RENALDO BOTHMA
Quins bulldozer aims to get his new club into title mix
HARD-HITTING Namibian back rower Renaldo Bothma aims to follow compatriot Jacques Burger into the pantheon of alltime Premiership greats by helping Harlequins reclaim their place at the top of English rugby.
Summer-signing Bothma has now fully recovered from a twice-broken arm and, after playing a starring role in Quins’ recent league victory over Saracens, the former Sharks and Bulls enforcer is ready to bring his destructive brand of ball-carrying to bear. Bothma, 28, told The
Rugby Paper: “Jacques Burger, below, and I are good friends who go a long way back with Namibia. I know what he was all about and the great name he created for himself in England, so that’s exactly what I would like to do here as well.
“The way I play, I always put my body on the line for my teammates and I’ll look forward to creating a nice name for myself at Harlequins. If people enjoy watching me play it will help Harlequins get back to the top level, which is what we all want.”
Bothma, at 6ft 3ins and 16st 7lbs, favours the No.8 jersey but will also provide heavyweight competition to England flanker Chris Robshaw, explaining: “Competition is a good thing and I’ve never been afraid of it. It creates good culture in teams and makes you work harder.
“I see myself as a No.8, especially with the way I can read the game, but after my injury I just want to play and we’re working on getting some combinations right. It’s all about the team for me and if John Kingston wants me at six, that’s fine by me.”
Bothma added: “It was hugely frustrating coming to a new club and being unable to play after breaking my arm. I’m nowhere near the standards I set myself yet, but I’ve done pretty well in recent matches and I’ll soon be back to full match fitness.” Harlequins face Newcastle away next weekend before returning to Twickenham for Big Game 10 on December 30, and then travel to Sale – a run of matches against lower placed opposition that will define their chances of achieving a top four finish.
Bothma said: “We’ve had a long discussion about what we want Harlequins to be about and now we’re out of Europe it’s about building our league campaign.
“We’ve got three hard games coming up Premiership-wise, but equally they could be the springboard to getting us in contention to play in the final. That’s something we’re working very hard on to make sure we’re ready to meet that challenge.”
Beyond Harlequins, Bothma cherishes his captain’s role with Namibia and, like Burger before him, is fully committed to their World Cup campaign.
Namibia came desperately close to ending their long wait for a World Cup Pool victory when they lost 17-16 to Georgia at Exeter in 2015, and Bothma said: “We came so near to creating history so that’s something to really look forward to.
“It’s a huge honour to captain Namibia and I’ll be part of our African qualification matches next June. We won the African Cup last year and are the top ranked team behind South Africa, so we would be relatively confident of making it to Japan.”