With his 100thTest looming on Saturday for John Smit i found this article by Mike Greenaway. What a place to reach this milestone. In front of the biggest Rugby crowd this century in South Africa. FNB Stadium will witness the Worlds most capped captain reaching his century.

Just six days out from the FNB Stadium showdown with the All Blacks, John Smit is closing in on his century of Test caps. Unlike the batsman in the nervous nineties he is sure to certain to reach three figures (unless the hamstring strain that kept him from training last week intensifies), but the match is shaping up to be as much a watershed as it is a milestone for the illustrious Springbok captain.

Smit will not have been impervious to the growing clamour from disappointed fans that he is too old, too unfit and not suited to the direction in which the game is headed.

He might even give it all a wry smile, shrug his shoulders and wistfully say to himself: “Here we go again.”

Smit has been proving himself to the Springbok public for years now – he has variously been criticised as being inferior to Lukas van Biljon, Gary Botha, Schalk Brits and Bismarck du Plessis, but has always rolled up his sleeves at the coal face, seen off his competitors and then taken his game and the team to new heights.

How will he respond in 2010? Smit is a champion and champions don’t like the feel of the canvas on their cheek.

For Smit and the Springboks, this week’s match has so many similarities to the Battle of Bafokeng in 2006.

Going into that savage showdown in Rustenburg, the Boks had lost five in a row – at home to France, three matches overseas in the Tri-Nations (including 49-0 in Brisbane) and then their first home match (45-26 in Pretoria).

This year it is just the three defeats overseas, but another poor performance in losing to the New Zealanders will render life unbearable for the coaching staff and captain. Peter de Villiers probably does not understand that but Smit certainly does. He has journeyed into the Heart of Darkness and like Captain Kurtz of the Joseph Conrad classic, has seen “the horror”.

In 2006 it was common knowledge that Jake White would have been sacked had the Boks lost that day in Rustenburg, and the understanding was that the new broom would have swept out White’s captain.

That Test was Smit’s 59th and the euphoria of the last minute win took the spotlight off what an incredibly confrontational match it was. As Smit later recalled: “We had had enough (of losing). We were in the mood for a fight. We did not give a damn any more.”

And the Kiwis gave them a fight all alright, so much so that the discontent between the teams simmered away into the Sun City night when the teams met later.

A year later Smit was a Rugby World Cup winning captain. A year after that the Lions had been defeated and a second Tri-Nations won. But a third year on Smit and the Boks are back to square one.

Again, how will they respond? Is this the beginning of the end or will Smit’s 100th Test signal the start after another road to glory, ending in triumph at Eden Park in Auckland this time next year?

If there is to be a signal of new intent, there is no better opposition for Smit’s Springboks to make it against than their famous rivals.

A look back over Smit’s journey in the green and gold since his debut in 2000 shows some of his brightest episodes have featured the men in black.

In the first year of his captaincy (2004) there was that incredible 40-26 defeat of the All Blacks at Ellis Park, with Marius Joubert scoring a hat-trick.

A year later, the Boks defeated the New Zealanders 20-16 at Newlands in a match Smit describes as one of his all-time favourites.

And in 2006, the 21-20 win at the Royal Bafokeng Palace gave Smit that aforementioned reprieve that led to such glory.

Smit did not play against the Kiwis in the World Cup year of 2007 and was injured for the matches against them in 2008, but last year there were three fine wins in a row over the All Blacks – in Bloemfontein, Durban and Hamilton.

Is another famous victory over Richie McCaw’s men imminent? The resilient Smit’s history with the Springboks would suggest so.

Smit’s highlights