Elton can take a leaf from the life of Bryan

Former Bok flyer Habana was also in a slump but his career took off again

05 July 2022 - 17:12
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Springbok wing Bryan Habana spoke of the highs and lows that tracked his career.
Springbok wing Bryan Habana spoke of the highs and lows that tracked his career.
Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

His substitution at Loftus Versfeld and now omission from the Springbok squad for the second Test against Wales in Bloemfontein have raised questions about Elton Jantjies’ ability to bounce back and restore his Test credentials.

Jantjies was the easy-to-find target in a Springbok first half littered with miscreants in the first Test, and though his substitution under the cover of the half-time break would have spared him potential booing from the stands, it would still have stung nonetheless.

Jantjies did not crack the nod for the second Test as Bok coach Jacques Nienaber opted to restore Handré Pollard to the No 10 jersey and hand him the captain’s armband for the Test.

Jantjies didn’t make the bench either as the Boks will go into battle with a six-two forwards-to-backs configuration.

If the left-footed flyhalf wanted to draw solace from his ignominious exit he would do well to look at the example of Bryan Habana who was booed from the venue the Boks are due to play at on Saturday.

Jantjies’ story will resonate with Habana.

Back in 2010 the left wing, a veteran of 65 Tests going into that one in Bloemfontein, was also weighed down by a lack of confidence. The Boks suffered their fifth Tri-Nations defeat in six matches as they went down 41-39 to the Wallabies thanks to a last-gasp Kurtley Beale penalty.

In his role now as mentor in electronic company Ryobi’s Africa Won’t Quit Crew programme, Habana was asked how he bounced back from adversity when he represented the Springboks. He takes his mentorship to emerging sportspeople seriously and almost immediately admitted he had many moments from which to bounce back.

“Every professional athlete has to go through the highs and the lows to get to the top. I was fortunate enough to play in over 100 Tests. In 2010 I was booed off the Free State Stadium by 40-odd thousand SA fans. It wasn’t as if I wasn’t working hard, but there was a slump in form and things weren’t as ideal as I was hoping they could be.

“You sacrifice and dedicate everything for the badge on your chest then to know everything you’ve been doing isn’t appreciated by those who you had been doing it for.

“To be booed knowing how much effort you’ve been putting in and how much you’ve had to overcome to be there leaves you in a pretty dark space.”

Habana, though, possessed the self-awareness and nous to diagnose and address problem areas. He also had a Springbok coach with whom he built a special bond from Under-21 level.

“Bar the off-the-field things that were going on in my life I was extremely fortunate to have someone like Peter de Villiers. It made me self-reflect, and I reminded myself what I wanted to achieve and allowed me to get the right tools.

“I got Sherylle Calder [sport scientist who specialises in improving vision] back to help me with some of the basic stuff. I also got Jacques [Nienaber] and Rassie Erasmus to look at certain aspects of my defensive game that allowed me to improve,” he said of his franchise coaches at the Stormers.

If there are parallels in the plight of Habana and Jantjies it is that both suffered a slump in confidence just more than a year before a World Cup.

Habana went without a try, the currency in which he dealt so effortlessly, from late June 2010 when the Boks beat Italy to September 2011 when they played their third match of the World Cup campaign.

De Villiers had backed him and it paid off as the left wing was the only try scorer in the next game — a nervy 13-5 win over a fired up and highly abrasive Samoa in North Harbour.

Habana went on to play 58 more Tests after he was booed off the field in Bloemfontein and eventually dropped the curtain on his Test career with a record 67 tries for the Boks.

He explained that he had the right people in his corner, and all Jantjies can hope for now is that the same applies to him.


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