Thursday, 23rd August 2007 at 11:35 am

Bryan Habana: Skinstad desciple?

The most famous tongue in rugby has been somewhat inconspicuous since its return to South African rugby, Bob Skinstad’s aesthetic trademark apparently confined to younger days (remember the American Swiss advert, with the diamond tongue stud?). But if Wednesday’s training is anything to go by, there could be a pretender to Skinstad’s throne…

Bryan Habana is very much the darling today that Skinstad was a decade ago (albeit slightly more popular in Pretoria than Bob was), and Feverpitcher reckons he’s a natural heir to the Skinstad signature. It might not have the flourish of a Paulse sommersault, or the panache of a De Villiers salute, but the Habana tongue, on this evidence, certainly brings back memories of a young Skinstad. Here’s to seeing plenty of it in France, as the quickest man in the game burns up more opposition defence.