Bafana Bafana legend Andrew Rabutla has reflected on his career which saw him earn a bad reputation of being ruthless on the pitch.
The former Jomo Cosmos central defender is one of the hardest tackling footballers in the history of the PSL.
The man nicknamed Jaws of Life was feared by most defenders having left his victims like former Chiefs duo of Patrick Mabedi and Serge Dijehoua in crutches.
“I have listened to people saying I was rough and all that, but I was doing first man on the ball, sometimes players were just lazy,” Rabutla told Far Post.
Jaws of Life indicated he learned his tackling skills during his time with Greek giants PAOK in the late 1990s and he revealed how he dealt with Siyabonga Nomethe, who tormented PSL defenders with his pace as a Chiefs player.
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“Remember I was playing in Greece [for PAOK] and the way they were playing no South African player would have coped with how they played in Greece because they can tackle [hard]. That’s why when I came back it was so difficult for South African players to understand my play," he continued.
“Sometimes when an opponent is giving you a problem you have to make a plan. Like the way [Siyabonga] Nomvethe was playing so I had to do the job and go stop Nomvethe from scoring goals because if you don’t stop him he would punish you. Not really kicking him because if you kick you won’t finish the 90 minutes because the referee will punish you."
Cosmos earned a reputation of the most feared team in the PSL due to their hard-tackling defenders, but Rabutla said coach Jomo Sono never instructed them to kick their opponents.
“Maybe I would ‘kiss’ him [Nomvethe] once just to make him understand that there is a player called Rabutla. So, it was not like Jomo (Sono) was saying go and kick opponents, no," he explained.
"The instruction was to go and be strong. As long as you are the first man on the ball and you win the ball then you are fine.
“In South Africa, it was difficult especially with Siyabonga Nomvethe because he was quick. When I wanted to do my things he was always running away. So, he is the one, who used to give me a big problem."
Rabutla played for South Africa between 1997 and 2001, and he started in the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final when Bafana lost to Egypt.
