John Philip "Bakkies" Botha

John Philip “Bakkies” Botha

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.

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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…

 

 

Bakkies Botha, Willie John McBride, Victor Matfield & Heyneke Meyer

Bakkies Botha, Willie John McBride, Victor Matfield & Heyneke Meyer

 

Bakkies Botha & Juan Smith in the streets of Toulon with their home-made BOEREWORS - You can take the BOER out of South Africa but you cannot take South africa out of the BOER!

Bakkies Botha & Juan Smith in the streets of Toulon with their home-made BOEREWORS – You can take the BOER out of South Africa but you cannot take South africa out of the BOER!

 

Bakkies Botha & Bryan Habana having a BRAAI in Toulon, France.

Bakkies Botha & Bryan Habana having a BRAAI in Toulon, France.

170 Responses to A TRIBUTE to Bakkies Botha, the hard man of Rugby

  • 121

    grootblousmile wrote:

    67

    I did well at what I did during National Service… learning and teaching to shoot down planes, in a proud Defence Force.

    Were you 44 ADU near Hammanskraal?

    My Dad was based there for a few years

  • 122

    @ 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

  • 123

    cane wrote:

    @ grootblousmile:
    Frik the Prick.
    Another King Hitter……………………………………………in 1970 he took out Chris Laidlaw.
    Meet the new Bok,
    Same as the old Bok.

    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

  • 124

    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.

  • 125

    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.

  • 126

    ryecatcher wrote:

    @ Angostura:
    59
    Still chortling.Know what you meant .Just surprised as you
    never use lazy grammar.
    “Hooking fearlessly in a cap only.”
    No flannels?Shirt? and God forbid
    no Box.Quick singles must have been a sight to behold.
    Meant to be funny,not critical.Please read this in that spirit.

    I always admired Richie Richardson, batting with his wide brimmed hat facing the fastest bowlers in the world

  • 127

    grootblousmile wrote:

    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)….

    You’re right 250 ADU, my Dad had a bottle of wine with the Scorpion on, his farewell gift from them

  • 128

    And don’t forget the Hore………… 😕

  • 129

    127 @ Victoriabok:
    When was your dad there, what was his rank… and when did he leave?

  • 130

    grootblousmile wrote:

    127 @ Victoriabok:
    When was your dad there, what was his rank… and when did he leave?

    My Dad worked for the Air Force, he was in comms

    They had a section inside the base

    Sammajoor

  • 131

    shooter wrote:

    And don’t forget the Hore…………

    I’ll never forget the Hore

    I got 10 000 and another milestone

    Charles beat us all though

  • 132

    grootblousmile wrote:

    127 @ Victoriabok:
    When was your dad there

    He was there from about 1980 – 1985

    Then he went to the “Vlootgebou” across Munitoria

  • 133

    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!

  • 134

    @ Stormersboy:124

    Wonderful.And emotional.Thanks pal

  • 135

    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

  • 136

    Bradley Davies… into the hospital.

  • 137

    @ Victoriabok:
    charles got 5!
    i got 3 🙂

  • 138

    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:

  • 139

    @ 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

  • 140

    @ grootblousmile:

    “2kg of throbbing babboon bait!”

    Really, how many female baboons did you get? 😈

  • 141

    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.

  • 142

    140 @ Victoriabok:
    I had a steady girl at the time… die Dominee se Dogter… hehehe

  • 143

    grootblousmile wrote:

    139 @ Victoriabok:
    Yip, the Russian One!
    Those Arabs who put it on the back of Bakkies are totally farking nuts and very shabbily trained.

    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

  • 144

    grootblousmile wrote:

    139 @ Victoriabok:
    fok ‘n tank so op dat mens die ouens binne optel as maalvleis.

    Ek onthou Swapo het die kanon se voorganger, die 14.5mm op Ratels gebruik in Ops Protea

  • 145

    @ 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.

  • 146

    @ ryecatcher:
    106

    Good to hear you are on the comeback trail.
    Your call on the pub meeting but my shout – deal?

  • 147

    @ 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.

  • 148

    @ Charo:

    They do look like a bunch of stupid silly sad-assed soft cocks.

    Something out of Monty Python. 🙄

    Good night.

  • 149

    @ Victoriabok:
    Funny thing is, off the field Mr Skinner was a gentlemen and the say you couldn’t have met a nicer bloke….

  • 150

    Te Rangatira wrote:

    @ Victoriabok:
    Funny thing is, off the field Mr Skinner was a gentlemen and the say you couldn’t have met a nicer bloke….

    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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