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John Smit set to become the 15th centurion

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John Smit set to become the 15th centurion
The South African captain John Smit will be achieving yet another milestone in his illustrious career as he will become the latest centurion when the Springboks meet the All Blacks in Johannesburg’s FNB stadium on Saturday. Smit will be the 15th player to have completed his 100 matches in rugby and will be looking to celebrate this feat with a victory over the All Blacks.
South Africa will be hoping to put their miserable run behind them when they meet the in-form New Zealand. For this purpose, Coach Peter de Villiers has made seven changes to the squad that was beaten by Australia last month. Flip van der Merwe will make his debut as he will replace the injured Danie Rossouw. Rossouw has been declared unfit as he has failed to recuperate from his hip injury. Similarly, Francois Hougaard will also earn his third cap as he will replace the injured Ruan Pienaar. Hougaard will anchor the Springboks as a scrum-half. Gio Aplon is now given the responsibility as fullback whereas JP Pieterson will be back on the wing after injury to Zane Kirchner. Elsewhere, Jean de Villiers and Juan de Jongh will be responsible for the midfield as they replace Wynand Olivier and Jaque Fourie respectively. In addition to this, BJ Botha and the flanker Ryan Kankowski are also expected to sit on the bench as they both have been replaced by Jannie du Plessis and Juan Smith respectively.
The selection of Hougaard as scrum-half has raised several eyebrows as he played most of his season on the wing with Bulls but time has proven that De Villiers tends to think differently. According to him, “Hougaard is a player you can take to war. He has a strong head as well as a good rugby brain and we're looking for someone to bring something extra to the team. I'm excited to see him trying to cement his place.”
On the other hand, New Zealand has selected Jimmy Cowan and Ben Franks for its starting line-up. It will be hoping to grind a victory in a stadium that hosted the FIFA World Cup final this year. The FNB stadium, whose name has been changed from Soccer City, has a capacity of 90,000 people. Cowan missed his last match due to a rib injury but enjoyed viewing the match as his team-mates hammered Wallabies 20-10 at Christchurch on August 7. His inclusion in the team will result in the automatic demotion of Piri Weepu. Frank will be appearing for the third time in a Test match while his brother is out of the starting 11. With these changes, the All Blacks will be hoping to conclude their 10th Tri-Nations victory in Johannesburg. They need just one point to secure this title. With their current form, Springboks’ victory looks very unlikely. New Zealand comes into this match with scores of victories over both Springboks and Wallabies; they will be hoping to keep their juggernauts running.
Despite all the favorable predictions, the All Blacks’ coach Graham Henry expects tough competition from the hosts. He said, “They will be hugely motivated to turn around those results and we are expecting a hugely physical encounter. Playing the Springboks in Soweto in front of 90,000 plus fans -- it doesn't get much bigger than this. It's going to be a massive challenge and one which the team is really looking forward to.”
Meanwhile, the veteran rugby player Victor Matfield has already paid his tributes to Smit on his ‘upcoming’ achievement. Matfield, in a statement said, “I think it's a great achievement for Smit, who is a guy everyone in South Africa looks up to. He would like to focus on the game and win it, and then we can enjoy it afterwards which will make the occasion even more special for him. We're looking forward to the match. It will be a massive occasion but to win it is the main objective.”

John Smit set to become the 15th centurion

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