Hendrik Egnatius Botha

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Hendrik Egnatius Botha, commonly known as Naas Botha (born 27 February 1958) is a Northern Transvaal and Springboks former Rugby Union player. Botha mostly played in the flyhalf position and is now a rugby commentator for the South African M-Net and Supersport TV channels.

He was born in the town of Breyten in Transvaal (now in Mpumalanga), South Africa and went to school at the Hendrik Verwoerd High School in Pretoria. As a child, Botha aspired to playing professional baseball and even applied for a sport scholarship in the United States.

However, Botha was selected to play for the South African under-20 rugby team, where he caught the eye of the selectors. As a result, Botha played his first test for the Springboks on 26 April 1980 at the age of 22 in the flyhalf position against South America at Wanderers, Johannesburg.

Botha was best known for extremely accurate (both left- and right-footed) kicking, which earned him the nickname "Nasty Booter" from the British press when the British Lions toured South Africa in 1980. He is best remembered for his abilities as a very successful drop-kicker in high pressure situations and is also considered to have had an outstanding tactical understanding of rugby.

While Botha was sometimes criticized for avoiding physical contact and not running with the ball, his handling of the ball was very deft and he could get his backline moving very quickly with accurate short and long range passing. As a result, he scored many tries and contributed to many more. However, some consider that he was somewhat weak in defence.

Botha remained the highest points scorer in Springbok rugby history for a number of years, with a points total of 312, until July 17, 2004, when his tally was passed by Percy Montgomery. However, Montgomery had to play in many more matches to achieve this feat, while Botha had only played in 28. Many are of the opinion that Botha's score would have been much higher if South African rugby had not been isolated from the rest of the world because of the country's apartheid policies during his prime rugby-playing period.

In addition to his Springbok rugby-playing duties, Botha also played for the Northern Transvaal province (nicknamed the "Blue Bulls") from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. During this period his contributions ensured that they won the Currie Cup six times. He was also captain of the province a record 128 times and scored a record 2,511 points (including 1,699 points in the Currie Cup).

In 1981 Botha travelled with the Springboks to South America; they subsequently beat Ireland and France in their warm-up to their tour of New Zealand. Public opinion was deeply divided over the New Zealand tour, but Botha and his fellow Springboks focused on playing rugby, which was made difficult by actions such as pitch invasions and aircraft fly-bys from protesters opposed to South Africa’s apartheid policies. South Africa lost the series 2-1, but the implications of the tour went far beyond rugby.

As an indirect result of this tour, South Africa was banned by the International Rugby Board from international competition until 1992, which meant apart from hosting the rebel New Zealand Cavaliers tour in 1986, Botha played few international games. Domestically he made up for it, however: in 15 seasons playing for Northern Transvaal he played in 11 Currie Cup finals, winning six and scoring a record 2,511 points.

In the pre-professional era that Botha played in, being paid to play rugby was always a controversial subject. Despite being handsomely paid "under the table", Botha was of the opinion that he could earn more in professional sport and thus he travelled to the United States in 1983 on the invitation of the American Football team the Dallas Cowboys in order to try out as a placekicker. This move was not successful, however, and he returned to South Africa to continue his Rugby career.

In 1987, once again primarily for monetary considerations, Botha moved to the Italian club Rugby Rovigo, where he played 119 games and helped them win two National Championships (in 1988 and 1990).

Botha's career lasted long enough for him to see South Africa let back into the international rugby fold and to play in one-off Tests against World Cup holders Australia and New Zealand. Both games ended in defeat and Botha then toured France with the Springboks before bowing out in a 33-16 defeat on 14 November 1992 at the age of 34 as flyhalf against England at Twickenham, London. He had set countless Springbok records during his rugby career and is still considered to be one of the Springbok "greats".

He is married to Karen, a former Springbok athlete and record-holder; the couple have three daughters. Botha also has a son from a previous relationship.