Smittie underlines his value

John Smit could not have celebrated his 50th match as Springbok captain in a more convincing manner than he did against Wales in Bloemfontein, and it underlined what I said two columns ago – the Sharks definitely DO need him.

The Sharks have been undone in some important games in the past two seasons by the lack of experienced players on the field. It happened in last year’s Super 14 final, when Smit and Percy Montgomery had been replaced, and the naievity of some of the younger players allowed the Bulls to win it at the death.

Smit, like his fellow World Cup stalwart Butch James, showed against Wales that he is world class, and any team that he is available or wants to play for should snap him up. That includes of course the Springboks, and it was a master-stroke from coach Peter de Villiers to follow the lead of his predecessor Jake White by appointing Smit as his captain before the season had even started. And if you recall that at the time of Smit's appointment there were some influential people in SA rugby dead against the idea, then De Villiers' decision becomes even more praiseworthy.

His importance to the Boks was evident in more than just his general play at Vodacom Park. There had been much talk over the past few months of the off-the-cuff rugby that would be introduced under De Villiers, but in this match the Boks produced nothing of the kind.

Indeed, if you had taken leave of the country and rugby at the final whistle to last year’s World Cup final, and had not read a single report related to the sport since then, you would easily have imagined that White was still coaching the team.

Apart from the changes to playing personnel, there was not a lot that was different, with the experienced players such as Smit, James and Juan Smith leading the way in ensuring that the Boks played with the confidence and poise you would expect from a world champion team.

In my previous column I criticised De Villiers for having a go at the White regime, where the players were labelled as robotic, but if that was an indication that we were suddenly going to see the ball spread to the wing in willy-nilly fashion, the intention did not translate into reality. Everything was highly structured, and Bryan Habana only received the ball once in the first half off a full line movement, which was not much different from last year’s World Cup final.

The Bok approach in Bloemfontein was spot-on, and the Welsh back three were horribly exposed by James’ boot. For the Welsh it really was a case of four bombs and you are out, and the one advantage of having played so many months under the ELVs, where this tactic was so much more in evidence than under the old laws, was shown in the way the Boks profited from it.

The Bok strategy in the first match of 2008 is not necessarily an indication that they won’t shift away from the basic tenets of the White approach. Rugby is a fluid game, with constantly changing trends, and De Villiers is right to recognise the folly of staying rooted to the same spot. To do that would be asking to be left behid.

But when you are advancing from a successful, solid base like the one that has been created for the new Bok management, it makes sense for change to be gradual. And everything has to be built off a structured base, which it was last Saturday. Test rugby is a different animal to the other levels where the current coaching team have operated, and full marks to all of them for letting Smit play a leading role in helping manage the transition.

On the subject of Test rugby, however, we have to again question the relevance of fixtures such as the one in Bloemfontein given that the Welsh, as usually is the case when Home Unions tour here at this time of the year, were under-strength.

To me they also looked fatigued after their long season – remember they would all have been playing non-stop since before the World Cup – and certainly didn’t bring the fire and passion that they had promised at their arrival press conference.

When the Boks go to the United Kingdom and Europe on end of year tours they also often go under-strength, so this is not a criticism of the northern hemisphere unions. Sometimes too much is taken out of the players’ bodies for them to be effective and mount a realistic challenge when they go into their 11th month of consecutive rugby.

The answer to this problem, and it has been written over and over again, is to introduce a global season. That way we might see meaningful Test rugby, and the crowds that didn’t pitch up at Vodacom Park would start to show some interest.