wrote:
Ek onthou Swapo het die kanon se voorganger, die 14.5mm op Ratels gebruik in Ops Protea
@ grootblousmile:
What a slapgat bunch
You Okes were the softcocks of the army, sorry to say.
I laughed when I read about your afkak.
Try dune 7 after a full day of manoeuvres.
@ ryecatcher:
106
Good to hear you are on the comeback trail.
Your call on the pub meeting but my shout – deal?
@ grootblousmile:
Andy Dalton was the Captain of Bombay Rugby Club when I was at College. Bombay was where my school was located and he was a Legend amongst us boys and when we heard and saw the footage of him king hit from behind, automatically we hated your cousin for what he had done to Andy, yet we didn’t know the kind of man your cousin is, we judged him on that one act… What he did wasn’t the right thing but to judge a man on one incident isn’t right either…The same can be said for other players who have been tarnished with the thug tag… Colin Meads is revered here as the Greatest Ab and is seen as a salt of the earth type but to some Aussies he will be remembered as a thug… I suppose it comes back to what we were discussing about ones perspective after the Bok v Abs game @ Ellis Park this year.
@ Charo:
They do look like a bunch of stupid silly sad-assed soft cocks.
Something out of Monty Python. 🙄
Good night.
@ Victoriabok:
Funny thing is, off the field Mr Skinner was a gentlemen and the say you couldn’t have met a nicer bloke….
Te Rangatira wrote:
Trying to prove to Cane that all teams have dirty players and his own team even picked an ex boxer to beat the other team’s props into submission when they knew they would be out scrummed otherwise
I don’t like hypocrites or hypocrisy, dirty is dirty even if it’s your own player
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