Bafana’s Africa Cup of Nations journey begins on Saturday against Cape Verde, and public support is up and down considering the team’s pre-tournament performances.
Rabutla was part of the Bafana squad that came second at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations under Jomo Sono, with Benni McCarthy joint top-scoring with seven goals, and ‘Jaws of Life’ recalls how that squad went to the tournament with very little public support.
“Remember, that squad was criticised a lot because Jomo left the likes of Doctor Khumalo out of his squad but he motivated us and made us believe in ourselves,” Rabutla tells Goal.com.
“He told us to go out there and prove the critics wrong. Our current squad needs motivation from Gordon Igesund because they need to go to the tournament physically and mentally fit.”
Rabutla says he believes the current crop of players “lack hunger”, and is concerned about the strength of the defence – but he says if a player like Tokelo Rantie plays his cards right, he could become the new McCarthy at the tournament.
“Our Bafana team can play, but my problem is at the back. Our defenders have no confidence and they seem too soft.
“Up front also, I believe that if we can get a goal in the first 10 minutes against Cape Verde then players will get their confidence back and we will see more goals.”
Your comments on this story...
This is not good for South African football, we cannot have another ''Tripple B'' in our camp
You are offside Khosi. Jaws is patriotic and this comes from a man who reached the finals of the 98 Afcon and mind you he was not a passenger. so in short he knows what he is talking about.he was not soft during his playing days and he made strikers suffer for their goals
Khula man, nx!
since 1937
Personally, I see both Majolo & Phaka leading the charts come the conclusion of the AFCON tournament. Currently, the nation's hero, Nyawana leads the charts with his WC goal as it still counts today hence he is in Gordon's 11. Leading goal scorers standings currently:
1. Nyawana : 3 (2010 WC goal has a value of 3)
2. The rest.... but the Kaizer Idiots strikers will close the gap soon.
posted: 08:43 am | Report
@Gucci Man
You are offside Khosi. Jaws is patriotic and this comes from a man who reached the finals of the 98 Afcon and mind you he was not a passenger. so in short he knows what he is talking about.he was not soft during his playing days and he made strikers suffer for their goals
Khula man, nx!
since 1937
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The truth this guy was a COW without horns and a long tail , he was only selected because of his dad(Jomo Sono) .When he took over the reign of our national team, he brought all his cows to our national team. Same scenario is Lerato Chabangu.....that guy doesn't deserve to be in our national team. However we'll always support him 100% becuase he plays for our national team.
Andrew Rabutla was a COW and he nearly break David Beckham''s leg in a friendly match .
There was nothing significant about this guy....period !
And the infamous \"Föerhsuåg\" (Voetsek) that was uttered by the Swedes..........
Jaws is a silver medalist in the AFCON, he played the finals and he added value, he came 2nd.
Jaws u should have said Majoro or Pakkar could be our new BBM17.
Hate him or love, u can him names but his name will be there when success is spoken about, his name is Bennie McCarthy BBM, I am proud of this player, the most successful player in SA. He is counted amongst the best in Africa.