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Bobby Skinstad names his hardest man in rugby and it's not Bakkies
By Liam Heagney
Former Springboks skipper Bobby Skinstad has named his hardest man in rugby… and it’s not the feared Bakkies Botha, the South African second row who sent a shiver down the spine of numerous players around the world during his pomp.
The 47-year-old Skinstad was the guest on episode 230 of Eventful Lives with Dodge Woodall, the founder of the famed Bournemouth 7s Festival which is set to be staged on May 24-26.
The 85-minute podcast interview compellingly covered a myriad of topics, ranging from racism, Nelson Mandela, and whether Siya Kolisi could make a post-playing career in South African politics.
As the conversation neared the end, Woodall asked Skinstad to name his hardest man in rugby.
It left the former Springboks back-rower painfully casting his mind back to the time when he tackled an out-half and ended up in Cape Town’s Claremont Hospital. Henry Honiball was the culprit who poleaxed him.
“There are always stories about Bakkies Botha because he was just a big beast of a man and I love him because he lived that persona as well,” began Skinstad. “I wouldn’t say he is a softie off the field but he did enjoy the physical side of it.
“He would always look for opportunities to hurt someone and then enjoy it afterwards and tell you about it and it would be a fun thing.
"But the hardest man I ever played with or against was a guy called Henry Honiball, who was an Afrikaans guy who played fly-half for the Sharks and South Africa and his nickname was ‘Lem’ which is Afrikaans for blade which I didn’t do the maths on.
“I did a pick-and-go playing for Western Province and I thought, ‘Okay there is the 10, that’s easy. I have got past the flank. I’ll just drop a shoulder on him and we will either get an offload or we get momentum in attack as long as I got over the advantage line’.
“I dropped my shoulder and he came in to hit between your elbow and your shoulder. I thought, ‘Okay, I got that’. Dropped the shoulder and ended up in the Claremont general hospital from a shoulder-level tackle from a fly-half.”
Skinstad finished the story by referencing the 1998 win by the Springboks over the All Blacks in Wellington, the first time South Africa had won in New Zealand in 17 years. “Then I played with him against the All Blacks and they made a circle around him.
“We beat New Zealand in New Zealand and he was man of the match and we just made a circle around him. Just looked at him because he couldn’t speak English properly and they weren’t going to venture into Afrikaans.
“For them, it’s a big respect thing if someone has beaten them, so you have Jeff Wilson, Andrew Mehrtens, all these guys around, and they were just like looking at him, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay’, a big circle of head nodding and then they just wandered off.”
- Click here to listen to Bobby Skinstad on Eventful Lives with Dodge Woodall
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Latest Comments
At least he no longer writes articles related to the All Blacks. The suggestion with these ratings is that the ABs have a lot more left in the tank... Which is nonsense, this was a nail biter of a test of the highest standard and both sides we're going at it hammer and tongs. As is often the case in rugby, the team that managed to score the most tries won.
Go to commentsWho, the ABs? Oh for sure, they punched above their weight in that cup, but also had got a lot better than anyone had thought they could (except perhaps SAn's) well out from the WC (to the point where you were disappointed not to win it). Then they've probably done the most post analyzing of their RWCs in the past, due to all their failures, they knew how to maximize their itinerary and that first game against France was of less importance than any one off test was against. At least a test like this weekends had meaning, even if it's not surrounded by any overarching point. That first match in the RWC though, along with the Ireland v SA game, were totally meaningless. Everyone already knew they were only going to be up against each other, and that's why NZ were only at around 70% during it.
So you're quite right, it was pointless to make as much out of it as this author did. The same pretty much goes for 2 years prior as well, because that's obviously before the above happened. NZ were at least trying very hard in that game, and although it needed some Ntamack magic at the end, France looked pretty comfortable, or should I say, NZ very poor. That picture obviously turned around this year, but still with that fabulous French flair scoring some crazy tries to win it again.
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