Good Day
For Julian Savea as Bryan Habana, one of his greatest rivals, paid the heartiest of tributes to the All Black winger’s achievement in matching his record eight tries at a single World Cup.
That mark was originally set by Jonah Lomu and Habana is also tied with Lomu for the overall tournament record haul of 15 but when he reached that mark he noted that it had taken him three tournaments to get there compared with Lomu’s two which, in its way, makes the eight try haul that Savea has the better chance of improving upon this time around, the more impressive effort.
“I have complete respect for Julian Savea,” said the veteran Springbok.
“He has been playing unbelievable rugby for three seasons now. When he first got that All Blacks jumper there were doubts about his ability but you can see the way he has come on in leaps and bounds over three years and especially over this tournament.
“There have been comparisons with him and the great Jonah Lomu and if you look at the try-scoring feats, he went past Jonah (in all Tests) this weekend as well. He is not only physical, not only got unbelievable pace, but has improved his all-round game. The way he works off his wing, his kicking game has improved.
“I put out on social media on Saturday, for him to have equalled my and Jonah's number of tries in one World Cup is incredibly special and due reward for someone who has shown himself a global superstar.”
Bad Day
Habana was also eloquent in paying tribute to teacher, rugby coach and passionate rugby supporter Zukisa Kela, one of the victims of the latest dreadful day in his country’s recent history.
“On behalf of the Springboks and South Africa rugby, to Zukisa Kela and his family for the tragedy that happened in South Africa, our thoughts and prayers are with you. To be able to see the support and passion he had for the Springboks makes the reason we play this game, the reason we play for South Africa, so much more special.
“To his family and friends, his school, we are thinking of you, you are in our prayers. Hopefully we can continue doing our country proud. We can bring the country together, unite the country. Thinking of everyone back home and from a Springbok point of view we hope to instil some pride back in this jersey.
“His last words (to his headmaster) were 'Viva, ama Bokoboko, viva' (long live the Springboks, long live) - that pride and passion he showed in his last moment was pretty special. We as Springboks are sorry to hear about it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here