Great Bok moments: A look back at Bryan Habana's best tries

Habana had an incredible professional rugby career spanning the best part of 15 years, playing for the likes of the Lions, Bulls, Stormers, Toulon and, of course, the Springboks.

He won the 2007 World Cup in the Green and Gold and was one of the players of the tournament. He equalled Jonah Lomu's record of eight tries in a single World Cup in the 1999 event and then levelled the New Zealander's record for all-time World Cup tries when he scored another seven in 2007 to bring his total to 15.

He is also second in the list of all-time Test try scorers with 67 five-pointers, behind Daisuke Ohata of Japan of 69 but well ahead of the next South African on the list - Joost van der Westhuizen who scored 38 Test tries.

Snatching the 2007 Super Rugby title

Bulls fans thought the 2007 Super Rugby final against local rivals the Sharks was over after Albert van den Berg scored a late try for the coastal side to bring the score to 19-13.

However, Habana stepped up to score one of the more memorable and talked about tries in the tournament's history.

After receiving the ball from his scrumhalf in open play, the pacey winger immediately stepped off his right foot to cut back infield but this wasn't a simple sidestep, he ran sideways to his left - something rugby coaches tell young wingers never to do - but it magically opened up a gaping hole in the Sharks defence, which Habana dutifully sliced through.

While the try and subsequent conversion did it win the match for the Bulls, there were some questions about the legality of the try after it appeared that Habana had run behind one of his own players, potentially obstructing any potential defenders.

Four-try blitz against Samoa

Looking to get their 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign off to a flying start, the Springboks faced up against Samoa in their first match of the tournament.

On paper, this comes across as an easy matchup for the Springboks but, over the years, fixtures against the Pacific Island nations have always proved tricky - especially at major World Rugby tournaments.

Added to that is the fact that Samoa often makes it very difficult for opposition backlines to operate with some heavy-handed defensive tactics.

However, on 9 September 2007, Habana had other ideas as he put Samoa to the sword almost singlehandedly by scoring four tries across the 80 minutes.

In three of the four tries he had to break through multiple tackles to get to the line and the final touchdown was a show of his incredible pace down the left wing showcasing his skill, strength and speed.

Habana's favourite

When it comes to a player who has scored as many important and incredible tries as Bryan Habana, there will always be endless debate about which one was the best.

While we pointlessly debate that fact among ourselves, Habana knows which one he thinks is the best try he ever scored and posted a clip of it to X a few years ago.

He captioned the video by saying: âœEasily the best try I have ever scored. Chipping at 37.8km/h was always a bit of a lottery.â

Try of the Year

Habana has had countless moments of individual brilliance for his teams over the years but this one stands out for several reasons.

The first and foremost is that it was for the Springboks against their arch-rivals the All Blacks in the 2012 Rugby Championship. It was also away from home, in New Zealand at the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.

Finally, it was recognised by World Rugby as the 2012 Try of the Year, making Bryan Habana just the second South African to receive the award after Jacque Fourie won it in 2009. Francois Hougaard added his name to the list in 2014.

Coming from a lineout, scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar was left reeling after being knocked down but somehow managed to offload the ball to an on-rushing Habana.

The winger took the ball at speed and broke the first tackle to find himself in acres of space. Facing the final defender, he put in a deft little chip to beat the man and race towards the line before regathering the ball and scoring a truly sensational try.

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