3 thoughts on “Player Profile: Smit, John

  1. Where did you grow up: Penge, Potgietersrus, Pietersburg, Mooinooi, Naboomspruit and Boksburg
    Favourite International Player: Gary Teichmann (A humble leader who played awesome rugby and has great values)
    Favourite Springbok: As above
    Superstition: Black underpants
    Career Goals: To win the Super 14 and World Cup in 2007. My future goal is to maintain some sort of normality in life after rugby – somewhere in the distant future
    What is your motivation or motto in life? It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice
    What is the worst part of training hard: That’s while you are doing it, and the best part is the satisfied feeling you get afterwards
    Qualifications/Studies: BA (Pmb Varsity) – 7 months!!
    What other sports do you play? Squash, Golf and surfing in the mornings until my daughter was born
    What won’t get you out of bed in the morning? Telephone ringing
    Pets: We have three dogs: 2 Sharpeis – Bob and Toby, and a Neopolitan Mastiff, Lucy
    What is in your fridge at home? Oros, Milk for coffee and Jelopeno Tabasco Sauce are standard, and then the usual groceries
    What is in your CD collection? CDs are gone, MP3s are in and I have a very wide variety
    Name your three most treasured possessions: My two girls, my car and my Apple Mac, sorry, and my iPod
    What really annoys you? Taxis using the emergency lane to overtake in heavy traffic
    About the player… As captain of both the Springboks and Sharks, John Smit is a vital component in the Sharks arsenal, not only for his on-field efforts, but the leadership he brings to the side. In 2004, as Springbok Captain, he led the national side to their first Tri-Nations title since 1998, and his leadership role for the Sharks is undeniably just as important. He is highly respected by not only his teammates but also opponents, and will be looking to play a leading role in 2007, both for the Sharks and the Springboks in this Rugby World Cup year.

  2. Smit’s player profile:

    67 Springbok caps – 65 caps as hooker, two as prop, 42 caps as captain, 15 points in Tests (3 tries).

    He made debut as a substitute against Canada in 2000, was 39 times on the winning side, losing 26 with two drawn.

    Captaincy record:

    Won 27, lost 14 and one draw for a win percentage of 64% (fourth highest percentage of SA captains in more than 10 matches).

    Current records:

    Most Tests as captain (42); most Tests as hooker (65); most consecutive Tests for SA (46).

    Made his first class debut in 1997. Since then he played in 65 matches for the Sharks and scored 14 tries for 70 points. He played in 85 Super Rugby matches for The Sharks, scoring five tries for 25 points.

    Represented Blue Bulls at the 1996 Coca-Cola Craven Week and was also a member of the SA Schools team that year.

    He also played for SA Under-21 team between 1996 and 1999 and was the captain of the SA team who captured the Sanzar/UAR Under-21 championships title in Argentina.

    Was nominated as Young Player of the Year in 1999.

    Under his captaincy Springboks won coveted IRB Team of the Year award in 2004, the Springboks captured Tri-Nations title in 2004 with Smit as captain.

    SA Rugby Player’s Player of the Year in 2005.

    Has played in 239 first class matches.

  3. Away from the sweat, blood and brawn of international rugby, the captain of the Springboks is not the battle-hardened bruiser you thought you knew. By Andy Capostagno

    In 1997, when the British and Irish Lions last visited these shores, John Smit was a 19-year-old kid with stars in his eyes. Twelve years later he has a World Cup winner’s medal and has captained the Springboks more times than anyone else in history. This may well be his last season at international level and victory against the Lions would allow him to step down from one of the most stressful jobs in sport as a happy and fulfilled man.

    Smit is one of the bruisers who play in the front row. His friends, but not his family, call him “Barney”, because of a passing resemblance to Fred Flintstone’s sidekick, Barney Rubble. He’s passionate about sports cars, knows how to inspire fellow players and fully intends to carry on playing rugby after his professional days are over.

    So far, so familiar: there are thousands of guys like John Smit in this country. But the veteran of 81 test matches is also a committed family man, who likes to give his wife yellow roses and agonises about spending too much time away from his two children.

    He is also mentoring one of his chief rivals for the Springbok number two jersey, and once refused to swap jerseys with an opponent, because the one Smit was wearing was too significant. Scratch the surface and you discover that Smit is a rather different animal from the one you thought you knew.

    Roxanne “Roxy” Smit has been married to John for four and a half years. They have a three-year-old daughter, Emma-Joan, and Tyron John, a son approaching his first birthday. While not exactly childhood sweethearts, Roxy and John go back a long way.

    “We first met at primary school in Rustenburg when we were 11,” says John, now 31. “Roxy was the first girl I ever kissed, and vice versa. We were in the same class for three years and then she went to Potchefstroom Girls High and I went to Pretoria Boys High.

    “We used to bump into each other in Rustenburg when we were both back on holiday; during our matric finals a mutual friend who was also with us from a young age, Shane, suggested we all go out for a drink. There were two exams left and they weren’t very important ones. It became like a school reunion and then Roxy begged me to. .. ”

    “Oh yeah,” interjects Roxy, “this is the guy who told everyone how badly I kissed when we were how old? And then he came back for more.”

    “And we’ve been together since that night,” continues John.

    They’ve been an item for 13 years, but only got married in 2004. On their wedding day Roxy discovered just how romantic her beau was. “I walked into my changing room and John had thrown roses all over the floor and there was a potted yellow rose bush. John always buys me yellow roses. There was also a copy of the Natal Mercury for that day, December 16 2004, a bottle of wine for the year we met and another for the year we got married. Even the makeup lady was in tears.”

    It was, naturally enough, out of rugby season, so there was nothing libellous about John in the Mercury that day. But in many ways, getting married was the easy part. Planning a family got way more complicated.

    “We’d spoken about kids for a long time and Roxy said, ‘But you’re playing and you’re never home.’ Eventually I said, ‘If we don’t have them now when will we?’

    Then, on January 6 2006, on Roxy’s birthday, I wrote a note in her birthday card. It said, ‘I love you lots’ and all the rest and at the end it said, ‘Let’s start trying to have a family.’ About two weeks later, Roxy discovered she was pregnant already and had been for about four weeks.”

    The problem was that Emma-Joan arrived late in 2006, and 2007 was a World Cup year. “For her first eight months I was probably with her for three,” said John. “But last year was way worse. The Sharks played the Currie Cup final on October 25 and Tyron was born on the morning of the 24th.

    “I was there for the birth, then shot down to Absa Stadium for captain’s practise, checked up on her that night and then again the next morning. Played the game, won the final, got through the traffic and reached the hospital at about 10pm. I had to sneak in because visitors aren’t allowed at that time of night. Brought them both home on Monday and left to go on tour on Tuesday. I was gone for seven weeks.”

    Which rather aptly answers the question about how John handles the pressure of being Springbok captain. It pales into insignificance beside the daily pressures of family life. “You do feel guilty, because you know how much of a burden it is on your wife. I was away and Roxy was juggling a newly born baby and a two-year-old — and you know that at two they’ve got a constant supply of Red Bull flowing through their veins.

    “She phoned me one day on tour, because there were two guys busy trying to break into the house across the road. I was in London and she woke me up in the middle of the night to say, ‘Just stay on the phone, I’m hiding upstairs with the two kids in their room.’”

    Nevertheless, it is through rugby that the Smits have been able to live comfortably. Under John’s captaincy the Springboks won the World Cup for a second time and, after that tournament in France two years ago, word leaked out about the power of his pre-match team talks. He had something to say to everyone and his coach, Jake White, made it clear to the media that, whatever form Smit the player might display, Smit the captain was a different animal.

    “I’m not much of a preparation guy when it comes to speaking. People think that the Braveheart speech is going to bring results every Saturday, but more often than not it’s the actions and preparation during the week that dictate what, if anything, I have to say on Saturday.

    In the first year or two you think about it and you actually get stressed thinking about what you’re going to say and what sort of story you should use to get the best out of these guys; how do you get them worked up?

    “It gets easier the better you get to know the players around you. Some players need the “ra-ra” and some don’t. Some players get worked up from Monday and some only five minutes before kick-off.

    “I do a lot of public speaking and I very rarely write a speech down. More often than not I’ll get to the venue, meet some of the people and get a flavour as to what’s required. And that’s very much what I do with the team. You need to think about tactics instead of getting into a huddle and saying, ‘Tonight we conquer.’”

    After winning the Webb Ellis Trophy in France, the Smits relocated there when John signed to play for Clermont-Ferrand.

    It was a pragmatic move based on John’s earning potential in France and the feeling that, with Jake White gone, the incoming Springbok coach might have other ideas on who to play at hooker.

    Chiliboy Ralepelle, for instance, the Bulls hooker who regards John as his mentor and finished his schooling at John’s alma mater, Pretoria Boys High.

    Ralepelle was identified as early as 2005 as the heir-apparent to both the hooking berth and the captaincy. He even led a Springbok XV against a World XV in England in 2006, but injuries have since interrupted his career.

    “I speak to Chiliboy reasonably often. It’s a bit less at the moment, because he’s playing for the Bulls and I’m playing for the Sharks, but it’s nice when we’re in the Springbok squad together. I enjoy watching him, especially this year, because he has come out of his shell.

    “He’s always had a heap of potential but been bogged down by injuries; but he’s finally come into his own. I still believe he’s going to play a massive role. ”

    As it turned out the Smits were only in France for nine months as Peter de Villiers, White’s successor as Springbok coach, had no intention of letting the World Cup-winning captain’s experience go to waste.

    And so he will be at the helm for the series against the British and Irish Lions, the first visit by the composite British team to these shores in 12 years.

    In some ways it will bring John’s career full circle. He recalled a day in 1997 when the Lions came to Durban: “I made my Sharks debut when I came off the bench for a few minutes against Western Province, but the following week we were playing the Lions. I came on with 10 minutes to go. It was an amazing experience, but the significance of the game was that we had special jerseys struck with the Lions badge on and it was going to be the first Natal jersey that I would be allowed to keep.

    “Afterwards in the changing rooms, the chap that I had scrummed against came to me and asked if I would like to swap jerseys. I explained the situation to him and told him that I had only just started playing for the Sharks, but I was feeling bad and obviously I would have loved a Lion’s jersey.

    “The guy was half taken aback, but he left and I showered and dressed and when I went outside there was Jason Leonard holding a bag. He said, ‘I heard your story, I wish you luck in your career and I’d like you to have my jersey.’”

    Leonard became the most capped forward in international rugby history.

    Four years later, John started in a test against the legendary prop at Twickenham. After the game he handed the Englishman his Springbok jersey and said, ‘I finally returned the favour.’”

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