Smit’s results speak for themselves

The debate about John Smit’s captaincy seems to be raging on, with some critics still not entirely convinced that Jake White was right to opt for the Pretoria Boys High old boy as his captain.

A caller to the Superrugby show on television the other night seemed quite frustrated that White could not see the light and was continuing with Smit as his captain despite the obvious evidence, in the caller’s view, that Smit was not the best hooker in the country.

For me the only obvious evidence in this whole debate is that the caller is wrong and that White was 100% correct in making the call. In professional sport results are everything and the facts, as per the win percentage statistics of Springbok captains, are clear for all to see.

The most successful Bok captain of all time is Morne du Plessis, who led his country 15 times in a captaincy career spanning four years (in those days there were not nearly as many tests as there are now), starting in 1976 with a series win over the All Blacks and ending with a series win over the Lions and a big one-off win over France at Loftus in 1980.

He lost just twice in those 15 tests, won the other 13, and that gave him a win percentage of 86%.

Joost van der Westhuizen currently lies second on the list. Even if his figures are misleading in that he only captained the team 10 times and some of those games were easy World Cup fixtures and the two match home series against Scotland, an 80% win percentage is nothing to quibble with.

Gary Teichmann, who led the side 36 times and won 26 of those games, comes in third with 72%, and Smit comes in fourth with a 70% record through 14 wins in 20 games. However, if you turn the statistics around, and look for a losing percentage, then Smit just edges Teichmann by virtue of the draw that was scored against the French earlier this season.

Smit’s record becomes a lot more impressive, however, when you look at his opponents. There was one early game against minnow opposition in the form of Georgia at the 2003 World Cup, a match some media statisticians appear to have forgotten about, and the romp against Uruguay earlier this year.

Otherwise all of the wins in Smit’s record were against traditional rugby powers (as opposed to Van der Westhuizen, who was in charge of the Bok team that beat Spain and Uruguay at the 1999 World Cup and against Uruguay in 2003) and most of the games were ones where a Bok victory was anything but a foregone conclusion.

All five of his defeats have come in tests away from home, and there is some truth in the saying that the proof of the pudding as an international captain should be the record in away tests.

Yet it should not be forgotten that three of those defeats were extremely narrow losses at venues where the Boks were up against top-notch opponents on grounds regarded as formidable obstacles to visiting teams: Christchurch, Brisbane and Dublin.

Smit led the Boks to a win in Cardiff at the start of the last overseas tour that was significant for more reasons than we realised at the time. Not only was it the first away win over a traditional rugby nation on their home ground since 2000, it also just happened to be against the team that were destined a few months later to become the new champions of Europe.

The opposition was not great when he led the side to a big win in Edinburgh a few weeks later, but then it was also a revamped Bok side with several international newcomers. It takes a good captain to lead a new team to victory in any test match at a foreign venue. The point is that whichever way you look at it, and in particular when you compare what came before, Smit has been a wonderfully successful Bok captain who has led a new team to unexpected victories.

Corne Krige, the man who led the Boks in the lean spell that preceded Smit’s ascendancy to the leadership, told me that if he were coaching he would choose his captain first and then the rest of the team. It is his belief that leadership is so important that it should not matter that the player may not be the best in his position.

In my opinion Smit is the best in his position anyway, but as Krige has a lot of experience of the role of Bok captain, his is a view that should be listened to. If John Smit was not captaining the Boks now, who would be? Victor Matfield doesn’t captain the Bulls, and the other candidates are also not leaders at provincial or regional level.

Indeed, there is no real success to speak of from South African teams at regional level in the Super 12. And yet the Boks ended last season as Tri-Nations champions. Makes you think, doesn’t it. Somebody somewhere is clearly doing something right. That somebody may just be John Smit…