Cape Town – Bryan Habana loves Cape Town so much that he might settle down here one day, but his immediate goal is to help the Stormers make up for a disappointing season by beating the Bulls on Saturday.
Habana will play his last game for the Stormers at what is expected to be a packed Newlands, with only standing-room tickets still available, before joining Toulon in France.
Others who are set to leave are Joe Pietersen, Dewaldt Duvenage (both France), Don Armand (England) and possibly Gerhard van den Heever (Ireland). Pietersen was unable to recover from injury in time for the Bulls clash, while Duvenage was left out of the match-22.
Habana joined the Stormers in 2010 after winning his second Super Rugby trophy with the Bulls the year before, but while he can only boast about a lone Currie Cup title with Western Province, the Springbok record try-scorer spoke glowingly yesterday about his time in the Cape.
The Stormers reached their first Super Rugby final in 2010 in Habana’s first season, but lost to the Bulls at Orlando Stadium in Soweto. They went down in two consecutive home semi-finals, but weren’t able to reach the playoffs in 2013.
Overcoming that disappointment will be Habana’s motivation on Saturday. “It’s been disappointing that I haven’t been able to contribute to see us in the playoff stages. My performances haven’t really been of the standard I’ve set myself this year. So, I’m looking forward to Saturday and contributing to restoring some pride,” the 30-year-old said after practice at Newlands on Wednesday.
“We’ve let the coaching staff and ourselves down over the last few months, we’ve let the fans down too. After three very good years, it’s been disappointing not to reach that final hurdle in the last season.
“Everyone wants a fairytale ending, but unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. I said to the team that it’s not about playing for the guys who are leaving. For us, it is about playing for what the circle (of friends) means to us.”
Habana said that Cape Town has been good to him – “My wife and I were openly accepted four years ago, and it’s been an amazing and wonderful journey” – adding that it would be “rather difficult not to settle here” in future.
“You want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all on the training field and in matches. The guy who always sacrificed his individualism for the team. A guy who people enjoyed being around, a guy who lost a lot of money to Gio Aplon and Juan de Jongh on the golf course – which I’m probably going to hear a lot about!”
He rates the Currie Cup triumph last year as his finest moment in the Cape. “We pulled through that semi-final in the last minute. Going down to Durban with a team that had been written off against a highly-rated Sharks team, three years had culminated to that point, and it was pretty enjoyable,” Habana said.
“It was sad that guys like Jean, Schalk and Andries, who are true Western Province players and people, didn’t get the opportunity to win a trophy yet.
“We were the number-one team last year (on the log), but lost to the Sharks in the semi-final. That was one of the hardest games I’ve ever had to take, because I really thought that we’d go on and win it. Hopefully I leave the jersey behind in a better position than what it was four years ago.”
Habana confirmed that he would still be available to play for the Springboks. He is set to leave for Toulon next Saturday, and will play a warm-up game against Racing Metro on August 2. But he could be back in South Africa a week later, as the Boks face Argentina at the FNB Stadium on August 17.
Meanwhile, Stormers coach Allister Coetzee pulled off a big surprise on Wednesday by picking Gary van Aswegen instead of Elton Jantjies at flyhalf against the Bulls. The selection makes little sense, as Jantjies has been playing better in every game and even kicked four out of four against the Kings.
Van Aswegen has never been convincing at Super Rugby or Currie Cup level over the last three years, while injury has also hampered his progress. But Coetzee explained that the absence of Pietersen necessitated the change at flyhalf.
“The Bulls have got a good kicking game, and they look for territory, and for us, it’s important to have right-foot and left-foot options in the team, like we had with Joe and Elton there. Gio and Elton are both left-footed kickers,” the coach said.
Scrumhalf Louis Schreuder is a right-footed kicker, but asked if Jantjies would’ve started had he been right-footed, Coetzee replied: “I don’t think that’s an issue as Elton is not right-footed. If you are on the left-hand side of the field, then how do you exit from your half? It does make sense to have a right-footed option in the team.”
Saturday’s match will be refereed by Craig Joubert.
TEAM
15 Gio Aplon, 14 Gerhard van den Heever, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Gary van Aswegen, 9 Louis Schreuder, 8 Nizaam Carr, 7 Rynhardt Elstadt, 6 Deon Fourie, 5 De Kock Steenkamp, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Steven Kitshoff. Bench:16 Martin Bezuidenhout, 17 Pat Cilliers, 18 Gerbrandt Grobler, 19 Don Armand, 20 Nic Groom, 21 Elton Jantjies, 22 Damian de Allende.