Kwagga delivers a 'brutally honest' assessment
To be the best in the world, you have to admit when you didn’t play well, says the Springbok super sub Kwagga Smith.
Smith was brutally honest about the Boks’ poor showing at Loftus Versfeld this past weekend, especially in the breakdowns, one of his areas of expertise.
He has the credentials to deliver an accurate verdict.
During the World Cup year in 2023, the 32-year-old officially emerged as the breakdown king, according to the statistics.
Smith enjoyed immense success in 2023, playing a pivotal role for the Springboks off the bench as they secured back-to-back World Cup titles.
The former Sevens star is renowned for his work at the breakdown, and stats provider Opta revealed that no player won more breakdown or jackal turnovers than the Springbok star in 2023 when tallying up the players’ totals for both their club and country.
This past Saturday, in the first Test against Italy, things did not go according to plan, especially around the breakdowns, where the young Italian side performed with force and determination.
Smith gave a frank explanation and emphasised that, even though they had won by 18 points, they did not play to the standards they normally set themselves.
“We want to be the best team in the world,” he stated emphatically.
“You must be honest with yourself. If you know you didn’t play to your best ability and you didn’t play well, although you won by 18 points, it doesn’t matter,” Smith added.
“It’s all about your standards and making sure that you live up to that standard.
“Honesty is a good thing in our environment and in our squad.”
The Azzuri managed to score a maul try that started from a line-out on the Boks’ 22, and resulted in a try by Pablo Dimcheff.
Smith shook his head when asked about that try.
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“We are very disappointed in that,” he said honestly.
“We never want to give away a maul try. In the last two years, we didn’t give away a lot of maul tries.
“That hurt.
“We have to be better next week.”
To explain how things went down, Smith admitted that the Italians came with more physicality than anyone could’ve expected.
“They came hard at the breakdown. They threw a lot of numbers into the breakdown.
“We couldn’t get momentum, couldn’t get continuity.
“They put a lot of effort into it, and they succeeded.
“When you can’t get continuity, the breakdown is a mess, and the ball spits out, it’s difficult. You are playing scrappy rugby, and you are just fixing mistakes the whole time.
“Then it’s difficult to get momentum back.
“We did our analysis at the start of the week, and they have good players if you look at the United Rugby Championship teams.
“They are physical, and we knew it was coming.
“All credit to them.
“We could be a lot better,” he promised.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus had indicated that he might make some changes to the team that will face Italy in the second Test in Gqeberha on Saturday.
That includes welcoming back captain Siya Kolisi.
“If Siya is fit and healthy and he can play, it’s a benefit. He’s been captain for a lot of games, and he’s a good player,” the flanker said.
“We all do our best and try our best, and it will be good to have him back next week.
“And we will review ourselves and look at the game and see where we can improve.
” Luckily, we’ve got a week to do that.”
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