Master and commander

Rugby World Cup Final countdown: Gerry Thornleyon the long journey travelled by South Africa captain John Smit and coach Jake White.

The images are indelible. South African, only just returned from the cold, winning the World Cup with the iconic pictures of Nelson Mandela, in a replica Springboks' jersey, holding the Webb Ellis Trophy along with Francois Pienaar. The World Cup has surely never conveyed such a memorable or powerful political message. John Smit now stands one game away from such sporting immortality.

He wears it well. Talking to the Springboks' captain at their hotel near the Seine, in the maelstrom of their media morning, again one was struck by how calm and composed the 29-year-old appeared.

Amid the thicket of around 100 reporters and at least 20 television crews, coach Jake White wondered aloud if South Africa had fully maximised the opportunity that 1995 triumph afforded their country. "Now we have a second chance," he said, pointing out how many of the current squad were inspired to take up or continue playing the game by that day in Johannesburg.

Earlier in the week, Bryan Habana again recounted the storybook tale of a 12-year-old Cape coloured boy who found he and his father's allocated seats in Ellis Park for that final were already occupied, and how he was passed across the laps of white strangers reduced to tears by a day that made all present happy to be South Africans.

Smit himself, five years older, was also in attendance and recounted the day with an almost childlike glint in his eye. "I was 17 and my best mate had scrounged two tickets from his old man and we hitchhiked our way from Pretoria Boys High through to Jo'burg and watched the Boeing fly straight over our heads and screamed our lungs out for 100 minutes in that game.

"To be honest, well . . . I probably would have played rugby all my life then, but that certainly made sure of it. That was one of the most special moments in my life. If somebody sitting near me had said to me I'd be playing in a World Cup final with the loosehead of that day (Os du Randt) I would have laughed. And here I am. So it's really a dream."

Viewed in that light therefore, you wondered if the prospect of emulating Pienaar that day must almost be daunting. "Yeah, daunting has been one of the things which has been imminent on our minds for the last three or four weeks . . . once you get to the do-or-die stages it's a whole different tournament, and yeah, it's amazing to think it's come down to this and yes it will have a massive impact on our country."

Tomorrow would be the conclusion of a remarkable journey for Smit and his long-time coaching mentor Jake White; assuredly the most enduring and loyal coach-captain relationship of the modern game. White has been linked with the vacant Welsh job and will assuredly move on after a curiously troubled four years. Smit will join Clermont Auvergne, but declined to discuss the prospect of this also being, quite possibly, his last game for the Springboks.

"We've been a long way together. The first time we met was when I played my first game for my first team, Pretoria High. It was his last year as schoolboy coach and my first year as a schoolboy player in 1994 and from there he tried to get me to come to Transvaal, at the academy at that stage, and then play for the Lions.

"Our paths met again at under-21 level when he was one of the coaches of the (South African) team that won (the under-21 World Cup) in 1999," added Smith, who was at the time a hugely promising tighthead. "From '99 he then got involved as one of the coaches at the Sharks, and from there to the Springboks. He's the guy who changed me from a prop to hooker and I would say he's the guy who was the most influential man in my rugby career.

"I do believe he understands the game of rugby better than anyone I know and what's nice is I can question him and he can question me, and the fact he's been unbelievably loyal and faithful to the players over the years and to me. And in return he's got that from myself and the players as well, which I think is incredibly important going into a World Cup final.

"It's been really incredible. Thirteen years we've known each other. When I'm playing terribly, he's the first one to tell me and when he's being a pain in the ass or too nervous before a game, I tell him."

White's appointment of the then 25-year-old as captain was greeted with hostility in some quarters, and White remained loyal to his captain even when there were calls for Smit to be dropped last year, especially after the 49-0 Tri-Nations defeat to Australia.

So, not unreasonably, you ask White for an insight into what has made Smith such an exceptional Springbok leader. "Well the most important thing is he's genuine. He's been a successful junior captain that won the World Cup in 1999, he was groomed as a youngster, he captained his schoolboy provincial side and the South African schoolboy side."

"He's played in an English-speaking province - and I say that because Natal would be known as an English-eaking province - he was schooled in an Afrikaan province, his family live in a farm in an Afrikaans area and what I mean by that is there's no way you can say he favours any group. He'll have breakfast with Lawrence Sephanka, he'll have lunch with Bakkies Botha and he'll go to the movies with Jean de Villiers and Rickie Januarie. What I'm saying is that in the context of what we are as a country, all the players admire him as a captain and understand every decision he makes is always based on being fair and treating everyone the same. And I think in our country that's a very unique gift to have.

"As a rugby captain he's very clever, he understands the game and he makes the right calls, and that goes without saying. For me, to have a relationship with him, to have him as a captain to give him the team every Saturday to take on to he field . . . I remember saying to Clive Woodward the reality is you coach for five days and he (the captain) coaches for one, and you've gotta make sure what he coaches on the Saturday is what you put in for five days."