FEATURE: Botha's career was the stuff of legends

Rugby stories are the stuff of legends, and nobody has been spoken about more in South African rugby than Naas Botha.

With the return to nostalgia durin the lockdown, the old jokes have been recycled, and the legends about the golden boot have been replayed. Botha still has many who believe he was the best flyhalf ever produced by South Africa, even though some in the Cape may disagree.

“It’s funny. The longer the lockdown goes, the more people vote for teams and the better I get,” laughs Botha. “It’s a bit tongue in cheek, but it put a smile on my face.”

Botha isn’t a fan of comparing eras, and it is easy to understand why. The different laws, the strides made in training and sports science make today’s athletes very different to those who played in the 70s and 80s.

But few have a career that span three decades and can claim nine Currie Cup titles, 11 finals and a test career that was only shortened due to the lack of international competition during the peak of his career. A massive 280 career drop goals says much about a player who was loved, hated but always feared by opposition.

THE LEGEND OF NAAS BOTHA

Still, there are the stories, the legends that don’t die. One joke talks about Botha meeting a fellow player, and when they introduce themselves, it turned out it was his inside centre. Another talks about how white his shorts were, even during muddy games in New Zealand.

Botha has learnt to laugh at these, even though they resurface from time to time. He had a job to do and, in his time, nobody did it better than him. His coach – the legendary Buurman van Zyl – wanted his general where he could do the most damage and that was with the boot.

“It didn’t really bother me, I was there to do a job. As long as I do my job properly it is fine. I heard a guy mention something where he said everyone goes on about tackling. Buurman had an attitude that he wanted me on my feet,” he explains.

“He used to say if you go down, somebody else is going to get you. It wasn’t anything to do with being scared, but in those days it was the way we played.

“Guys like Robbie Blair, Gavin Cowley, Schalk Naude. Not one of them was this great flyhalf known as a crash tackler. In those days it wasn’t a part of the game. As long as you made sure your direct opponent was tackled, you were fine.

“Buurman also had an attitude that if a lock disappears in a lineout, and the No 2 runs around, his attitude was that our No 2 should tackle him at the back of the lineout, because why are you waiting for someone else to tackle?

“If that guy goes, you go. Tongue in cheek, if a guy like Gert Smal, Moaner van Heerden, Theuns Stoffberg runs straight onto the flyhalf, do you really think you will tackle him hard enough to put him on a stretcher?

“That is never going to happen in any case. We are not comparing. I hate it when people compare eras. You just do your job, and I simply did my job. In those days, perhaps I gather some washing powders were better than others and maybe I just used a better washing powder.

“That’s maybe why my shorts were always clean,” Botha laughs.

DOING A JOB

“I didn’t run onto the field to impress you. I could have slipped and slid into the mud, but for what? I did my job. As long as I did my job – like I expected Uli Schmidt to throw the ball in, I expected Adolf (Malan) to catch the ball. My job was to get points on the board and pin the opposition in the 22. If I did that, who cares about a clean jersey? Not me.”

Botha fondly remembers working with Buurman van Zyl and talks about what made him such a great coach in an era where the focus was much more on players. He begins with the day he was selected – at 19 years of age – for the Bulls.

BUURMAN VAN ZYL

“He approached me on a Saturday and said he was going to select me for Northerns. I really didn’t know much at the time. At that stage you just wanted to play. He put a lot of confidence in me as a person, and I think he was one of the better coaches. Today people look at the technical side of rugby. There are a lot of guys who know a lot technically about the game, but they can’t implement because they don’t have the feel for another human being.

“I always thought that was where Oom Buurman van Zyl was different. When you had a problem – off field issues – he took it on straight. He said if my player is happy off the field, then he will be happy on the field. That was the way he was.

“That was far more important than teaching me the game.

“He was also concerned about fitness. He thought about what would make us better than other teams and it was fitness. We had to run up stairs at the Union Buildings on a Sunday. At the end you played for Buurman.

“The other thing I loved about him was that when a player went through a slump, he would call someone in like Hans Brewis. He was never scared of bringing in somebody else who might know a bit more than him. That for me was clever, because in the end he managed people well.

“Nowadays player management is crucial. But he did it in the 70s, and it wasn’t a surprise that players played for him. He would tell us the press outside will write you off, but he would say ‘I believe in you’. That’s all you want. He played a major part in my career.

“At one point I went through a slump and he called me in and asked what my problem was. I told him I had senior guys on my outside, senior guys on my inside telling me what to do. I’ve got a captain telling me what to do. And I don’t know what to do. He told me to do whatever I felt was right and called the others in and told them to leave this guy alone.”

DALLAS COWBOYS

Though Botha’s career was full of stories, he was targeted more than other players, and it eventually led to his “detour” to America, where he played football for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL before being banned and returning to South Africa as an outcast because he dared to take up professional sport.

“That's what happened at the end of 82/83 and that is why I took a bit of a detour via America. I played the game because I loved it. I was fortunate to have a long career, but I felt I needed to have a change.

“I got late tackled more than the normal guy. If I was in a ruck I knew someone was knocking the nonsense out of me. That was part of the game at the time.”

CAREER OF ACHIEVEMENTS

Still Botha believes he achieved all he wanted to, and while most will know him now as an analyst on SuperSport, his career achievements have seldom been matched.

“In the end I was fortunate to be involved in a series against the British and Irish Lions. I’ve always believed that there are a couple of things a player must achieve in his career. One is the British Lions because it only happens every 12 years. The other is to tour New Zealand, I was very fortunate to do that.

“To win a Currie Cup. I still think it is something. I know things have changed and some of the players nowadays don’t get a chance to win a Currie Cup. In those days that was what we could aim for. I am happy with what I achieved. Here and there you can always look and want something.

“Maybe once or twice there were more opportunities for the ball to go wide, but winning – if you don’t want to win, go do something else.

“I was fortunate enough to play with guys like Danie Gerber, Michael du Plessis, Divan Serfontein, Tommy du Plessis, Gysie Pienaar, Johan Heunis, Ray Mordt. I can go on about good players I had around me. In the end we all achieved what we wanted to achieve in some way.”

And for that reason, Botha will always be a legend in Springbok rugby.