Rugby World Cup legend Bryan Habana beats post-retirement ‘hollowness’ after realising power to touch lives
- South Africa’s former wing and World Cup winner will watch with fresh perspective on Saturday as his country face England at Twickenham
- He sees his scope to make a difference via Laureus’ Sport for Good Foundation, most recently during 100km trek through the desert with the likes of Steve Waugh
It’s approaching five years since Bryan Habana retired from playing rugby, and he can picture the moment as if it were yesterday.
The former South Africa international had just left his French club side Toulon for the last time having announced that his playing days were over, and was driving home in the South of France.
He remembers vividly the obligatory post on social media thanking everyone and the immediate aftermath as being “a pretty lonely place”, but it wasn’t until he walked through his front door to his then three-year-old daughter and heavily pregnant wife that the full weight of the moment hit home.
“I got in the house and I just burst out crying because I was emotionally drained,” the 39-year-old said. “But, as I sat there giving myself a minute, I heard my wife and my three-year-old downstairs laughing and with all this love and I was like, ‘There’s so much more to life than sport.’
“Which for me was incredibly powerful because sport had played a massive part in my life, and I knew that there was so much more to be able to do, and so much responsibility.”
