Name Henry Honiball Height 1.85 m | Weight 98 kg | |
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Born 1 December 1965 (age 55) | ||
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Henry William Honiball (born 1 December 1965) is a former South African rugby union footballer. He played at fly-half for South Africa during the post-apartheid era, although he was physically and technically acquainted in any back position.
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Honiball was a rare-breed of fly-half, who had a very expansive running game which brought the loose-forwards into the game quickly. He was also very tall for a fly-half and extremely physical, being a strong tackler and not afraid to take the ball and challenge the opposition. He earned his nickname of 'Lem', which is Afrikaans for 'blade', for his ability to 'cut' through his opponent's defence. Honiball was part of Nick Mallett's legendary Springbok squad that equalled the record for 17 consecutive Test victories, a record shared with New Zealand. Such was his reading, distribution and tactical knowledge of the game that he had an enviable Springbok success rate of nearly 75 per cent.
He made his debut in 1993 against the Wallabies in Sydney, coming on as a replacement. Although South Africa lost the match 19–12, Honiball was also a member of the South African team that mauled Australia 61–22 during the 1997 Tri Nations tournament, which was only replaced in 2008 (30 August 2008 : 53–8 win to South Africa in Johannesburg during the 2008 Tri Nations Series) as Australia's heaviest ever defeat. He was also a mercurial member of South Africa's first ever Tri Nations victory. Honiball retired from international rugby after the Springboks beat New Zealand in the 1999 Rugby World Cup third/fourth place play-off.
After the World Cup, he played one season for Bristol, amassing 283 points, before a serious neck injury forced him to retire.
