Smit ignoring record to keep Boks firing

SOUTH AFRICA captain John Smit has put his personal milestone aside and vowed to concentrate only on beating New Zealand today as the world champions aim to continue their winning start to the Tri-Nations.

The 31-year-old will become the most capped captain in world rugby when he leads the Springboks out for the 60th time at the Absa Stadium in Durban.

However, Smit insists his sole focus will be on defeating the All Blacks for the second consecutive weekend following last Saturday’s 28-19 triumph in Bloemfontein.

“It’s quite a nice moment, and I know it’s been the talking point this week, but I don’t want it to be,” said Smit.

“It’s a nice thing individually but it creates sideshows and distractions to what we are going to achieve on Saturday as a team.

“I’ve tried to think about it as little as possible. I probably wouldn’t know how many caps I have overall, if I had to be honest. I’m not very clued up about those things.”

Smit will win his 86th cap today and lead his country for the 60th time, surpassing former England captain Will Carling and Australian George Gregan — who share the record of 59 Tests as captain.

Other personal landmarks today will see wing Bryan Habana and centre Jean de Villiers claim their 50th Springbok caps.

Fly-half Morne Steyn’s inclusion in place of the injured Ruan Pienaar is the only change to Peter de Villiers’ South Africa side from last weekend.

Another victory would give the Springboks a healthy advantage at the top of the Tri-Nations standings, with Graham Henry’s New Zealand the only other team to have posted a win so far, courtesy of a hard-fought 22-16 win over Australia in Auckland two weeks ago.

But Smit knows today’s task will be far from straightforward and has warned his team to beware the wounded All Blacks.

“We can take for granted after last week’s game that there will be a backlash from them,” he said.

“Them not being themselves last week is something we have factored into our build-up. All three teams have done what they need to from a technical point of view.”

He added: “Winning two in a row against the All Blacks is paramount to the sort of success we hope to have in the Tri-Nations.

“I don’t think there are much greater challenges than facing the All Blacks two weeks in a row and it used to be norm some time back.”

New Zealand captain Richie McCaw is hoping his team learn from their early mistakes in their opening two Tri-Nations matches as they look to avenge last weekend’s defeat to South Africa in Durban today.

With McCaw back to lead the way, the All Blacks shrugged off their indifferent early-season form to come from behind and record a hard-fought 22-16 win against Australia in Auckland two weeks ago.

Graham Henry’s side finished strongly again last weekend against the Springboks in Bloemfontein but, despite a furious second-half rally, the world champions held on for a 28-19 triumph.

McCaw has urged his side not to allow today’s encounter at Kings Park to follow a similar pattern.

The 28-year-old said: “I think last week it was just mistakes that we made. I think in the first game against the Aussies we were just off the pace physically. We failed a few tackles and things like that and that allowed them to get on top of us before we got back into the game.”

The All Blacks recovered from a 17-3 deficit early in the second half last weekend to get within four points, but the hosts sealed the deal when Jaque Forrie went over eight minutes from time to make it 25-16.

“Last week, we started off maybe over physical and gave away a couple of penalties that caused us to be at the wrong end of the field,” McCaw continued.

“We’ve just got to make sure we start with that real physical edge. We’ve got to be calm and not give away silly penalties or make silly mistakes, which allows the pressure to build on you.”

Owen Franks will start his first Test for New Zealand today at tight-head prop having come off the bench for his three previous All Blacks caps.

The 21-year-old Crusaders star comes in for Neemia Tialata, who sprained his right knee during the 28-19 defeat by the Springboks in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

The other change comes at half-back, where Jimmy Cowan replaces Brendon Leonard, while John Afoa is among the replacements.