On a wing and a prayer as Bowe and Habana clash
It certainly conjures up special memories of the Lions-Springboks Test series of last summer when these two smashing wingers came into direct opposition at great rugby venues like Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria and Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
Whereas Habana was already a household name in the rugby world when the Lions touched down in South Africa, Bowe was still relatively unknown outside of Ireland and parts of South Wales where he now plies his trade with the Ospreys. By the end of the series, however, Bowe had established himself as a world-class number 14 and if anything had enjoyed an edge over his illustrious rival.
Habana hasn’t had a great tour so far and was a tad fortunate to escape without some censure after being cited for an incident in the Springboks defeat by France. So he will be extremely anxious to end the tour and the season with a big performance.
Bowe, of course, will be all out to prevent that happening. The 25- year-old Monaghan born, 6 ft 3 inch, 14 stone 7 lbs winger knows only too well what it will take to stop Habana.
“Without a doubt, there’s still a huge feeling of what could have been on the Lions tour and what we left behind in South Africa,” he admits. “It seemed like everything was going so well, everyone got on so well and the rugby was good. But the main thing was that we didn’t come away with the Test series.
“Yeah, it was a great season of rugby for me personally but I still have a big regret that we didn’t get that win in the Test series. Now, having them over to our home patch in Croke Park, where we had such a good season last year, I think the pressure is on us to perform and to rise to the challenge. Obviously they’re a fantastic side, they’re very well drilled.
“With their tactics they don’t do anything out of this world but they’re a very physical side. They do the basics very well and try to take teams on. So they obviously have that down to a tee, they did play well in the Tri Nations with those same tactics and it’s something we know we’ll have to combat. Above all, we don’t want to be bullied on our home patch.
The Irish squad have spent much of the last week studying the video of the France-South Africa game in Toulouse a few weeks ago and believe they can repeat that result if they get stuck into the tourists from the kick-off. !
“You could see from the stats that the French tactic was to get into them straightaway, whether it was on or off the ball which I suppose is using the South African tactics on them,” he says. “It was good to see that and the French held out in the end for the win. It’s very important for us to be right in the game after 60 minutes. If we can do that, we can have a shot.
“For the Southern Hemisphere teams who come over here, the big game is against the Irish, and I think the Boks will have been targeting this one. They will have been very disappointed with the French match, that was another huge game for them, but coming up against us I think they would have pointed to that as their big game and we have to bill it as our big game as well.”
Nobody needs reminding at this stage of the allegations of bad blood between the Irish and South Africans in the last two meetings of t1he countries in 2004 and ‘06 (both of which Ireland won) and things were also less than harmonious during the Irish-dominated Lions tour.
“I wouldn’t have thought there was any bad blood personally. Obviously, we were very disappointed with the way the Tests went. It’s very rare for us, obviously once in every four years, to take them on and we didn’t take our chance over there. Maybe people might have been a bit disappointed with the way we held to ourselves after games but we had a lot to concentrate on, to pick ourselves up for the following week.
“And after the third test I know we were mad keen to get on the beer. I hope after the match this weekend, again obviously it’s going to be confrontational and a real challenge at the start of the game and throughout the match, but I’m sure we’ll definitely hang around for a few beers afterwards and hopefully they’ll join us.”
And so to tomorrow’s challenge posed for Bowe by Habana.
“He’s obviously a world class player but I won’t be getting too worried about it,” he states. “I’ve played against plenty of world class wingers and alongside Shane Williams with the Ospreys so it’s not really anything to think about, really. It’s the same as coming up against any international winger. I look at their game, look at what different traits they have and look at ways I can play against them.
“But it’s not really often you get one on one with your opposite winger. I know Habana likes to come infield a lot looking for the ball and I like to do the same, so we’ll see.”
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