The Springbok hard man used his downtime last week to partake in one of his favourite past-times in Taupo, hunting deer. Botha told South Africa's SuperSport TV he'd downed a Kiwi sika (or spotted deer) "from 255 metres" and has arranged for it to be mounted and shipped back home.
It might sound a tad gruesome to some but hunting is a common activity in Africa and sentimentality certainly isn't a word often associated with the 118kg enforcer Botha.
Botha is now back to full fitness and is hoping to push his way back into the Springbok side to meet the Wallabies in the World Cup quarter-final.
With his replacement at lock Danie Roussow in dominant form, however, Botha might have his work cut out. And judging from the apparently vast reservoir of pent-up aggression Botha has stored watching on, that might spell good news for a few Wallabies forwards.
"You don't know how frustrating it is, my friend," Botha replied when asked how it felt to miss bruising clashes with Wales and Samoa."The physical battles that I missed. Wales and Samoa, when I was sitting on the sidelines.
"It has been frustrating for me, especially being at the World Cup, when the big battles come, it's not a good feeling."
Only Victor Matfield has confirmed he will retire from rugby after this tournament, but Smit has signed with Saracens, Botha and Gurthro Steenkamp are headed for France, while du Preez and Danie Rossouw will be winding down their careers in Japan, so the core of a world championship-winning team is soon to be lost.
Yet while the Springboks are desperately trying to keep the inevitable at bay, this is shaping as a defining Test for this young Wallabies side and coach Robbie Deans.
The Wallabies' recent record is one of infuriating inconsistency. No sooner do they claim some of the most prestigious scalps in the game than they unaccountably lose to sides ranked well below them. They are regarded by other nations as exceptionally dangerous but only the French are seen as more unreliable.
Those perceptions will change dramatically if they can see off this ageing Springboks outfit on Sunday. Defeat would be a catastrophic setback, especially for Deans, recently reappointed by the Australian Rugby Union board for another two years.
His predecessor, John Connolly, was painted as a failure when the Wallabies exited the 2007 World Cup at the quarter-final stage but he had only two years to rebuild after the Eddie Jones era, whereas Deans has had a full four years to prepare his team.
Connolly, looking back yesterday on the 12-10 loss to England in the quarter-final at Marseilles at the last World Cup, pinpointed the inexperience of his side as the critical factor that day.
"We took a lot of players in their first and second years of Test rugby into that match and England just bashed us," he said. "The occasion was massive and a couple of our guys didn't handle it at all well. But I don't know that we could have changed much in terms of selections, and we couldn't have done any more to analyse England."
Connolly admitted the Springboks were likely to mimic England's tactics that day of attacking the Wallabies' scrum and applying heat at the breakdown to disrupt halfback Will Genia, as England did to George Gregan. "The important thing is that there are different law interpretations now," he said.
Both Botha and Rocky Elsom identified the breakdown as the key battlefield on Sunday. "Whoever wins the breakdown will edge it over the opposition," Botha said.
Elsom was even more succinct: "Some things never change."
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