DHL Stormers coach Allister Coetzee lashed out at the media on Saturday when asked about the out-of-form Bryan Habana.
Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – If an unusually animated head coach Allister Coetzee has his way, misfiring Springbok wing Bryan Habana will be firmly at his customary post when the Stormers tackle arch-rivals the Bulls in a Super Rugby encounter in Pretoria next Saturday.
Habana, once a darling of Loftus, again seemed out of kilter as the Stormers nevertheless showed enough defensive acumen and resolve to hold off the Highlanders 18-6 at Newlands on Friday night and hand the New Zealanders their first defeat of the campaign.
After three matches on home turf, the traditionally crowd-pleasing Stormers remain unbeaten, although their efforts thus far in 2011 have been mysteriously marked by an inability to cross the chalk – their try tally remains glued stubbornly to one, Pieter Louw’s pushover job against the Lions in the opening match.
Now they head into combat against the Bulls, humbled by home defeat to the very same Highlanders last week but presumably well rested as this is a bye weekend for the defending champions.
Seeing the normally affable Coetzee get hot under the collar is about as rare as a branch of Vida e Caffe opening its doors in Orania – I suspect the good folk there are comfortable with their boeretroos? – so the post-match press conference was a bit of a collector’s item in that regard.
For whatever reason, there was an insufferable wait for the respective coaches and captains to do their media thing at Newlands, and the complimentary bar service for the hacks was a predictably popular tranquiliser.
So when one well-loved, particularly gravel-voiced scribe finally got his chance to raise the suggestion – not totally unreasonably, you might argue – that maybe a “four-try day” for Habana in the ranks of the Western Province Vodacom Cup side would not be the worst restorative measure in the world, he got unusually short shrift from Coetzee.
Bear in mind that in a quirky selection strategy thus far in the season, the Stormers have not been shy to banish relatively staple personnel from last year’s Super 14 – when they had reached the final – like Wicus Blaauw and Adriaan Fondse to the blue and white hoops.
But the coach was having none of it, it seemed, in terms of Habana: “In my book he’s (still) doing his job. He’s got a helluva workrate … he threw one intercept pass and some people went ‘ooh, there goes Bryan again’.
“Everyone else makes mistakes. And let me repeat myself: if he does 20 things and gets one wrong, or maybe even five, I’ll be happy, instead of him only doing only five things on the day and getting three wrong.
“The players don’t play for stats … or to keep the media happy. They are there to express themselves and if they make errors it’s simply part of the game.
“We operate as a team at the Stormers, so that wasn’t Bryan’s intercept; it was a team bad pass and they fixed it as a team, preventing any try possibility.”
At this point the already-mentioned scribe, doggedly determined to labour the Habana under-achievement topic, drawled: “As you are well aware I’m a big Bryan Habana fan, but …”
And Coetzee, sharp as a porcupine quill, uncharacteristically interjected: “No, it doesn’t seem like that … you guys are on Bryan’s case.
“I want to ask you: who is the next wing who could come in? No, no, no … I’m telling you I’m very happy with Bryan’s performance, I’m happy with his work-rate.”
In slightly less tempestuous moments during the briefing, Coetzee did confirm that regular captain Schalk Burger and experienced lock Anton van Zyl were still not likely to be in the frame to face the Bulls next Saturday (19:10 kick-off).
“Schalk will be touch and go, to be honest, for this weekend. At least you could see Jaque (Fourie) is 100 percent again, although Worms (Van Zyl) is also not ready quite yet.
But he believed props CJ van der Linde and Brok Harris (the latter a late withdrawal from the run-on team against the Highlanders) would both be contenders.
Springbok Van der Linde, who played in his more favoured No 3 jersey this time, had hobbled off in the second half on Friday – “just a bit of a haematoma” — as did late-inclusion loosehead JC Kritzinger, who may have done fresh, significant damage to a problematic knee.
It led to uncontested scrums in the last quarter against the Highlanders.
elcamino
ROOILEEU
Tina
logan
Deon
Thomas_Bulls
garyj1-Bulls
Aldo
Amethyst
Methos The French Stormer
KingPaul
JT_BOKBEFOK!
trevormayhew
RUGGA_MIND
Pokkel
Quinn25
Marcel
namboer
moose
Jacques(Bunny)Somtimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits
Vernonimous
Pom in Joburg
Watte
niekie
Dante
Panther
Vetgesmeerde Blits
bryce_in_oz
Kozac
Blokkies
Number12_Lions
Brutus2
Lehe6
Estian Nortier
DavidS
johanleroux13
Morné
Tafelberg
pietstreak
Ollie
Koos
March 14th, 2011 at 10:41 am
I say it again: Habana is trying to hard. He must relax and stop acting as if he has a performance clause in his contract.
March 14th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Reply to Deon @ 10:41 am:
he must find the enjoyment in playing rugby again – He should play with a smile on his face and he will automatically relax.
March 14th, 2011 at 10:47 am
Reply to JT @ 10:42 am:
Well he is obviously not doing that. Maybe he is trying to set the record for the most frustrated player for the longest period of time.
March 14th, 2011 at 10:50 am
i AGREE WITH BOTH OF YOU
HE’S DESPERATELY WANTING THAT SCORING SPREE TO RETURN INSTEAD HE SHOULD CALM DOWN AND USE THE EXPERIENCE HE HAS PICKED UP TO BECOME A CLEVERER PLAYER LIKE cAMPESE DID TOWARDS THE END OF HIS ACREER
March 14th, 2011 at 10:52 am
How dd Rob Houwing become chief sports writer?
This is the most brain dead “writer” ever
March 14th, 2011 at 10:56 am
Reply to DavidS @ 10:50 am:
But that is exactly what we are saying.
March 14th, 2011 at 11:35 am
Habana has lost pace and a lot of it. He started to bulk up and gone were his bullet shoes.
He needs to be innovative as other teams also worked him out and maybe playing vodacom is not the worst idea.
Very much the same with Spies. He still likes to kiss players instead of tackling and will not be dropped. Close second in the k@k start to 2011 is Dewalt Potgieter, his star might be shining as a writer but as a player he needs some introspection. Honorable mention goes to Timotei Olivier.
They have a chance to set the record straight this weekend though, ditto for Habana
March 14th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Reply to onerb @ 11:35 am:
Tough one to call this weekend – I will have to go with the home team, Bulls will be hurting after that loss to the Highlanders and will want to set the record straight!
March 14th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Habana looks like a confused horsefly on the field, he seems to be all over the place and not being very effective.
Maybe if he stayed in the wing position and covered there, the ball would come his way, instead of being all over the the place trying intercepts and mostly making tackles that were covered anyway.
I am aware i don’t have the best knowledge about the game so am telling what i am seeing from my perspective, the same thing seemed to be happening to him his last season at the Bulls.
March 14th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Reply to Treehugger @ 12:33 pm:
This is my perception too
He appears uncertain off the ball, particularly when the ball goes down the line he tends to get too enthusiastic in defence and rush out of the line in circumstances when he assuredly should not do it.
This weekend he did it again a few times and I think the likes of Vermeulen and Duvenage and the Louws did an immense amount of off the ball work to cover up habana’s consistent “coming in” off his line to defend the outside shoulder of the second last attacking player instead of leaving him to the outside center…
Swak…
Really
Morne I’d like to hear your perception at the game as mine was on television but every time the ball went laft down the Highlanders line they made metrage and there needed to be scrambling defence to cover for Habana’s coming off his line and inwads… he’s also appearing “selfish” in attack. Not looking for the link but in impossible backing himself to win the foot race… a poor “talent” for a backline player to have.
March 14th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 12:48 pm:
The best period of play for him in attack was when he played at outside center position for a while. Maybe he needs to move back there. This was the period just before Fourie came on.
March 14th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 12:48 pm: Glad i am not the only one, it worries a bit that i don’t know the correct rugby terms for saying things, very frustrating.
I understand when others use the correct terms though, just don’t want to try using them and end up saying the wrong thing.
March 14th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Reply to JT @ 12:09 pm:
I dont feel confident in them at all.
If your mind is not up to the task you will seldomly achieve success.
Their play or lack of quality play started at the end of the S15 last year where they were lucky to beat the saders and had a tough one against the stormers.
It seems that the form in the currie cup translated to the form they exibit now and I feel they lost the plot somewhat.
But hey, I would love to be proven wrong.
March 14th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
It’s ironic the cause of Habana’s lack of ball (other than JDJ’s incapability of passing left) is coming out to defend him…