Bullish Bakkies on the super South African Toulon love affair

Bakkies Botha epitomises everything that made Toulon the best club team in Europe for three successive years.

Botha wants to see more of the same from Toulon in this season’s Investec Champions Cup; a tournament he believes to be the best club competition in the world because of the quality of players and variety of styles.

Botha, the original ‘Enforcer’ during his playing days for the Springboks and Bulls in South Africa, earned the nickname ‘The Butcher’ at Toulon’s home base the Stade Mayol because he made sure opponents bled.

Botha, in numerous interviews and speaking engagements, always talks about the blessing of finishing his career at Toulon, being part of the Toulon history makers, who won three successive Investec Champions Cup titles, and added a Top 14 gold in the same period.

The quality of the Toulon squad was akin to a Barbarians line-up. All Blacks tighthead Carl Hayman was someone Botha wanted to experience as a teammate and not an opponent or, to quote Botha, ‘an enemy’.

There was the influence of England icon Jonny Wilkinson, the English Armitage brothers (fullback Delan and loose-forward Stefffon), the skills of Wallabies centre Matt Giteau and winger Drew Mitchell, the strength of England prop Andrew Sheridan, the initial unfamiliarity of locking a scrum with All Blacks lock Ali Williams, for so many years among those Botha rugby enemies, and there was a host of South Africans who all left the Toulon jersey in a healthier place when they arrived.

Joe van Niekerk is South Africa’s Toulon pioneer. Van Niekerk, who played 52 Tests for the Springboks, captained Toulon and played 122 matches for the club. He and Wilkinson were the first two foreign players to be inducted into Toulon’s initial eight-strong Hall of Famers, along with French favourites Marcel Bailette, Marcel Bodrero, Christian Carrere, Andre Herrero, Eric Champ and Jerome Gallion.

Van Niekerk led a group of the most inspiring Springboks at Toulon, which included World Cup winners Botha, utility lock and loose-forward Danie Rossouw, loose-forward Juan Smith and winger Bryan Habana.

Craig Burden (hooker) and Michael Classens (scrumhalf) were other South Africans who enjoyed success during the Botha Toulon era, but Botha says the common denominator was how each foreigner embraced Toulon as their home.

In addition to those foreigners mentioned were Wales’s Leigh Halfpenny, magnificent with the boot in the last of the three Investec Champions Cup finals wins, All Blacks loose-forward Chris Masoe, Italy’s flamboyant prop Martin Castrogiovanni and Argentinean loose-forward Fernandez Lobbe.

‘We may have arrived from different countries, having been international enemies for a long time, but the Toulon jersey made us brothers and teammates. We played for Toulon, as if we had been born there and I know the supporters could feel our love for them, the jersey and the history of the club. They knew we did not come for a pension pay-out,’ said Botha, who has often been critical of foreign-based players going to Toulon in recent years and not sharing a similar passion for the jersey.

Botha, whose career included 73 matches for Toulon, 153 for the Bulls and 85 Tests for the Springboks, added: ‘Big name players come with a big reputation to Toulon, but a player must earn the respect of your teammates and the opposition with your performance and that way the player earns the love of the people, who are fanatical about the team.’

Botha is thrilled that South African rugby supporters will get to experience Toulon and the other French and English teams in the Investec Champions Cup, starting with Toulon’s match against the DHL Stormers on Saturday.

Toulon, this season, are fourth in France’s Top 14, with seven league wins in 11 starts.  They have won their last three matches and arrive in South Africa with form and optimism.

Coach John Dobson’s Stormers are two from six in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship and had to move the match to the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) because of a clash of dates with the World Sevens Series.