Sharks legend Jacques Botes has been contracted as part of Burger van der Westhuizen’s coaching staff for the upcoming club rugby competitions, which – given his abundance of experience – can prove to be an astute signing.

Providence was kind to South Africa’s loose forwards in the first two decades of the 21st century, but the opposite is true for Botes’s career.

Blessed with pace, intuition and an indefatigable work rate, Botes was an institution at Kings Park, where he represented the Sharks 115 times (135 points) in Super Rugby and a record 135 times in the Currie Cup (247 points). The sight of Botes showing nothing but heels en route for another tearaway try was a common sight in Durban between 2005 and 2014. Had he played in another era or in another country, he undoubtedly would have racked up a few international caps.

However, luck proved to be a cruel mistress for the matriculant of Potchefstroom Gimnasium. His career coincided with that of – among many others – Schalk Burger, Juan Smith, Pierre Spies, Pedrie Wannenburg, Danie Rossouw, Heinrich Brüssow and Wikus van Heerden.

It was also a time in which an imposing physical presence was a prerequisite for our national coaches. For all his talents, Botes did not possess the sheer size of many of his contemporaries. The closest he came to national colours was when he represented the Emerging Springboks against the touring British and Irish Lions in 2009. His final game was for the Barbarians against the English side Leicester in November 2014, when he scored a try and slotted a conversion in a perfect swansong. The Barbarians were victorious with 59–26.

Botes was also a real menace at the breakdown and it is in this area that the 40-year-old will share his expertise with some of the NWU’s elite players.

Jacques Botes