Jean de Villiers should captain the Boks
Posted by | Posted in Springboks | Posted on 03-12-2008
I was having a chat with Ron over the weekend and we raised the issue about the Bok captaincy. There is no doubting that John Smit is a great captain and his leadership is second to none but looking forward to the 2011 World Cup, will John Smit still be good enough to be commanding a place in the Bok starting XV based on his ability as a player or would he just picked picked purely as being a good leader?
During the end of year tour that has just passed us, John Smit was moved to the tighthead position. This to me was a move which has a lot of angles to look at it from. Firstly, Smit was not the best hooker and still is not the best hooker in the country anymore. That role now goes to Bismarck du Plessis. So Smit would have been dropped from the Bok starting XV but then they thought that we still need Smit in the team to be the captain so thus they moved him to tighthead prop. I am not too sure you can call John Smit the best tighthead prop in the country right now and I am sure come 2011 he will not be the best so thus he may not have a place in the team come then.
For me, John Smit is in the Springbok team as a captain and not as a hooker or prop. Victor Matfield has stepped up to be captain of the Boks when Smit is not available. For me, I do not think Victor is a great captain and can not see him leading the Boks come 2011. At times when Victor has been captain and the Boks have looked for leadership from Victor, the Bulls lock has more often than not been found missing.
So thus my thought of having Jean de Villiers as the next Springbok captain. I personally would give Jean the role as earlier as next year after the Lions Tour and Tri-Nations. Smit is the right man capable of leading the Boks against the Lions and he deserves that honour. But then I feel Jean should be given the role during the end of year tour and start building him up to lead the Boks in 2011.
Jean has already had experience as a captain by leading the Stormers and he has done a great job at that. Jean is not only a good captain but a damn good player. He is without a doubt the best number 12 in the game today. In Jean you have a great leader whom the rest of the team will respect and more often than not, players look to the captain for inspiration and if the player is a great player, as in Jean’s case, then they will draw from Jean’s amazing ability on the field.
I see Jean playing past 2011 if he does not pick up further injuries and he will still remain a world class player by 2011, whereas I do not see John Smit being at the highest level come 2011.
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While I fully agree with your sentiments regarding Jean De Villiers and the fact that he can be a good captain, I cannot agree with your take on John Smit. Personally, I feel that while he may not always be the very best in his position at any given time, John certainly makes up for it through inspiration, motivation and just sheer guts and determination. John has the X Factor that cannot be coached or bought. A player either has it or not. My fear is that while it may be easy to find a replacement based on form, the effect of having no John Smit in the team may not be obvious to the eye but eventually it will affect the team’s moral and mindset. John Smit for me falls into the same category of players such as Sean Fitzpatrick, Martin Johnson, Peter Du Randt and John Eales.
The boks have made the same mistake with players like Gary Teichmann in the past and they should not repeat the same mistake again. At various points of his carreer, George Gregan had half the Aus press calling for Matt Henjak to take over coz Georgy was having some terrible games but his coaches nboth at the Brumbies and Wallabies stuck by him. It is not that they do not see his dip in form but they understand that there is more to lose from his absence than his presence. John Smit is a rare kind of player and please do not right him off due to form. If PDV sticks to him, his faith shall be rewarded. Unlike backline players, front rankers only mature with age and they reach their prime around 32-35 years. John Smit could well be another Os at the 2011 WC.
I can see where Guru is coming from and having spoken with Tian about this topic at length on the weekend I still agree that Jean is the right man for the job. Picking a player as a captain is not good enough especially when there are other players better than him. Lets not forget, Smit has not really been tested yet as a tighthead on the big stage and he may crumble.
Give Smit time i.e. Super 14, Lions Tour and Tri-Nations as a prop and lets see what he is made of before we decide on his fate.