Who's the best intercept players around.

Thinking along the lines of the thread "best line breaker"

Who do you think are the greatest exponents of the intercept?

I would suggest Bryan Habana and Jean de Villiers must be right up there.

Some links for youtube.

Intercept tries volume 1

Intercpet tries volume 2

Intercept tries volume 3

Intercept tries volume 4

Best of intercept tries

Monye has done two that jump to mind - vs South Africa for the Lions and vs Leicester 11 days ago.

Habana hands down

Hate intercept tries with a passion.

Bowe's done a few as well hasn't he?

EBOP wrote:Habana hands down

Hate intercept tries with a passion.

You were just too fast for me EBOP, I was going to ask you whether you were thinking of a particular cigar.

Bowe

Tommy Bowe from the NH certainly.

biltongbek wrote:

EBOP wrote:Habana hands down

Hate intercept tries with a passion.

You were just too fast for me EBOP, I was going to ask you whether you were thinking of a particular cigar.

Ha, stupid iPhone

O'Driscoll has scored a good few in his career. For Leinster and Ireland.

It might also be worth discussing the worst intercept throwers! James Hook for Wales has been pretty good/bad (delete appropriately depending on nationality) at it.

"A good interceptor is only as good as the pass thrown to him by some clown on the opposition team", Griff, 2012.

James hook is very good at throwing them

I would have to go with JDV and even if the opposition decide not to throw the fifty fifty pass he forces players back inside where the forwards are waiting to smoother the ball carrier

Whereas as Habana is defending the wing to get an intercept pass you usual have to defend very narrow which means with some quick hands or a cross field kick he is completely taken out of play IMO

Bryan habana by a country mile. The man has forged a career out of it.

Hamilton has scored a couple for Tigers, most noteably in this years LV Cup final which resulted in the guilty fly half getting immeadiately subbed.

Habana is the man when it comes to interceptions.

Tommy Bowe seems to live off interception tries. Matthew J Watkins was very good at picking off interceptions when he was playing too.

Habana , JDv and James hook (he does throw the best intercepts )

Griff wrote:It might also be worth discussing the worst intercept throwers! James Hook for Wales has been pretty good/bad (delete appropriately depending on nationality) at it.

"A good interceptor is only as good as the pass thrown to him by some clown on the opposition team", Griff, 2012.

Some credit should go to Chris Cusiter here for managing to throw two identical intercepted passes in the openning 10 minutes of the 6 Nations match against Italy a few years ago, resulting in Scotland being 21 - 0 down after something like 15 minutes.

Parks also throws a nice looping pass for the opposition to latch onto.

I might be misremembering but didn't Wilko chuck a rather telling pass to Joe Roff for the Lions in 2001?

Tommy Bowe.

Wasn't it Shaun Edwards who publically slated going for the intercept because it ruins the defensive shape?

Part of the reason Habana is seen as so good is that he has the pace to then score from the intercept, whereas others may not be so obvious. The one person that springs to mind for me is Ryan Lamb. He's very good at reading a move and has the added of benefit that no one will miss him in the defensive line up either!

HongKongCherry wrote:Wasn't it Shaun Edwards who publically slated going for the intercept because it ruins the defensive shape?

Yes Shaun Edwards HATES players going for the intercept and apparently he will shout at players even if they make the intercept and score a try in the process.

Well at least he sticks to his belief.

He didnt seem to mind Monyes intercept vs the boks. Watch the tour dvd and you see him dancing about on the touchline from the moment Wynand Olivier gives the ball to Ugo.

Imperialbigdave wrote:He didnt seem to mind Monyes intercept vs the boks. Watch the tour dvd and you see him dancing about on the touchline from the moment Wynand Olivier gives the ball to Ugo.

Possibly my favourite moment of the whole tour that.

yappysnap wrote:

Imperialbigdave wrote:He didnt seem to mind Monyes intercept vs the boks. Watch the tour dvd and you see him dancing about on the touchline from the moment Wynand Olivier gives the ball to Ugo.

Possibly my favourite moment of the whole tour that.

If i remember rightly though the boks had a massive overlap was monye was the last man in the lions line and if he didn't take either man and ball or go for the intercept SA would of scored

It was a great moment. If only ROG hadn't thrown away the second test!

It was a great moment. If only ROG hadn't thrown away the second test!

Then the Lions would have faced a full Bok side not the likes of Wynand Olivier, Jongi Nokwe and Zane Kirchner .......just saying

True and the lions lost several key players to injury in the second test so may not of won the third but the third test would of been better spectacle and would of made the series more interesting

It is what it is.

Roll on next years

Habana - assuming he actually grounds the ball over the line of course.

Flood has thrown a few intercepts in his time. Two to Topsy Ojo last year as well as the Monye one the other week spring to mind

LondonTiger wrote:Habana - assuming he actually grounds the ball over the line of course.

Flood has thrown a few intercepts in his time. Two to Topsy Ojo last year as well as the Monye one the other week spring to mind

And the Argentina one on his England debut.

Bryan Habana don`t know how many of his tally were intercepts but it must be a fair few.

I reckon Jean De Villiers has made more intercepts then Habana.... for WP fans JDV is certainly more notorious for it. Although he has spent his entire career in the cape compared to Habana.

ieuan wrote:True and the lions lost several key players to injury in the second test so may not of won the third but the third test would of been better spectacle and would of made the series more interesting

If only Ugo and awful refereeing of the scrum hadn't thrown away the first test

or ROG not been concussed in the 2nd .... more fittingly 9000km away somewhere in a bookies.

I don't want to discuss the 2009 Lions. I'm still painfully, bitterly anguished about that

ChequeredJersey

Think yourself lucky pal... I assume you didn't watch the series with about 30 boere and had your father in law mention it for the next year and a half... the AUS QF loss seems to have taken the shine of bokke bragging rights for now.

Not as bad as my Irish buddy here in Kaapstad who spent a small fortune getting to the first test in Durban with his missus' family. Must of seemed the worst decision since SCW looked at Shane Byrne and thought... "thats who I want to face up to Mealamu".

Wouldnt mind knowing how many of Habanas test tries have been intercepts or at least pick ups against the run of play.

I'd just about bet half of them given the ball isnt allowed to travel the normal path to him. Good on him looking for the work...probably gets cold with no one to talk to out there...

Truth be told he doesn't talk to anyone out there as they haven't introduced themselves to him. He most likely think the opposition is supposed to pass to him, hence him intercepting all those balls.

Thomas Castaignede was exceptional at the intercept try as was David Campese.

These days i would have to say the Habana is the best though.

topsy ojo

topsy ojo is also the best defensive winger in england.

will greenwood who knows a thing or two has written at least one article on the subject.

ojo relaxes when defending. this is key. he shepherds his man and then times his move perfectly either hitting him or seizing on the interception.

Tomas Oleary is good at throwing interceptions. Reddan has thrown a few too.

Toby Flood's first touch in test rugby was throwing an intercept pass to an Argentinian who went on to score a try and win the match. Good memories.

Mike Blair and Chris Cusiter are skilled in gifting the opposition easy points... not that they need easy points to beat us these days.