How Kwagga went from a makeweight to the Springboks' spirit animal
For someone who seems to have almost always made a good first impression on rugby people, it's a mystery why Kwagga Smith has taken this long to make one on Springbok fans.
Former Lions coach and Springbok attack consultant Swys de Bruin remembers doing a double take the first time he saw the Springbok utility forward . The Lions had a standing weekly live game against their under-21 side and the talking point at the end of the session in question was how a youngster playing openside flank was cat-burgling the senior team's ball.
De Bruin was adamant Smith had to be doing it illegally, so he told then Lions head coach Johan Ackermann they had to look at the game tape for answers:"I said there's no way he can be so quick onto the ball legally, it was flippin impossible. So, we checked it, and we checked it, and realised that, s**t, he's got an unreal ability to first anticipate that there's a possibility of a steal and then the speed to get in there and make it happen.
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