World rugby legend, the former South African and Springbok superstar Bryan Habana for the first time made contact with the sport’s followers in Sri Lanka as HSBC Premier kicked off its inaugural Lifestyle series with an exclusive webinar with the World Cup winner who is also their ambassador.
The webinar was moderated by renowned BBC Sports Commentator Andrew Cotter.
The one-hour webinar was aimed at giving HSBC’s Premier customers the opportunity to connect and engage with Habana through question and answer as invitees had an insight into his unforgettable memories of winning the rugby World Cup final in Japan in 2007 and his take on sports in general.
“Rugby is a unifier of nations and promotes equality. I look at the role HSBC has played particularly in the game of rugby and not just at the highest level but across the world and I always had this goal that when I finish playing I wanted to be associated with HSBC and it’s a privilege and honour to have been an ambassador for the last two years.
“HSBC played a big part in rugby 7s getting into the Olympics and a big part in seeing the women’s 7s game particularly rise to some phenomenal heights within the game.”
Unaware of the popularity of the game in Sri Lanka, Habana recalled some of his fondest memories meeting Sri Lankan cricketing legend, Mahela Jayawardane during a game of golf two years ago, where he got to know about the popularity of schools rugby in the island.
“To hear this (about Sri Lanka) for a country like South Africa which has a huge rugby community and had no clue about, was brilliant,” said Habana.
Habana with 124 caps is widely regarded as one of the most powerful wingers of his generation, having scored 67 Test tries for the Springboks.
At the 2007 Rugby World Cup he was one of the stars of the tournament scoring eight tries equalling the single-tournament try record set by the great and late Jonah Lomu in 1999.
HSBC’s Media Relations and Communications manager Priscilla Labrooy said the bank plans to host similar webinars with international sporting personalities covering rugby, golf, tennis and athletics with Henrik Stenson the 2016 Champion Golfer of the Year scheduled for September 22.