Boks not worried by Habana

The Springbok management aren’t concerned about the apparent slump in form of winger Bryan Habana during this year’s Vodacom Tri Nations tournament.

Brenden Nel, SuperSport

The former IRB Player of the year, who was a sensation at the 2007 World Cup, has struggled with his form all season, but probably has never experienced the nightmare run he had on his old stomping ground at Loftus Versfeld last week where he gifted the Wallabies a try, and was caught in defence for a second.

There have been calls for the winger to be dropped, but coach Peter de Villiers and his support staff have backed Habana, believing that class trumps form every time and they know that sooner or later one of the world’s deadliest finishers is sure to strike form again.

Bok backline coach Dick Muir was the first to Habana’s defence on Thursday, following up De Villiers defence after the Loftus game that Habana had played too much rugby, with his own explanation.

“I think you find that all great players go through spells where they lose a little bit of form,” Muir told journalists at the team’s training base at the University of the Free State.

“Bryan has set the bar high by his standards and he has been working hard to get back to his best. Hopefully that will happen very soon and hopefully that happens this weekend. He is one of those dedicated players and we are certainly not worried about him getting his form back.”

The Bok winger has looked the shadow of his normal self this year, but has still moved around the field a lot to ensure his workrate hasn’t diminished. There is even a theory that Habana is struggling because he sits one try away from breaking Joost van der Westhuizen’s Bok try scoring record.

Both players are on 38 and it is just coincidence that Habana’s form started to waver when he moved up alongside the former Bok halfback.

Muir isn’t one to subscribe to such theories though, and believes it is just a matter of time before Habana crossed the chalk again.

BIGGER THAN THE RECORD

“He’s bigger than the record,” Muir said, “He is there for the team and only if the opportunity presents itself will he go for the try. What I’m really pleased about is that he comes off his wing and is looking for work elsewhere and he will get the reward for that.

“You make one glaring mistake and everybody jumps on the bandwagon but the standard is high that has been set and he will certainly want to rectify that. We’re in the business where we do get criticized and we need to be bigger than that. The only way to rectify it is to get the performance on the field.”

Habana is currently being challenged by his Western Province and Stormers team-mate Gio Aplon, who has excelled since being called up to the national squad. The competition may well be the best thing to spur him on to his former glory.

Which is something both the winger and the Boks need at the moment.