Smit reveals Bok World Cup plans

John Smit, speaking after the announcement of the Springbok team to contest the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, revealed what it would take for the Boks to bring home the William Webb Elllis Trophy for a second time.

He was asked about the key factors required for success in rugby’s showpiece event.

“The vibe is one of the most important factors of having a successful campaign, it is one that has been coming since 2004, since the guys have been getting together. The core of this 30 know each other like the back of their hands.

“We’ve got some experienced guys, Os and Monty, and the beauty about having guys like that is that the youngsters, the Francois Steyns and Pierre Spies’s can feed off them.

“There’s a huge amount of respect and interaction as well in this squad. In terms of the type of spirit that we have, that will be one of the biggest influences in our success or lack thereof.

“It is certainly the best environment I’ve been part of in any team.

“I’ve been playing since 1997 and the only reason it is like that is because there has been consistency.

“For four years we’ve been getting together, for four years we’ve been taking the Mickey out of each other, suffering together, rejoicing together, and that’s made a huge impact on the type of environment that we’ve got here.

“There’s no airs and graces about any of these guys – we’ve got no rock stars.

“Even though we’ve got guys with massive profiles, they are all down to earth – everyone can sit around a table and have a really good time and that for me is a really important thing, because of the diverse cultures we have in this country.

“If you achieve something like that it means you’ve done something right.

“A lack of injuries will certainly help us, because injuries will mean we will have to go to a plan B in terms of personnel – especially if you lose important players.

“Then there’s got to be game breakers and certainly we need that.

“No doubt we’ve got game breakers — like the Bryan Habanas, the JP Pietersens, the Schalk Burgers, the Pierre Spies’s, the Bob Skinstad and the Victor Matfields.

“We’ve got those guys and we need those guys to be on song, but we need the team to be feeling good about what they’re doing and how they’re playing and believe in the way that they are going to play.

“From the first game all the way through to the Final they need to believe it is the right way.

“The other guy that I believe will be a key is Percy Montgomery. When the penalty comes and I look back Monty is running, because he knows, put the ball down and get the three points and start again.

“That’s going to be a major factor. I’ve chatted to Shaun Sowerby who’s been playing in France for some time now, and he says there you don’t mess around. If you get an opportunity you put points on the board and if you’ve got a guy like Monty you take that opportunity

“A lot of it is also going to depend on what you do with your own ball, how well you keep it, and for me paramount is how rock solid our defence is going to be.”

When asked what the biggest stumbling blocks could be for the Boks in pursuit of their second title, he said:

“If we get a bit ahead of ourselves. That is always one of my primary concerns in this team, that we think of our next task only and taking it one step at a time to get to that final destination.

“If we start thinking about England, or we starting thinking about the quarterfinals, or who we should beat to get this team or that, it could be a massive negative towards this squad.

“We’re a squad that likes to do the hard work, we like to defend well, we like to run hard, we like to play a physical type of game.

“To be able to do that we have to be focused on every single game, one by one, that’s certainly what I’ll try and make sure of over the next three months,” concluded the Bok captain.