John Philip "Bakkies" Botha

John Philip “Bakkies” Botha

John Philip “Bakkies” Botha, born 22 September 1979 in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal has had a glittering international career that drew to a close on 22 November 2014.

He will continue to play for his French Club Toulon and has even hinted at retiring in South Africa with the Currie Cup.

In his professional career Botha has won everything there is to win.

With the Blue Bulls he won the Vodacom Cup in 2001 and then went on to add three Currie Cup titles to his name in 2002, 2004 and 2009.

With the Bulls in Super Rugby, Botha was part of the first South African team to lift the trophy in 2007 (in the professional era – with Transvaal winning the Super 10 in 1993), and then again in 2009 and 2010.

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For the Springboks he has won the World Cup in 2007, the Tri-nations in 2004 and 2009 as well as a British and Irish Lions Series Trophy in 2009.

Botha has also picked up the Mandela Challenge plate in 2005 and 2009 against the Wallabies and the Freedom cup against the All Blacks in 2004 and 2009.

For Toulon, Botha won the European cup back-to-back in 2013 and 2014 as well as scooping the Top 14 League in 2014.

A true giant of the game in every sense, it is easy to smile when watching this clip…

 

 

Bakkies Botha, Willie John McBride, Victor Matfield & Heyneke Meyer

Bakkies Botha, Willie John McBride, Victor Matfield & Heyneke Meyer

 

Bakkies Botha & Juan Smith in the streets of Toulon with their home-made BOEREWORS - You can take the BOER out of South Africa but you cannot take South africa out of the BOER!

Bakkies Botha & Juan Smith in the streets of Toulon with their home-made BOEREWORS – You can take the BOER out of South Africa but you cannot take South africa out of the BOER!

 

Bakkies Botha & Bryan Habana having a BRAAI in Toulon, France.

Bakkies Botha & Bryan Habana having a BRAAI in Toulon, France.

170 Responses to A TRIBUTE to Bakkies Botha, the hard man of Rugby

  • 61

    Sometime in the future at the Pearly Gates (circa 2054).

    Knock Knock.

    (Content Removed – violation of site’s code of conduct)

  • 63

    60 @ cane:
    Carry on Whingy Man… you keep doing yourself no favours!

    Whine on, it shines a light on your personality and paints your compatriots with a brush they perhaps do not deserve.

    Well, going on how Hansen whinges too.. makes one think that the brush paints a picture which actually suits!

    Are you Kiwi lot a Nation of bitching and moaning ninnies?

    Grow some balls, like the All Blacks show on the field of play… for goodness sakes!

  • 64

    Fernly………………………………………………….here I come……………………………………………………….into the Outlands.

  • 65

    @ grootblousmile:
    I do apologise for having an opinion,
    and daring to express it.

  • 66

    65 @ cane:
    Express it, let the whinge flow… it’s you who come accross as silly, not me or anybody else here.

  • 67

    grootblousmile wrote:

    well, by ’86 we were already fixing South Africa ourselves…

    **

    Really?
    You have very little insight into what happened in South Africa in 1986; where were you then? Cloistered & insulated in a predominantly privileged white Afrikaner university? Kinda like a modern day Nero whilst our country burned?

    “State of Emergency in the 1980s

    In contrast to the Emergency declared in 1960, the 1985 and 1986 crackdown resulted in more arrests than ever before. On 25 July 1985, President PW Botha declared a state of emergency in 36 of the country’s 260 magisterial districts. Within the first six months of the Emergency, 575 people were killed in political violence – more than half killed by the police. Under the provisions of the Emergency, organisations could be banned and meetings prohibited; the Commissioner of Police could impose restrictions on media coverage of the Emergency; and the names of detained people could not be disclosed. On 5 March 1986 Botha announced that he would lift the Emergency, and on 7 March the announcement was made law.

    The lifting of the Emergency was short-lived as on 12 June 1986 – four days before the 10th Anniversary of the Soweto Uprising – the government declared a country-wide State of Emergency. The crackdown differed from the 1985 Emergency in that it covered the entire national space and was more rigorous: political funerals were restricted, curfews were imposed, certain indoor gatherings were banned and news crews with television cameras were banned from filming in areas where there was political unrest.

    This in essence prevented both national and international news coverage of police brutality and the government’s faltering attempts to contain the wave of social unrest. An estimated 26,000 people were detained between June 1986 and June 1987.”

    **

    The cynical might say that the 1986 State of Emergency was briefly lifted only to facilitate & accommodate the NZ Cavaliers tour … & thereafter it reverted to “business as usual”, but only MORE so …

  • 68

    59 @ Angostura:

    Sir Viv and Ponting imo are the best hookers/pullers in the modern era.

  • 69

    @ grootblousmile:
    “Express it,”.

    I have expressed it.

    And you have Censored it.
    (I am skating on thin ice I know).

    But that joke was not that bad……………………………………………………………many Gio Aplin fans might well even agree with me.

  • 70

    68 @ Jeraldjay:

    Indeed, they were very good

  • 71

    38 @ Jeraldjay:
    Not good news at all, I can only wish him a full & complete recovery.

    Pondering

  • 72

    67 @ Angostura:
    I never indicated the process of change was’nt flawed or without opposition, neither did I indicate that it was immediately accepted… but change was already on the cards.. the direction pointed already, but yeah it certainly was a long and drawn-out sequence of events.

    Where were you Ango… also in South Africa like me or in exile?

    Did you do National Service, or were you a Dodger?

    I did my National Service in 1984 and 1985, and I am proud to have done it. It enriched my life, I did well at what I did during National Service… learning and teaching to shoot down planes, in a proud Defence Force.

    Did you agree or disagree and how did YOU voice your opinion at the time?

    We’re not going to agree on these matters, and whether I was at an Afrikaans University or not, does not make any difference. You do not know my credentials, my stance at the time and neither do I know yours… in fact I do not care for yours at all.

    The problem I have with Whingy Man, is his one-eyed approach and silly disposition on matters.

    Now back to your BOX, Fifi!

  • 73

    69 @ cane:
    I censored a comment of yours which do not belong on Rugby-Talk.

    I removed pityful contents of a stupid attempt at a joke, which could insense religious feeling…

    Nowhere in THAT comment did I sensor YOUR OPINION!

    Your opinion stands, to show how bigoted you are, don’t worry.

    Now run along, you bore me!

  • 74

    67 @ Angostura:
    To cut a long story short…circa 1982 I was “arrested” and fined R30 for being “in a black township without the necessary permit/permission” when I went to visit a colleague in Alexandra Township on a Friday night…

    Was detained for about three hours including being left alone in a room at a police station with what looked like an Uzzi left lying on a counter…

    Not good days those.

  • 75

    @ grootblousmile:

    “The problem I have with Whingy Man………………..”

    Do you not think that perhaps as……………. “Convenor” ………………………of this marvellous site, that you should be encouraging diverse opinion, instead of chasing it away?

    Just a random thought.

    (and I know a smilie will not help me).

  • 76

    75 @ cane:
    I said you can have your opinion.. as long as you do not overstep the bounds that this site sets, for clear and good measure.

    Your pityful joke was not in THAT spirit.

    Once again, it is YOU who paint your personality, not me, Whingy Man!

    As “Convenor” of this site, it certainly does not mean I have to stand for absolute bullshit and twaddle.

    For more than 5 years I have pointed direction and set the rules here, it will continue to be so!

  • 77

    Caner seems to have watched rather a lot of the Cavalier your for someone who was boycotting it.

    Typical two-faced kiwi behaviour.

    😆

  • 78

    @ gunther:
    Never seen 1 minute of footage.
    Unless it was on the sports news on TV.

    But, I did read the newspapers.

    The Cavaliers can go to hell……………………………………………………along with those who financed them.

  • 79

    @ cane:

    Which newspapers where those?
    The kiwi ones?

    I see.

    😆

  • 80

    @ cunther:
    Well obviously I was not reading The Jerusalem Post at the time cunther.

  • 81

    @ cane:

    No doubt it possessed the same degree of objectivity as the Jerusalem Post.

    Which eye were you reading it through?

    😆

  • 82

    Here’s what Frik du Preez says about Bakkies Botha:

    Former Springbok lock Frik du Preez says Bakkies Botha is a legend of South African rugby.

    Botha, 35, announced his retirement from international rugby at the weekend.

    He made his Springbok debut on November 9, 2002 against France in Marseille, while his 85th and final appearance for South Africa was against England at Twickenham earlier this month.

    “Bakkies played a major role in Springbok rugby. You need a guy in your team of which the opponents are wary of,” Du Preez, who was named South Africa’s rugby player of the previous century, said.

    “We have a few good young locks at the Boks and Bakkies said he doesn’t want to stand in their way. I have a lot of respect for his decision and who knows, maybe his body told him it’s time to say farewell.”

    During a stellar career, Botha won the Rugby World Cup with the Springboks in 2007 and was victorious at almost every other level of the game.

    He has winners’ medals from the Rugby Championship (Tri-Nations), British & Irish Lions Series, Super Rugby, Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup, as well as the Heineken Cup and French Top 14.
    Botha is the seventh most-capped Springbok of all time, is a three-time SA Rugby Player of the Year nominee (2003, 2004 and 2005) and holds the world record for the most Tests as a lock combination in the starting line-up with Victor Matfield (63).

  • 83

    The Bakkies thread has produced quote a bit of niggle.

    He’d be chuffed to the bollocks.

  • 84

    I assume Poops is in some kind of harness sanctioned by the Mental Health Practioners Guild otherwise he’d also be here frothing at the mouth.

    😆

  • 85

    @ grootblousmile:
    Frik the Prick.

    Another King Hitter……………………………………………in 1970 he took out Chris Laidlaw.

    Meet the new Bok,
    Same as the old Bok.

  • 86

    @ gunther:
    Where there is niggle …..there is life.

  • 87

    I was never in exile, & I am a proud & loyal South African.
    During my national military service, & before my 19th birthday I was commissioned a SADF officer & later also served as such in the Citizen Force.

    Unlike you I actively campaigned for & voted NO in the 1st Referendum – I did so because I did not support (1) futile, expensive, “head in the sand” window dressing that would merely prolong the suffering & injustice of Apartheid; (2) political co-option as (demeaning 2nd class citizens) of certain races/peoples in the “new dispensation” with as quid pro quo the dispensing of patronage to them, whilst reinforcing the effective disenfranchisement of the majority of our countrymen based on racial grounds & downright prejudice & selfishness.
    Throughout the 80s I also campaigned & served as an office bearer of a political party strenuously opposed to the government of the day.
    I am older than you, & (incidentally also since my 19th birthday), I have voted on every (election/referendum) opportunity available to me. I have consequently voted more often than you, but never (to this day) for the ruling party of this country.

    More particularly as regards the mid 80s State of Emergency, due to the particular nature of my then employment , my active political involvement & also my personal contact with friends at an NGO, I became privy to in depth information from BOTH sides of the struggle that was for most others concealed/withheld/manipulated/censored/sanitised:
    The government of the day & its co-opted cronies were most certainly NOT fixing South Africa then – nor did they intend to.

  • 88

    Caner my old mate.

    The history books are riddled with examples of kiwi filth.

    I suggest you move your moonshine still out of its greenhouse before it gets flattened by a meteorite.

  • 89

    @ Angostura:
    From an outsiders viewpoint Angostura……………………………………………….Apartheid had many victims. Both the whites too frightened to change. And the blacks with no other choice.

    But all were/are victims just the same.

    I acknowledge I have no right to post on this matter.

  • 90

    Sorry
    post #87 a riposte to GBS’ #post 72

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