Smit to feel Bismarck’s heat
29 Jul 2010
GRANT BALL writes that Bismarck du Plessis’ imminent return to rugby heaps further pressure on John Smit.
Smit has rightfully been criticised by former players, coaches and the media for his performances over this international season, especially on the Springboks’ Australasian tour. On his return to South Africa this week, that pressure would have increased with news that Du Plessis – the Boks’ first-choice hooker last year – is back in training and taking contact after being out for three months.
Du Plessis won’t feature for the Sharks this weekend, but is set for a return to the 22 next weekend when they play the Lions. It will take some time for him to regain his best form and fitness after a serious neck injury, but what has been clear regarding Smit is that his form spirals without having Du Plessis pushing him, although he won’t have that luxury now.
Du Plessis’ return to the playing field will be two weeks before the Boks’ first home Test in the Tri–Nations, and while it would be unrealistic to expect him to force his way into that squad in such a short time, Smit will know that further laboured individual and team performances will have his critics salivating.
Smit will start at Soccer City, as part of the fanfare in the build-up has revolved around it being his 100th Test. Peter de Villiers has also stated his intentions and placed his faith in Smit until the end of the World Cup, handing him a contract until then.
If Du Plessis recovers fully from the injury and rediscovers any sort of form similar to last year, there’s no question that he offers more playing value than Smit. However, in the Boks’ current player-driven system, Smit’s leadership takes on even more importance, although even those attributes have waned with his and the team’s form on the decline.
Against the top nations like New Zealand, Australia and France at a World Cup, the Boks won’t be able to carry passengers and they require the best players on the field – not selecting a captain and then basing the rest of the side around that.
Du Plessis’ unrivalled physicality and mobility that sees him act as an extra loose forward – which will gain even more importance under the new law interpretations – was the initial reason why Smit was moved to tighthead in 2008. With Smit being so off the pace in the Tri–Nations at hooker, the remaining question is whether he’ll continue to be used there through until the World Cup.
After being so selfless for the Boks throughout his career, Smit needs to make the decision on which position he’ll play. He believes he offers the most to the team at hooker, but he’s been hampered by putting on extra weight for the tighthead switch. What’s clear with Du Plessis set to return is that Smit needs to be better conditioned and he must display a level of form that will silence his detractors ahead of the World Cup.
Accommodating Smit and Du Plessis in the same team has been a problem for the Sharks and Boks since 2008, and it’s set to continue with Du Plessis’ return next week.
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210 Comments
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29 Jul 2010, 20:04 pm
@willievz(willievz)-141: If he is so important why have we been creamed the last 3 games?
Personally I think we have bigger issues than John Smit at hooker.
Like no game-plan, slow back line, missing tackles and kicking aimlessly, and choosing players out of position.
29 Jul 2010, 20:08 pm
@rugbywriter(rugbywriter)-145: I agree. Bismark is not a great scrummager, can hardly throw the ball in straight and is second only to Bakkies Botha in terms of incredible dofness.
Gary Botha is currently our best hooker in all aspects.
Gary Botha
Tian Libenberg
Willie Wepenaar
John Smit
Adriaan Strauss
Bismarck
Maku
Chili
29 Jul 2010, 20:14 pm
talking kak again,
Gary Botha just another overrated poefta Bully bumkin useless show pony like Pierrie Spiesie and Meisiekind Olivier
No place and no need for another has been show pony schmuck dummy d!ckhead to come f’ck up the rest of the works.
These are the hookers needed for Bok’s causes to evolve
Liebenberg
Burden
Chili
Deon Fourie
Bismark
Brits
Strauss
Gary Botha and John Smit are a dead end breed get shot of them before they get shot of you.
29 Jul 2010, 20:14 pm
This from News24:
The Springboks returned from Australia this week to newspaper stories alleging there was a split between De Villiers and assistant coaches Gary Gold and **** Muir over the team’s style of play.
Gold, however, said there was no truth in them.
“We believe we are all on the same page. We sit down every Sunday night after a game and decide, with the very senior players, on the way forward for the next game, and we always emerge with a united front,” Gold said.
And here I was thinking that we had a backroom staff of tactical experts pouring over video clips of other teams months in advance, and together with the 3 coaches discussing weeks in advance of a particular game the strategy, tactics and game plans for each other teams’ strengths and weaknesses…
And here is confirmation that they all get together in a big huddle a week before the game and debate how they are going to play!
This smacks of amateurism.
29 Jul 2010, 20:17 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-153: Everyone has an opinion just like everyone has an ar sehole. But your opinion is really that of an ar sehole:
Burden
Chili
Deon Fourie
Bismark
Brits
For goodness sake. Pathetic.
And to get it out of the way: sodashmoe f’kadilly wannkwat wantnot a dilly.
29 Jul 2010, 20:17 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-154: Hello Spooner. Back in Brummiedom.
29 Jul 2010, 20:20 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-154:
‘And here is confirmation that they all get together in a big huddle a week before the game and debate how they are going to play!
This smacks of amateurism.’
Not sure whether it indicates amateurism but that’s how Woodward, Robinson and the senior England players (MJ, Dawson, Tindall, Greenwood and Wilko) managed things back in ’02/’03
29 Jul 2010, 20:21 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-153: You forget the legendary Derek Kuun as well.
29 Jul 2010, 20:24 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-157: where is the tactical analysis? Who is watching clips of the opposition to pick up trends and new patters to exploit? Who is working on game plays?
But more importantly, who is telling this to the players? Because if the players are telling themselves how to play, then no-one is doing the above (given they are too busy training and playing).
@SodaJoe(SodaJoe)-156: Hi Joe
Yep, I make an appearance now and again, but not as much as I used to. Things have changed here.
29 Jul 2010, 20:25 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-153: agree on Spies, Olivier and Botha, based on current form and past test form they look like S14 level players, Spies might have some value as an impact player or perhaps wing but he’s falling short of the mark required from a test 8.
Liebenberg should perhaps have been given a run out at hooker to see if he’s up to it, he was impressive in the S14.
29 Jul 2010, 20:27 pm
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-159: judging by his website blog contributions Gold does think about tactics. No idea about PDV and Muir but I’m sure they’re not sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
29 Jul 2010, 20:29 pm
Best Bok team if all available:
15 Steyn
14 JP Pietersen
13 Fourie
12 De Villiers
11 Habana
10 Steyn
9 Du Preez
8 Van Niekerk
7 Smith
6 Brussow
5 Bekker
4 Rossouw
3 Botha
2 Du Plessis
1 Steenkamp
29 Jul 2010, 20:30 pm
Sodashmoe let me tell you something for free
Gary Botha and John Smit are the 2 worst candidates you can possibly pick to take to the world cup
If you haven’t woken to reality yet you dumb schmuck fools will go down in a heap of overrated trash
Can see the dismal dumb delinquent saffa brains freeze into stagnation just like they were in 07 before E.Jones breathed some life into them dreary f’ck’d up deluded brains.
Can’t believe these twat idiots can’t see sh’t for trees.
Burden, Liebenberg, Chili, Bismark, Fourie that is the way to go, the other way is suicide and up the stuffed up creek without a paddle.
29 Jul 2010, 20:30 pm
@Big Hit(Big Hit)-161: before anything else Jake White was employed by the Boks solely as a technical/video analyst.
Who is doing this job now?
29 Jul 2010, 20:33 pm
Gary Botha is just like Gaffie Du Toit and Wynand Olivier.
Not cut out for international rugby.
29 Jul 2010, 20:33 pm
Thank you BH its always the rational objectivity that comes from afar to save these deluded saffas from their own ingrained stupidity.
29 Jul 2010, 20:36 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-166: so who was the brains behind the idea of playing Kankowski at 7 against Pocock?
Or did that come to someone as a bright idea mid thumb twiddle?
29 Jul 2010, 20:38 pm
what tactical rationale was disseminated by the coaching staff for the loose forward trio of Spies, Kanko and Burger? Any idiot can tell you it wouldn’t work, purely because similar combos have tried and failed in the past.
Don’t even get me started on carthorse JDV on the wing. Tactical genius whoever came up with that one.
29 Jul 2010, 20:41 pm
Anyway, I’m out.
29 Jul 2010, 20:51 pm
the tactical rationale that played Kankowski, Spies and Burger together is the same idiotic saffa rationale that dumb is clever and big is better, and fast is furious and Achilles got no arrows in his heels so nothing to fear.
They played Spies, Kanko and Burger in Cape Town 08, guess what happened then? – 19-0 – thats what, so they tried it again because they thought the speed of Kanko and Spies would counter the quality and combined pack breakdown attack of Elsom, Pocock and Brown.
We missing Brussow big time, and today a fast open side is paramount, Burger is a big ball carrier, never was a 6, should never have been played at 6, You can all thank the genius of one Jake White for bamboozling and confusing your brains to ever think he was.
As to the other 2 Kanko and Spies, two poefta show pony prima donnas of the utmost caliber you have yet to meet on a rugby field, these two are the most over hyped overrated flash in the pan flash Gordon’s you ever going to find anywhere in world rugby, they both should be rated about 6th or 7th on the list of effective loose forwards in international rugby, or in this country, show ponies supreme, sooner we drop these two off the radar the sooner we start coming out this delusional spiral to nowhere.
29 Jul 2010, 20:52 pm
I never said anything about Spies. I agree that he and Olivier suck. Not Gary Botha though. Gary Botha is an outstanding hooker. Seriousl, name one short coming in his game
29 Jul 2010, 20:57 pm
My team if ALL available
1. CJ
2. Gary Botha
3. BJ
4. Bekker
5. Victor
6. Brussow
7. Burger
8. Rossouw
9. du Preez
10. Steyn
11. Hougaard (If Habana doesn’t regain his form)
12. Jean
13. Fourie
14. van den Heever/Aplon
15. Steyn
16. Schalk Brits
17. WP. Nel
18. Juan (Rossouw covering lock)
19. Flo
20. Sarel Pretorious
21. Butch
22. Habana(If not starting)/Viljoen
29 Jul 2010, 20:57 pm
And to think these idiotic fools said to themselves, we got Spies and Kanko vying for the No.8 berth, the two bestest fastest big breek prima donnas of all time, so Joe van Niekerk and Luke Watson don’t feature in our thinking.
Since we dropped Van Niekerk and Watson from the trio in 08 we gone steadily in reverse, from a win in Dunedin with those two performing to 3 losses in Perth, Cape Town and Durban in 08, and then the rest is history with only Brussow the difference between the same dumb schmuck delinquent nonentity of a loose forward challenge in 09, thank God schalk gouged Fitzgeralds eyes else we’d never have known anything else, to again nothing nienta, nada, niks, fokol, zilch, in 2010 with Burger, Louw, Spies, Kankowski.
29 Jul 2010, 20:58 pm
@rugbywriter(rugbywriter)-171:
think the fact that he couldn’t even make an impression at harlequins pretty much sums him up
29 Jul 2010, 21:02 pm
Gary Botha is another Spies, Meisiekind mediocrity waiting to unleash its nonentity on the world stage.
Go ahead play him in the Bok team and watch them disintegrate worse than with J. Smit at the helm.
Play Gary Botha, Spies, Olivier in the world cup team and kiss any chance of success goodbye right here right now. Go ahead you reckon you got vision to spare then kiss your bokkie teams dream hope to sleep right now. Play GB and go agterend voort to nowhere in one hell of a hurry.
29 Jul 2010, 21:07 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-175: Jeez Bru. Exagerate much? Saying it would be worse with Botha at hooker? Come on man. Did Gary Botha try f’ck your wife?
29 Jul 2010, 21:19 pm
habana is a quota ..he’s been k@kker the whole year than meisiekind..he is lucky PDV is of the same colour .. bring back Markgraaf!!! …
29 Jul 2010, 21:19 pm
@SodaJoe(SodaJoe)-158:
the gold medal lamp post licker
@skopskiet(yliad)-175:
hi skoppie, hope life is treating you well in the fairest southern peninsular.
one week left before i take some home leave – can’t wait – starting to get ratty with some of my staff
29 Jul 2010, 21:20 pm
Problem with most rugby doose in this country is they can’t see sh’t for trees, they simply dumb schmuck deluded like idiots with brainless capacities. These are those that believe idiots such as Gary Botha or Pierre Spies or Meisiekind Olivier or even Morne Steyn and Victor Matfield and Fourie du Preez and Frans Steyn are God’s gift to SA rugby.
They firmly believe in their bones that without these neanderthal’s in the team we are doomed to extinction, while it is precisely the other way around. Its get shot of the neanderthal’s and then you stand a chance, cling to the dismal delinquent incapacitated dead end thinking that the neanderthal represents and then go down clutching at your neanderthal conviction.
I’m telling you that by playing glory boys Spies, Botha and Olivier you going down, but if you simply unable to realize that much then play these neanderthal’s and don’t come crying when your hero’s get shown up for the poefta prima donna’s they actually are. Like Spies and Olivier have already done ad infinitum.
29 Jul 2010, 21:23 pm
Bismarck all is forgiven, please come back and save us
and retire John Smit
29 Jul 2010, 21:24 pm
sounds good Charo, you coming this direction at all?
29 Jul 2010, 21:27 pm
@rugbywriter(rugbywriter)-172:
Bismarck is by far the best hooker in the country
Gary Botha what a joke
Its time to get rid of Schalk Burger
I like the rest of your team
but your reserves suck
29 Jul 2010, 21:33 pm
FOURIE DU PREEZ:
SA Rugby Player of the Year nominee, 2007; SA Rugby Player of the Year, 2006; SA Rugby Young Player of the Year nominee, 2003 & 2004; Vodacom Super 14 Player of the Tournament, 2007; SA Rugby Player of the Year, 2009.
29 Jul 2010, 21:36 pm
@skopskiet(yliad)-181:
not this time mate – want to spend some quality time with my missus and my mates and basically chill.
also have admin issues to attend to – taxman and renew drivers license.
anyway, quiet tonight – keep well and maintain the pressure on the bullyboys
30 Jul 2010, 05:19 am
@SodaJoe(SodaJoe)-152
That list needs a bit of shuffling ie move Gary Down one or two notches and Wepener (albeit he is lost to RSa rugby a few more… then add Deon Fourie, Derek Kuhn and basically even Skipper Bardenhorst before Chilliboy Ralepelle features!
30 Jul 2010, 05:25 am
@wooden spoon(wooden spoon)-154:
“And here I was thinking that we had a backroom staff of tactical experts pouring over video clips of other teams months in advance, and together with the 3 coaches discussing weeks in advance of a particular game the strategy, tactics and game plans for each other teams’ strengths and weaknesses…”
Nope mate… the Boks technical analysts amount to the old logistics manager… no ****!
In 5 mins on TheRugbyClub’s ‘Kafes chalkboard’ Rod has summed up the Bok’s ‘gameplan’ and how to beat them every week and been 100% correct!
30 Jul 2010, 07:01 am
@money_man(money_man)-186:
Yeah, real amateurish compared to Graham Henry waving around a piece of paper with his game plan scribbled on it.
A general discussion on a Sunday evening of what went wrong and what needs to change for the next weeks game isn’t that unusual. Then it’s off to church to pray for divine assistance.
30 Jul 2010, 07:04 am
@David(David)-187:
It’s going to take more than a few prayers to some ‘furfie in the sky’ to save the Boks with this current ‘brains trust’ at the helm…
30 Jul 2010, 07:21 am
The coach will arrogantly hang on to Smit out of principle.
30 Jul 2010, 07:30 am
@Great White Shark(Predawn)-189:
There is a simple solution… boot Snor, Muir and Gold… make Smit the (man manager) get Proudfoot and Rossouw in… and start to assemble a tech analyst, conditioning coach, mind coach into the fold!
30 Jul 2010, 07:38 am
Smit just needs to go on a conditioning program instead of the EOYT. We can’t go to the wc without smit as capt if we want to win
30 Jul 2010, 07:39 am
@money_man(money_man)-190:
Leave Proudfoot where he is.
30 Jul 2010, 07:43 am
@Boksarenumber5(Boksarenumber1)-182: Bismarck by far the best hooker in the country?
Please explain what it is that makes him the best hooker in the country.
Is it the way he can’t go 5 minutes without getting a card? Is it the way he can’t throw the ball straight? Is it the way he stands up in the scrums and concedes penalties? Or is it the way he doesn’t know the rules of rugby? Or is it because he is a walking knock-on?
“Physical Presence” can’t be an excuse anymore for Bismarck to keep making the team.
30 Jul 2010, 07:47 am
@rugbywriter(rugbywriter)-193:
To answer your question from last night, no I live in SA but find US politics fascinating.
30 Jul 2010, 07:48 am
Bismarck is certainly a heck of a lot stronger than Smit. If he ever manages to work on his handling skills and stops infringing he might get a starting place..in The Sharks team.
30 Jul 2010, 07:51 am
Good morning all,
IMo….
Bissie isn’t the best 2 in SA..
he’s the best in the World!
30 Jul 2010, 07:59 am
@Staal(Staal)-196:
And with that statement…..i totally agree.
30 Jul 2010, 08:02 am
@grant10(grant10)-197:
I’d take Mealamu over Bissie any day, and he’s the ABs second choice.
30 Jul 2010, 08:05 am
@Staal(Staal)-196:
Enough said…! These fools rating Gary Botha…Blou Bloed…thats quite sad…even mentioning Derek Kuun as an option makes me sick!
Rugbywriter…did you at all watch any international games last year? Can’t throw in straight? Can’t scrum? Yeah right…and Gary Botha can srcum??? Remember 2006/2007? Gary was second choice then. Pierre got “sick” from the roids, and enter Bismark (JW didnt select 3 hookers in the squad as customary. Then Bismark outclassed Botha COMPLETELY and went to second…Gary to third. And Gary realised this….that he just isn’t that good….and packed his bags for some dosh up north. Now he thinks he can try again…Bismark has shown loyalty to the Boks. He had numerous overseas offers, but stayed loyal. Even with both him and John at the Sharks, he sucked it up, and just played his game. And ousted John. He has had an angry management issue, but that, I believe, he has also outgrown. He is one of the players that demands respect within the entire Bok squad, and definately brings more to the party than his physicallity.
30 Jul 2010, 08:06 am
@David(David)-198:
o my word! Now that’s someone that can’t throw into the line outs…but he is not k a k around the fringes though! Little etertjie!
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