Special end for Toulon legends

 

All Blacks Hayman and Williams are set to call time on their career, alongside Springbok hard-man Botha, at the end of the French season.

 

Habana is looking to his Toulon teammates to up their game for the all French Final at Twickenham next month, in order to send the retiring player out with a bang.

 

Last year, it was the end of English flyhalf Johnny Wilkinson's career that inspired Toulon to defend their title against Saracens.

 

"Now we have the chance to make it a special end to the season for players like Carl, Ali and Bakkies, who are retiring.

 

"We've got 80 minutes, or maybe 100, to try to put them into the history books as legends with a third successive European win."

 

The Springbok flyer did have a harsh warning for his teammates, after just sneaking into the Final through extra-time against Leinster on Sunday.

 

The South African legend raced half the length of the field to help the reigning champions open up a 10 point lead at the end of the first half of extra-time. 

 

But as he clutched the match ball as a lasting memento of another notable try, he said a lot of work lay ahead before the final.

 

"If we want to be contenders to win the European title we will have to go back to the drawing board.

 

"As a team we are going to have to look really hard at ourselves after that performance," admitted Habana.

 

"Our discipline needs to be better and we can't afford to make as many errors. 

 

"Mentally, I think we turned up and thought it was going to be a walk-over, but the game ended up being on a knife-edge."

 

Habana cut in off his wing to judge perfectly his interception of Ian Madigan's long, cut-out pass after Sean O'Brien had turned over the ball at a ruck.

 

The next few seconds turned into a procession as Habana sped to the line for the vital score of the game.

 

"There have been plenty of times in my career when it hasn't worked and credit needs to go to the defenders on my inside who put the pressure on.

 

"I'm just glad the legs are still holding up," said Habana.

 

"When I came to Europe there was a lot of pressure on me to perform, but my first season was ruined by injury and I spent five months on the sidelines. 

 

"This season things have gone a bit better.

 

Source: @ChampionsCup