Habana wants memorable milestone

Bryan Habana hopes to score his 10th try against the Wallabies in his 100th Test for the Springboks.

Habana will on Saturday become the fourth Bok to reach the milestone after Percy Montgomery, John Smit and Victor Matfield.

The wing has played 19 Tests against the Wallabies since 2005, winning nine, losing 10 and scoring nine tries.

'It would be awesome to score my 10th try against Australia in my 100th Test but the contribution I need to give as a senior player who's been there before will be a lot bigger off the field than on it come Saturday,' he said.

'Australia have always been a great team to come up against,' Habana added. 'Our record over the past four years hasn't been as great as we would have liked it to be.

'We had that great victory in Brisbane last year and even though I didn't score a try it was probably one of the most enjoyable ones I've been a part of as a Springbok. I have suffered a 49-0 defeat at the hands of the Wallabies in Brisbane [in 2006].'

Meanwhile, Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie paid tribute to Habana and joked he was happy for the milestone to distract his Bok teammates.

'He's had a stellar career. He's a terrific person and a great contributor. A hundred games is an outstanding achievement.

'I like it when there's milestones because people get distracted,' McKenzie added. 'Hopefully they get all hyped on that, and we'll just run on there and do our business.'

TOP 10 MOST-CAPPED SPRINGBOKS

Victor Matfield 113
John Smit 111
Percy Montgomery 102
Bryan Habana 99
Jean de Villiers 98
Joost van der Westhuizen 89
Bakkies Botha 81
Os du Randt 80
Ruan Pienaar 78
Mark Andrews 77

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Photo: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

Post by

Simon Borchardt