Ex-prop explains the ‘essence’ of what made Jake White’s 2007 Springboks ‘special’
The Springboks celebrate their 2007 Rugby World Cup win
Former Springboks tighthead BJ Botha has paid tribute to the visualisation adopted by Jake White in the lead-up to South Africa winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
The Boks had fallen from grace in 2003, getting trounced by the All Blacks in a Melbourne quarter-final after a preparation dogged by the controversial goings-on at Kamp Staaldraad.
Four years later, though, with White having taken over the reins from Rudolph Straeuli, the Boks managed to beat all-comers at France 2007, lifting the trophy after defeating Fiji, Argentina and England in the knock-out stages of the seven-match campaign.
Botha, who won 25 Test caps across his five-year international career, didn’t feature in the latter stages of the tournament as he tore knee ligaments in South Africa’s final pool match against the United States. But he has now looked back fondly on an experience where the sense of brotherhood forged under head coach White was special in getting the Springboks over the line.
“The pressure almost got to me…”
Still based in Ireland, where he emigrated to play with Ulster and Munster before he retired from playing, the now 45-year-old Botha jogged his memory when appearing on The Business End, the podcast co-hosted by ex-London Irish front-rowers Liam Mooney and Justin Fitzpatrick.
Botha recalled the pressure he felt at the time to get himself in place for selection for the 2007 tournament and gave kudos to the visionary way White went about his business of moulding his winning squad.
“The pressure almost got to me, the fact is that you have an opportunity to be part of something special,” said the former prop, who now runs a scrum coaching consultancy.
“In that 2007 group, you felt it was a really special group not only because it was South Africa, that Super Rugby final we [the Sharks] played against the Bulls that they unfortunately beat us in the last minute with Bryan Habana’s try, which still sits in the back of my mind, both those teams was the core of that Springboks group and we were facing each other.
“Looking back now, you look back at the pressure you put yourself under as an individual but also us as a group. We didn’t have great results in 2006 at all in the Tri-Nations, so we were thinking about where we were at. I suppose the one thing Jake White always did very well was bring it back to the big picture in the changing room, where are we going to be in October 2007?
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“What is the mental aspect? What are we looking at mentally? Every time. We lost to Australia, lost to New Zealand, and we brought it in again. Even though we were disappointed, and we had to fix what had happened, we still brought it into, ‘Guys, it’s the long game here’.
“Pressure-wise, you wanted to be part of that group, so I was putting myself under pressure playing for the Sharks. I had a big neck injury in 2006 as well, and I had to go for surgery. So, you’re asking questions of yourself, are you going to make it back into the squad, what’s going to happen, all the sort of stuff as a professional player you deal with.
“So, a lot of pressure there, and once you were in the World Cup, now it’s about staying there, playing in the games, being the No.1, staying in the World Cup and being there hopefully at the end. We really did believe. Looking at the culture, we really believed that we could go all the way.
“It’s easy to say now in hindsight, but we really did as a group. We felt that if we played like we could, we’d get to the end and give ourselves a good chance to be in the final – and that’s all we needed to do. That brotherhood is a special group of players.
“We are still in touch now in a group. We wish each other well with everything, from being fathers to having successful businesses and supporting guys who need support. A really special group because we experienced something that we only realise now, down the road, how special that is.
“I find myself very fortunate, privileged to be part of that group. It has given me multiple opportunities in my rugby, but also in life. But coming back to the end when the final whistle blew, I tell people there was really a sense of relief lifted just saying, ‘It is done now. It’s a relief that all the building up over the years is done now. We’ll celebrate later, but we just want to take a minute to release what we had been holding in all this time’.”
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Pressed to elaborate on White’s influence, Botha added: “There is no doubt that visualisation was massive. You felt it was not only the players, but it was the support staff, the physios, the doctor, assistant coaches, everyone. We even had a wristband made, and it said something like ‘Believe 48’ or ‘Believe 53’.
“That was the number of our squad, and we had it on our wristband before and during the campaign, and the families had it as well. That whole visualisation, that we can see what we are looking at long term if we keep ourselves present.
“We understood where we were going, but we kept ourselves present. It was going to take a squad, going to take a team. That is, in essence, what is so special about a campaign like that, a special World Cup. We might have a guy who played 10 minutes, but he gives that player who went off time to maybe prepare for the next game, I don’t know.
“There were no questions around the individual effort… it was that whole visualisation that was brought in by the coaches and the players bought into it.”
Later in the 76-minute podcast, Botha touched on the impact White had on him with the Springboks, but he also mentioned the influence the late Anthony Foley had on him at Munster.
“Jake White gave me my opportunity, and he was great. He still had to build that coaching staff and was smart enough to bring some skilled coaches along the way and build a team culture with great players, but he also had that visual of where we wanted to go.
“At Munster, Axel Foley was really close to me as a coach. He loved the forwards stuff. He was just a hard man, loved the maul, loved the scrum. Real hands-on as a coach… He was one of the coaches that stood out to me as, put your body on the line as a player and he’ll do the same as a coach. It resonated with the players.”
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