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Johannesburg - Props are not known for their speed but Springbok front-ranker BJ Botha would have rivaled Usain Bolt when he answered the Boks’ SOS last week.
The Ulster-based Botha was on a short holiday in Durban when the call came to join the squad after CJ van der Linde pulled a hamstring against Saracens.
“Last Thursday was one of the fastest days in my life,” Botha said. “One moment I was on holiday and the next I was Udine in Italy joining up with the Bok squad.
“When I got the call I was driving home from a friends house after watching the Saracens game on television. I got the call and suddenly had to move quickly to get to Italy. My family was in Durban with me and I had to leave them behind and jump on a plane.”
Botha will start against Ireland at Croke Park on Saturday – his first start since the second Test against Wales in June 2008.
“I was always hopeful that I might play Test rugby again but I didn’t really think about it at all,” Botha said. “It was a huge surprise to get the call-up because I’d mentally put my Test career on hold.”
Botha came off the bench against Italy last week and made an immediate impact on the game as the scrum stabilised with John Smit moving back to hooker.
The emphasis on scrumming in the northern hemisphere is one of the reasons Botha’s inclusion, and that of Leinster-based Van der Linde on the bench, should be massively beneficial to the Boks on Saturday.
“The amount of scrums per game is about double what you encounter in the southern hemisphere,” Botha said. “Because of the wet weather set phases are definitely more important here than in the southern hemisphere.
“I’m learning something new every weekend because I play against international players on a weekly basis. They might be from Georgia or Romania but they are strong guys and it has been a great learning curve for me.”
Botha was careful not to be too critical of the Bok scrum, which as suffered on this tour at times.
“A scrum is a collective eight-man effort and it takes time for it to become a strong unit,” he said. “I’ve not been a part of the camp so I can’t say what the problem has been, but I do know that the scrum has to be a cohesive and collective effort.
“We want to show everyone that we can scrum and if we can start where we left off last week we hope to carry that through against Ireland.”
The Ulster-based Botha was on a short holiday in Durban when the call came to join the squad after CJ van der Linde pulled a hamstring against Saracens.
“Last Thursday was one of the fastest days in my life,” Botha said. “One moment I was on holiday and the next I was Udine in Italy joining up with the Bok squad.
“When I got the call I was driving home from a friends house after watching the Saracens game on television. I got the call and suddenly had to move quickly to get to Italy. My family was in Durban with me and I had to leave them behind and jump on a plane.”
Botha will start against Ireland at Croke Park on Saturday – his first start since the second Test against Wales in June 2008.
“I was always hopeful that I might play Test rugby again but I didn’t really think about it at all,” Botha said. “It was a huge surprise to get the call-up because I’d mentally put my Test career on hold.”
Botha came off the bench against Italy last week and made an immediate impact on the game as the scrum stabilised with John Smit moving back to hooker.
The emphasis on scrumming in the northern hemisphere is one of the reasons Botha’s inclusion, and that of Leinster-based Van der Linde on the bench, should be massively beneficial to the Boks on Saturday.
“The amount of scrums per game is about double what you encounter in the southern hemisphere,” Botha said. “Because of the wet weather set phases are definitely more important here than in the southern hemisphere.
“I’m learning something new every weekend because I play against international players on a weekly basis. They might be from Georgia or Romania but they are strong guys and it has been a great learning curve for me.”
Botha was careful not to be too critical of the Bok scrum, which as suffered on this tour at times.
“A scrum is a collective eight-man effort and it takes time for it to become a strong unit,” he said. “I’ve not been a part of the camp so I can’t say what the problem has been, but I do know that the scrum has to be a cohesive and collective effort.
“We want to show everyone that we can scrum and if we can start where we left off last week we hope to carry that through against Ireland.”
