London – Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer is a firm believer in the old adage “cometh the hour, cometh the man”, and he reckons it suits Bryan Habana down to the ground because of the role he has played in helping the Boks bounce back from the despair of Brighton to Pool B winners.
Habana scored three tries in 19 minutes against the US on Wednesday to equal Jonah Lomu’s World Cup record of 15 tries and to draw level with David Campese’s record of 64 Test tries for tier-1 nations. Habana and Campese are tied second on the overall Test try rankings behind Japan’s Daisuke Ohata (69).
“I am really proud of Bryan and how he has stepped up as a leader on and off the field since we lost to Japan,” Meyer said. “I sat down with the senior players after that match and told them I could not do this on my own, that I needed the core of seniors to step up and help steer the ship out of troubled waters.
“And they have done that. Schalk Burger has responded magnificently, so have Duane Vermeulen and Bismarck du Plessis, but I have been particularly proud of Bryan,” Meyer said. “In the last four weeks he has really stood up and showed how good he can be off the field as well as on it. I am really proud of him as a human being. He has shown younger players what it still means to him to be a Springbok after more than a hundred caps.”
Meyer said he had coached Habana since he came to the Bulls as a youngster and he had repeatedly risen to the occasion for the coach, notably when he scored the winning try at the death of the Sharks v Bulls Super 12 final in 2007 at Kings Park. That was also the year that he was named Player of the Tournament at the World Cup in France.
“Bryan is always the guy that comes through in the big games,” Meyer said. “I have seen it time and time again, and now he is peaking at the perfect time for us after struggling a bit with his form earlier in the year,” Meyer said. “I was unaware of these records but they could not have come to a more deserving player. He is the consummate professional and at 32, with his pace probably not what it was when he was 22, he has got so much stronger in other areas of his game, such as his skill in the air, his reading of the game, his cover tackling.”
Habana downplayed his hat-trick, the third of his 114-Test career – he scored four against Samoa in a World Cup match in 2007 and three against Australia in Pretoria in 2012 and preferred to talk about the team.
“We took a bit of a tumble that first week against Japan, so the last three weeks have been important as to how we’ve responded,” said Habana. “We’ve raised the intensity and physicality, week on week.
“In the first half against the Eagles we couldn’t get going and made one or two errors, but the second-half performance was as polished as I’ve been involved in with a Bok team,” said Habana, who made his Test debut in November 2004, scoring a try off the bench against England at Twickenham.
“As nice as it is to score tries, we can be really proud of our defensive effort,” added Habana, who has helped French club Toulon win the past two European Cups. To allow only one try in three World Cup games is exceptional.”
Habana had an opportunity to score a fourth try but fumbled the ball as he dived over in the corner.
“Fluffing an opportunity to score a try at any time is never ideal,” smiled Habana. “But equalling Jonah Lomu’s record is a truly humbling fact.
“The way he changed the game, the way he gave rugby something that no one ever thought was possible and the way he became a global superstar, the first real global superstar that the game as ever seen, is for me a massive privilege and I’m honoured to be able to call him a legend.” - The Star