Habana off his wing again

In what has become a bad habit for the veteran winger, Habana once again left his wing in the lead-up to the AB's first try. He was the only player in a position to cover Ben Smith, but abandoned that by coming inside and attempting an intercept while leaving Smith wide open.

Here we can see Habana still out on the wing as Sopoaga breaks.



The Boks end up with 4 players converging on Sopoaga, Habana having come all the way inside to jump for the intercept, with no one on Ben Smith.



A fair argument would be that intercepting the pass may have been the only way to prevent a try - Le Roux would have been forced to take Sopoaga as it didn't seem like Kriel was going to catch him from behind, which would have left Dagg open. However, Le Roux could also have pressured Sopoaga into a pass and still shifted on to Dagg. The ABs would have had to work much harder to get over the line had Smith been covered. Tough call in the heat of the moment, but worth a look I thought.

 I ted to agree with you in this case.  Habana would have tried to make an intercept in preference to trying to tackle Ben Smith.  He has done it in the past and success chances were minimal.