John Smit - The schoolboy
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:36
(From left to right:) Peter de Villiers, Jannie Biddulph, Paul Anthony and John Smit pose for a picture this week. (c) Gallo
John Smit, round-faced and smiling, groomed and shaven, still looks like the ideal schoolboy, still the head prefect, still an icon as he was at Pretoria Boys High. But now he is those things to a much wider community, one the top South Africans of our time.
For his 100th Test match, just the second South African to achieve a century of international caps, he has invited two of his schoolboy coaches to hand out the jerseys and to speak to the players - Paul Anthony and Jannie Biddulph who has flown from Dubai for the occasion.
It was right to speak about this glorious schoolboy - to Bill Schroeder, the former headmaster of Pretoria Boys high, who admitted Smit to the school and whose headboy he became, and to Paul Anthony, who coached him throughout his school career and whose captain he became.
Headmaster and schoolboy:
Schroeder was the headmaster who received the application for admittance to Pretoria Boys High of the "fat little boy from Rustenburg" whose main game was tennis.
Schroeder interviewed Smit and accepted him as a boarder in Rissik House. In his matric year Smit captained the First XV, was head of house and headboy of the school. Apart from that he was playing for South African Schools.
Smit also played cricket, occasionally for the First XI ("He hit one of the biggest sixes I have ever seen on the First XI field") and was the No.3 tennis player in the school. There was also the matter of his studies as he was in matric but Schroeder says that he was academically able. It was a busy year.
Schroeder said that he still managed that demanding schedule with equanimity, a balanced boy, whom the others "worshipped". Schroeder was impressed with the calm way he could handle situations then and how he has managed change since leaving school. "He still has time for people and still has the same sort of presence he had as an 18-year-old. He can still draw people together."
He recalled how Richie McCaw was amazed when he and Smit were sharing a room on Barbarian duty. Smit took a phone call which lasted some 20 minutes. McCaw could not believe the intricate questions he was requite to answer, many of them with a political slant. McCaw added that he had none of those pressures. All he had to do was run first onto the field.
There was no disguising the fact that the boy was the hero to the man, the pupil to the headmaster.
John Smit, the schoolboy rugby player:
Paul Anthony, currently employed by the Blue Bulls and coaching their Under-19 side, had long been involved with top schoolboy teams - Pretoria Boys High, Blue Bulls at Craven Week, South African Schools and SA Under-19.
Anthony was a boy at Pretoria Boys High and then a teacher at the school. He coached Smit right through his school career, from Under-14 to First XV, and Smit, like Anthony, had three years in the First XV, Anthony as a flyhalf, Smit as a tighthead prop.
He talks happily about Smit - another case of the boy being hero to the man. "He was an amazing laaitie - down to earth, a good boy with a good sense of humour, a happy boy." But there was greater gravitas than that. "He had a commanding presence and was amenable to everybody."
Anthony is full of praise of Smit the schoolboy rugby player.
"He was big and quick, powerful and nimble. He was massive, weighting about 110kg but he was explosive and had good ball skills. Being one of the top tennis players in the school, he had good footwork and good hand-eye co-ordination. He was a ball-carrier who could pass well and kick surprisingly well. He was an all-rounder footballer."
Captain and coach always have a special relationship, and Anthony is pleased that Smit has lost none of the virtue he had as a schoolboy - trustworthiness, reliability and a sense of right and wrong - an honourable man. "He is honest enough to say his say and sensible enough not to get backs up when he did so."
Anthony added in conversation with rugby365.com: "I could tell him to run a scrumming practise for an hour while I was elsewhere, and that is what would happen - a good hour's scrumming. And nobody argued with him."
Another case perhaps of the boy being the man's hero. And yet the man was still enough of a hero to the hero for him to celebrate his grand occasion with him in the intimacy of his team, showing off his coach to his team.
By Paul Dobson
Contact Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Advertising
