Thanks a ton, Smitty
21 Aug 2010
MARK KEOHANE, in Business Day Sport Monthly, says that while the sprint of 2007 has been closer to a limp in 2010, the long serving Springbok captain is a deserving Test centurion.
At a time when all John Smit hears is condemnation of having stayed a season too long, comes the view of a 10-year-old who believes he can’t stick around long enough.
‘John Smit is the best, but at hooker. I don’t think of him as a prop,’ my son Oliver told me. The reason my son’s thoughts are more pertinent than mine is because of my initial struggle to write this piece. There was the celebration of the brilliant career, but there was also the reality of a season that has been a struggle for a player who put on 20kg to make the transition to playing prop and then has been asked to play hooker again.
It was unfair to ask that of Smit, as it would have been for any player, but nothing in Smit’s 10-year Bok career has been fair. Oliver wasn’t interested in that kind of detail.
‘He won us the World Cup,’ he said. ‘And he makes me want to be a Springbok because, Paps, after Kamp Staaldraad I don’t think anybody wanted to be a Springbok.’
Can Smit leave a greater legacy than inspiring the next generation of player to want to be Springboks? The World Cup, the Tri-Nations, winning against the All Blacks in New Zealand, beating the British & Irish Lions and being the second South African to play 100 Tests are monumental achievements. But inspiring younger generations to be like you, to play like you and to be winners (like you). That’s huge!
When I called Business Day Sport Monthly publisher Gary Lemke and told him this one’s going to read a bit different, as it’s not so much what I think of Smit’s career, it’s what my laaitie thinks of Smit, he said it was weird that I would have this conversation with my boy, as his seven-year-old boy (Mark) had traded being Bryan Habana for Smit in their backyard rugby games because ‘he’s our captain and he’s going to play 100 Tests for South Africa’.
In chatting about Smit to my boy he said the reader wouldn’t really be interested in my opinion about the Bok captain. ‘Why don’t you just write about what he has done and the way he has made us all smile?’ You can’t argue with the wisdom of the innocent and the young. They have no agenda, no complication and they somehow make it seem so simple.
Smit is a great of South African rugby – and among the greats of the game. To those who counter that by saying the greats know when to go, that’s a myth. Four of sport’s greatest – Muhammad Ali, Michael Schumacher, Lance Armstrong and Mark Spitz – all believed they had one victorious fight left in them. Smit is no different and while the popular view may be that he should have taken a first-class flight out of Test rugby after beating the All Blacks in New Zealand and winning the Tri-Nations last year, you can’t tell a champion when to go. It is the nature of a champion that someone has to retire him; and there is always a younger, bigger and more passionate challenger not interested in emotion and only interested in being the next champion.
Smit, regardless of whether he makes it to next year’s World Cup in New Zealand, is a champion who was the inspiration in turning the Springboks into the world-class side of the past six years.
With his prop’s waistline too tight a fit for a jersey made for the more athletic hookers, Smit has suffered this season, but the disappointment of 2010 can never detract from what he did for South African rugby, post-2003, the failed World Cup in Australia and the infamous Kamp Staaldraad.
Smit, asked to build a squad of youngsters and a sprinkling of survivors from the 2003 season, has never shirked the responsibility and never asked for a free ride in doing so.
He has survived five Bok coaches and resisted the challenge of so many good players with aspirations of wearing the Bok No 2 jersey. His leadership, more than his play, has influenced his longevity, is a popular retort from those who have and always will be anti-Smit.
There is an element of accuracy here, but Smit, between 2004 and 2009, justified his position on playing ability. He won the respect of the opposition and I recall Richie McCaw saying he was the toughest opponent he had faced as an All Black. There can’t be a greater compliment.
Over 10 years Smit has made the sacrifices and as an international player he has won every prize. The hunger, however misplaced the use of the word may appear given criticism of Smit’s conditioning this season, is not what it was 10 years ago, and if it were it would be freakish.
Only a handful of players can sustain the form needed to play for a country like South Africa for 10 successive years, and then there’s the complexity of captaining South Africa.
Two years ago Smit and McCaw shared a room while playing for the Barbarians. Smit tells the story of doing a telephonic media interview from the room while McCaw chilled. When it was over McCaw asked him whom he was talking to. When Smit said it was a standard media interview, McCaw laughed and said all he had to think about when captaining the All Blacks was rugby.
The politics of captaining South Africa continues to amaze Smit’s international counterparts. ‘Rather you than me, mate,’ is the standard response.
But Smit has gone on record saying he wouldn’t want it any other way because he appreciates the uniqueness of South Africa as a young democracy and the influence sport has on South Africans.
And having worked with Smit during a spell with the Springboks it isn’t a public relations line he uses. He believes in this country and he believes in the power of the Boks to expedite the search for normality.
His dignity in leading the Springboks in 2004 defined his leadership. Captaining the Boks requires special qualities. No Bok captain of the future will have it as tough as Smit had it in 2004 because he had to condemn Staaldraad (a camp he attended) and build a new image for South African rugby. He did so with honest reflection, spoke of his individual gains from the bush camp, but said a camp of that nature had no place in South African sport.
‘It taught every one of us about ourselves and what our bodies were capable of physically, but it was never going to be the reason we would win the World Cup. The intent was good, the execution was not,’ was how he summed it up to me a year later.
In his book Captain in the Cauldron he gave the most complete and unemotional account of the three days the 2003 World Cup squad endured in the bush. It left the reader with a feeling of sadness and sympathy, but also clarity about the leadership at the time. Smit was adamant there was never malice but a misguided belief among the squad’s leadership.
His book, a bestseller in South Africa, lacked the usual kiss and tell of what happens on tour. He gave an insight to the qualities of all five Bok coaches, what they added to the fabric of the Boks and coherently attempted to explain why some failed and others had triumphed.
He worked closely with Jake White between 2004 and 2007, and subsequently with Peter de Villiers. Not once has he ever compared the two. His loyalty, as a captain, is to the guy wearing the coach’s jacket.
His biggest loyalty is to his players and he is a disciple of shared leadership within the squad. He never makes a decision alone, but once a decision is made he always takes the responsibility.
White, technically brilliant, had player management shortcomings. Step in Smit. De Villiers, his player management his strength, is technically not as strong as White. Step in Smit.
Show him any pity and he is quick to cut you short.
‘I have been privileged to play for and captain the Boks, but I know it isn’t the real world. We live in a bubble as international sportsmen and I live very much in the real world. If I didn’t, my wife, family and close friends would quickly set that right.’
At a very early age he understood the politics of rugby, the role of the media and the bias of South Africa’s provincial support base. He never wasted energy trying to win popularity and allowed the critics their platform and their view.
What mattered to him was that he was grounded, honest with himself and honest with his team-mates.
He delivered his most inspirational speech during the World Cup quarter-final against Fiji when he told his players he could see in their eyes they were on their way home and that he sure as hell wasn’t ready to leave France for another two weeks. They responded immediately.
That was just one example of his ability to inspire through honesty. Smit has always relied on telling it like it is. When asked what the difference was between the 2003 and 2007 World Cup campaigns he said in 2003 they went hoping they could win but never believed it to be possible. In 2007 he said they knew they could win. There was no need for hope or good luck – just hard work.
– This article first appeared in Business Day Sport Monthly magazine, which is distributed FREE with the newspaper on the second last Friday of the month.
173 Comments
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21 Aug 2010, 10:59 am
gotcha
21 Aug 2010, 11:03 am
Puma
no less than a Freudian, that one.
21 Aug 2010, 11:19 am
Goodluck John,
I think today you’re gonna need it.
21 Aug 2010, 11:36 am
What time is KO ?
21 Aug 2010, 11:57 am
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-104: beeb’s giving it at 2pm BST (which I think is 3pm CET)
21 Aug 2010, 12:02 pm
BH
cheers. Just found a bar down here that has Canal+ and the barman (whose English is worse than my Spanish) says coverage is from 1:15 til 4, which didn’t quite add up. And my wife is issuing strict non-parental duties conditions….
21 Aug 2010, 12:19 pm
@Hondo(Hondo)-10: Gary Player famously remarked when someone said he was lucky – “Its funny the harder I practice the luckier I get.”
Yes it may appear that the Springboks had the luck of the draw but it was down to the meticulous preparation and hard work put in from 2004 right up to the event.
The fact that the All Blacks kept on messing around with two teams leading up to the event and then didn’t know who to pick was down to poor preparation.
The fact Australia couldn’t match up to England up front meant they weren’t good enough.
France were not good enough to beat England ,who we beat twice, or Argentina who we beat in the semi-final meant they weren’t good enough.
So you see the best prepared team won the 2007 World Cup because the harder they practiced the luckier they got.
Well done Jake White, John Smit and the rest of the 2007 World Cup coaching and playing squads, you understood a number of things the ignorant don’t about what it takes to be winners. And they still think you were lucky!
21 Aug 2010, 12:31 pm
Ark
some fair points, partic re ABs rotation. But the ‘luck’ analogy is irrelevant given it applies not to the Boks but to the DRAW. You can practise all you like but Im sure they could turn up 100 times and still beat Fiji with 1 hand behind their back. SA have never ever lost to Fiji or Argie. Spin all you like but that’s a lucky draw which no team can practise for.
21 Aug 2010, 12:32 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-43: I don’t entirely agree with the glory days been over although the slippery slope has been obvious for all to see for a few years.
The coaching units at the Bulls, Stormers and even Sharks could turn things around in a heartbeat. The problems right now are down to an absolutely clueless coaching team who have no idea how to take this team forward.
21 Aug 2010, 12:47 pm
I think perhaps, the sooner Keo Junior takes over the Family Business, the better.
21 Aug 2010, 12:52 pm
@ARK(ARK)-109: Yep I agree. It is the coach, the assistant coaches and clearly the conditioning staff are not up to it.
Players seem fine at S14 level and CC looking hot with all sorts of style being played (Div says his problems are the Bulls and Sharks play the same but the Stormers don’t – I don’t know if he’s watched the Sharks these last 7 weeks, they have managed to adapt so he clearly talks hogwash.
THe only solution is a thorough beating and a firing of the coach. The guy is such a doooos he actually said if it wasn’t for apartheid he’d have been a bok!!! WTF? Delusions he has…
21 Aug 2010, 12:56 pm
@ARK(ARK)-109:
I think the slippery slope has more to with:
-15 Test Matches in the last yr.
-15 Super games for many of the Bulls and Stormers Boks.
-Curry Cup games for the Boks.
-A Barbarian game.
-Etc…….
There is only so much fuel in a tank.
21 Aug 2010, 12:57 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-71:
Your All Blacks beat a Springbok team. They didn’t beat THE Springbok team. A Springbok team for example, can often have Ricky Januarie starting. The Springbok team on the other hand has Fourie du Preez starting.
Keep that in mind, and remember we will have all of our players back come World Cup semi finals time. I wonder if Graham Henry’s fate will be similar to that of John Mitchell’s? Suppose he’ll be coaching the Lions under 11s side, seeing as he’d be twice the failure of Mitchell.
21 Aug 2010, 12:59 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-112: It would certainly help if the Coach brought something new to the table. He doesn’t, ask the players.
21 Aug 2010, 13:02 pm
@Black Panther(Black Panther)-108: Sorry, I don’t get the luck of the draw thing. To win the world cup the best teams have to be beaten at some stage. We should have played Wales and not Fiji in the quarters like NZ and Aus played NH teams. The fact Fiji won had nothing to do with the luck of the draw.
The fact NZ and Aus lost to France and England had nothing to do with the luck of the draw, they were beaten. We played Argentina in the semis because they beat France not because of the luck of the draw.
You see the luck of the draw had nothing to do with it if you face the facts. No spin on it at all.
21 Aug 2010, 13:06 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-112: For sure, but how is that significantly different for the All Blacks and Wallabies that they are so up for it and we are not?
21 Aug 2010, 13:08 pm
@Kobus Kitty(Kobus Kitty)-113: Im sorry, I thought the national springbok team was in fact
THE Springboks?
youve been to the BH school of injury excuses… shame then you didnt afford the same luxury last year huh? McCaw back from injury, Carter playing one game in the 3Ns versus SA, also coming back from injury… having to use players like Ross, a novice at the top level.. sounds like SA this year… so not too many kiwis getting ahead of themselves, we know you have endured what we did last year..
something you miss when you are full of bravado..
21 Aug 2010, 13:09 pm
KKK
We do not distinguish between teams, if they have the Silver Fern on their chests, they are playing for the All Blacks and representing all of NZ.
I don’t like to see Donald Duck in that jersey but he earned the right. No excuses, either, when “non Bok” teams with Januarie score historic wins at my beloved House of Pain. But, then, I’m guessing you had no problem with that either.
21 Aug 2010, 13:11 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-117: Don’t pay attention. We lost. The guys on our field are just a small part of the problem that starts where everyone except south africans can see.
I am already embarrassed, please don’t make it worse, I am expecting a proper hiding again today, and also expecting excuses, whining, gnashing of teeth, civil war and general expulsion of all white people because of it.
21 Aug 2010, 13:13 pm
@Kobus Kitty(Kobus Kitty)-113:
FdP is injured, is he not Kobie?
If so, then your post……………….in a word………………is……………………..craap.
Ali Williams is not playing for NZ. But this is STILL the All Blacks.
And this Springbok Team is very experienced.
21 Aug 2010, 13:24 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-119:
Todays Test will be a Titanic clash Goodie.
Whoever wins.
I just hope the Officials, don’t reduce the game to a farce like some of the previous 3N Tests this year.
The Paying Public deserve some consideration when “cards” are dished out.
21 Aug 2010, 13:24 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-119: I dont envision a hiding at all.. the ABs have experience playing in front of such a big crowd, an advantage I think because players like JDJ may just be overawed at the start, or over psyched (which can happen to any player)… the Bokke also have had time to stew on all the negativity they have copped, so expecting it to be very fiery..
The atmosphere will be amazing, have sat in a 90000 strong crowd before (first ever State of Origin at the olympic stadium in Sydney)..
think the ABs will pip the Bokke by 9 points… 3 tries to one.. though would not be upset with a Bokke win…might just help us stay on track for next year..
21 Aug 2010, 13:34 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-121: Yep, we can all agree on that, I hope the ref steps up and it’s a good game, won by rugby.
Enjoy it chaps and good luck to you and Poppa
21 Aug 2010, 13:38 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-123: cheers GYGT2… good luck to your team too..will miss the game, working early morning and cant record the thing… so farkin annoyed
21 Aug 2010, 14:05 pm
Yes Poppa hope it`s a great contest today,cheers mate
21 Aug 2010, 14:07 pm
If SARU had any brains(ok I know I am asking the impossible as there are too many Neanderthals ‘van die noorde’ in the exec.)they could help sort out the jelly like ATTITUDE of the ‘Boks by firing up their soft backsides with the demand that thet captain and vice-captain hand over the TN trophy for they have defintely lost it.
Forget about what any mathematician miight claim for the reality is that these ABs have definetly won it.
With this instruction te ‘Boks will hae both ALTITUDE and now ATTITUDE working for them. All they then need to attend to is execution. There very smartly and quickly I have sorted 80% of their huge problem.
21 Aug 2010, 14:07 pm
-Boks have won 8 from 11 against NZ in J/burg.
-They are well rested, (or should be).
-They have motivation.
-They have experienced and seasoned players.
-They will have perhaps the largest Rugby Crowd ever, in SA, to support Them.
-They have ALTITUDE.
-Their Media, and Coaching Staff, will have done their best to poison the Neutral Match Officials, “balance of judgement” at the breakdown.
-Susan Dawn Von Dronkelaar will be on stand-by.
-Solid Gold Watches polished.
-Pieter van Zyll will have been crash tacking Referee dumbies.
-Nelson will be wearing his #7 Springbok Jersey.
-Hansie will be placing bets in Hades.
-Bishop Desmond will be putting his feet up, in front of the tellie………..chuckling to himself…………..knowing a Bokke with his back to wall, is a Bokke worth watching.
-The Irish, Oz, Kiwi Conspiracy Pact will hold no water in the Republic.
-Victor will NOT have had a shave.
-Previous Greats from the Republic of Eye Gougers, will do their bit, to motivate the current crop of Gougers. Naas, Dannie, Jan, Breton, Dawie.
-And most importantly……….Bakkies will not be playing, so the Team may get through 80 minutes without a card.
28-28.
no bonus points for either team.
21 Aug 2010, 14:10 pm
@goyougoodthing2(goyougoodthing2)-123:
Thank You Goodie.
Likewise to you.
21 Aug 2010, 14:11 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-127:
You seem to be hitting the flask hard already,hope you dont pass out in a drunken stupor and miss the game.
21 Aug 2010, 14:13 pm
@wpforever(wpforever)-125: as much as I dish out the rubbish, nothing excites me more in rugby parlance as an AB/Bokke clash..
always has, always will…
21 Aug 2010, 14:26 pm
@Fern(Fernly)-129:
Game is too late for me Fernly. I’ll get the replay tomorrow.
Since we only need 1 poxy bonus point, I don’t see the point of staying up.
Your Mob on the other hand need:
-To win.
-To win by more than 7.
-To score 4 or more tries.
-To stop NZ scoring 4 or more tries.
And what do you fools do……………………put Aplon at fullback.
Your Lot may have had Christian Barnard do the 1st heart transplant,
but you ain’t exactly got Brain Surgeons running the SARU, now have you Fernly?
21 Aug 2010, 14:30 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-131:
Fully agree with the last sentence.
We also have quata’s to deal with and we are not surrounded by heaps of islands where we can poach talent from.
vodacom is setting up a camera at halftime that takes 900 000 photos per min and creates a 3d photo you will be able to see on their website in due course,you can even zoom in on people’s faces.
there is gonna be lot’s of eyecandy for you there to look at.
21 Aug 2010, 14:46 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-124: Convenient excuse, eh, Soixant-neuf.
Or just a subtle hiding away…
Typical multiface Kiwi…
21 Aug 2010, 14:47 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-130: You don’t “dish out” rubbish, it comes naturally for abullshitter…
21 Aug 2010, 14:47 pm
Amid all this thoroughly entertaining drivel, can someone please confirm kick-off SA time, so I can figure out what time it starts this side of the pond?
21 Aug 2010, 14:50 pm
@KeyserSoze(KeyserSoze)-135: 5pm SA time.
21 Aug 2010, 14:50 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-133: now now mate, youre the last one to be talking about hanging around surely?
remind me of that place you disappeared to?
karma karma karma chameleon aye boy george..
anyways, good luck tonight… may the best team win… will be back in 8 hours time, not three weeks chump..
kia kaha black…
21 Aug 2010, 14:50 pm
@Heavens Game(Heathens Game)-133:
With fans like you HG,
this game would be banned in heaven.
21 Aug 2010, 14:50 pm
@KeyserSoze(KeyserSoze)-135: Coverage at 3:30pm GMT
21 Aug 2010, 14:51 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-137: Run away now, like many a Kiwi with tail between legs after an encounter with a bit of Bok beef…
21 Aug 2010, 14:54 pm
@Panzer Chief(cane)-138: Should be banned in middle earth too – with your tyranny of helter-skelter league style cr.ap that you antipodeans try and impose on the World of Rugby Union with all your law changes and interpretation tweaks…
21 Aug 2010, 14:55 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-140: hahaha ..mate take your pills
how was France after the bokke loss at Eden park? must have been a dampener… lucky there was no internet access for you to
“man up” huh
but keep going, its fun to see your neurosis in full flight..
21 Aug 2010, 14:58 pm
@Puma(Puma)-136: Merci beaucoup, much obliged, mate! Should be a cracking atmosphere in front of a record crowd with plenty on the line, so it seems!
21 Aug 2010, 14:59 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-142: The only neurosis I’m going to see is the typical kiwi “what the fark happened” type when the ref can’t help out your vuilgat players…
21 Aug 2010, 15:01 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-144: that well may be the case, but if the ABs do lose, it will only be a phyrric victory..
but Im sure you will be in full voice, however duplicitous we are, youve been the epitome of revenge ever since returning from that convenient trip to “France”
loving it!!
21 Aug 2010, 15:03 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-145: No revenge, but for kiwis the truth is hard to take when you unwrap the outward ab “awesomeness” and all that remains is nothing more than helter-skelter rabbit rugger…
21 Aug 2010, 15:06 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-146: puh-lease… your posts are full of the R word (and no, not the R word everyone falls back upon lol)
you just cant admit the kiwis play a style that is capable of testing and beating you guys, and the fact your physicality doesnt deter us..
deep down, you admire that about them pesky south sea islanders, your fascination with the place is evident
21 Aug 2010, 15:08 pm
@poppa69(poppa69)-147: helter-skelter rabbit rugger with a good dose of blatant cheating overlooked by those ever friendly paddies-in-the-pocket refs…
21 Aug 2010, 15:10 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-148: It is actually so bad that prediction of games can now be based on who the ref is. Thank you Paddy O Brien…
21 Aug 2010, 15:13 pm
@Heavens Game(Heavens Game)-149:
Who do you think we can retire to take Paddy’s position?
Kaplan perhaps
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