|
 10/9/07
Bryan Habana is the type of player that wins
teams World Cups Jake White told the world
media in Paris.
White said that while rugby remained a team
sport the individual genius of players like
Habana often produced the defining moment of
a World Cup play-off match or final.
“He is a very special player. You only had
to see what he did in scoring his first
try,” White said. “He got four and should
have had five because the pass from Schalk
did not go forward.”
Habana told Keo.co.za he was aware he had
equalled Chester Williams’s Springbok World
Cup try-scoring record and that he was
searching for a fifth.
“Every player wants to break records. It
would have been great to get five and the
first try was pretty special. I cut inside
to look for the support runners, but I kept
on getting through tackles. I just kept on
going and then felt I had enough pace to get
over and score. The bigger picture, though,
isn’t how many I scored but how well we
finished as a team. It was a brilliant
finish but we know we have a bigger
challenge on Friday. We’ll enjoy tonight and
I’ll enjoy the memory of what just
happened.”
Habana, who missed the entire Tri Nations
with injury, was superb against Scotland in
the World Cup warm-up match and was
devastating with ball in hand against Samoa.
Only New Zealand’s Sitiveni Sivivatu can
match him as a finisher in world rugby, but
it is doubtful anyone can match him for
outright pace.
White described his pace as freakish.
“It may be rugby and not athletics, but
there is no substitute for pace among them,”
said White. “You can’t coach pace and Bryan
gives us a dimension few teams have. He was
always going to be very important to our
World Cup challenge and today you could see
why.”
MARK KEOHANE |
keo.co.za | Monday, 10 September 2007 |
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