Neil Back

Backy: Smit one of the greats

Fri Jul 31 01:40PM

John Smit's value to South Africa will be put into perspective when he captains his country for a record 60th time in the Tri-Nations clash with New Zealand.

That is some achievement and I take my hat off to him. There's not much the hooker-cum-prop has not accomplished in the game.

He has captained the Springboks to World Cup and Tri-Nations titles, as well as a series win over the Lions, and his ability to play at the highest level across the front row is some feat.

Smit is an excellent ball-carrier and technician, and clearly a fine leader who has a very good relationship with officials. As we saw when he came back on late in the first Test against the Lions, he is very much South Africa's talisman and gives the whole team confidence.

There is an aura about Smit that and reminds me of Martin Johnson, and he will rightly also go down as one of the greats of the game.

The Springboks' victory over New Zealand last weekend merely backed up what we already knew from the Lions series - that they are a very good team.

They looked very comfortable in the first half against the All Blacks and really should have been 20 points to the good. New Zealand came back well after the break - as you expect from any All Blacks team - but for me the Springboks were deserved winners.

New Zealand seem to be having problems at nine and 10, where they haven't had a settled partnership since Dan Carter got injured and Byron Kelleher retired from international rugby.

For me, the All Blacks have got to learn to cope better with Carter, and their skipper Richie McCaw for that matter. They are both top, top players and would be missed by any team in rugby, but the All Blacks rely on them too much.

We saw in the defeat to France earlier this summer, when both Carter and McCaw were out injured, that they are not the same team without them.

I expect the All Blacks to be a lot better in Durban - they don't lose twice on the bounce very often - but I think South Africa will make it two wins from two.

Another thing that struck me was the way the breakdown was refereed, and this is an issue I think the IRB need to address urgently.

There is too much discrepancy in the way the breakdown laws are interpreted around the world and we need consistency.

The All Blacks struggled to interpret the referee in Bloemfontein and got pinged regularly - I have a certain amount of sympathy for them.

I have noticed that you can play a certain way week in, week out, being allowed to do things, and then next game you get pulled up for doing exactly the same.

The exact rule is that you have to release the ball immediately when you go to ground, but as we all know there are ways of manipulating your body that allows you to gain that extra second, which can prove vital to securing the ball.

I've noticed that teams are now taking a different approach Before they were stopping at the breakdown but now it's all about winning that extra yard beyond the ball.

It's a crucial part of the game and at Leeds we have been talking to leading referees throughout the summer to try and better our understanding of exactly what they expect.

But for me there are still too many grey areas and I suspect it could have a huge bearing on the outcome of the Springboks-All Blacks game.

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