South Africa‘s record try-scorer Bryan Habana has named Pieter-Steph du Toit as the greatest Springbok of all time, insisting nobody can match what the flanker has achieved with the team and on his own.
Habana, a World Cup winner in 2007 who scored 67 tries in 124 Tests, was speaking to former Wales fly-half Dan Biggar on The Rugby Pod, in an episode published on 12 November.
Du Toit has 103 caps and is due to start at No 7 against France at the Stade de France on Friday 13 November.
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‘Can’t look further’
Biggar told his guest “this may be I don’t know, maybe an easy question or a really hard question” before asking for the greatest Springbok of all time.
“I can’t judge on people pre-95,” Habana said. “… it was in the unprofessional, in the amateur era. South Africa weren’t in the international scene for 10 years.
“… but purely based on achievements within a team and personally you can’t look further than Pieter-Steph.
“I think to go through what he’s gone through in the course of his career, almost had a career-ending injury in 2015, came back at World Cup final in 2019, 28 tackles, that’s mind-blowing.
“To then become the first South African rugby player to win South African rugby player of the year three or four times in a row, become the world player of the year twice, like, and to have such a long career, to be a centurion, back-to-back World Cups.
“I look at all the generations that we’ve had and purely on achievements, Pieter-Steph du Toit, without a doubt.”
Du Toit’s record
The 28 tackles in fact came in the 2023 final, a 12–11 win over New Zealand at the Stade de France in which Du Toit was player of the match.
He was SA Rugby Player of the Year in 2016, 2018 and 2019, and the only other three-time winner since 1992 is Habana himself, in 2005, 2007 and 2012.
The flanker was World Rugby Player of the Year in 2019 and 2024, the first South African to win it twice, and has won two World Cups. His 100th Test came on 29 August 2026, a 33–26 win over New Zealand in Cape Town.
‘Not a lot of fun’
Biggar agreed.
“Hard to argue with that one, I have to say,” Biggar replied. “And I was on, I was, I’ve been on the end of a few of those tackles from Pieter-Steph … that is not a lot of fun, I can assure you.”
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