Smit to Roos: Bottle your passion

Former Springbok World Cup winning captain John Smit has advised fiery Stormers eighthman Evan Roos (right) to find a way to keep his passion on the field, but stay close to the line without over-stepping it when it comes to ill-discipline.

Roos, who made his Springbok debut against Wales this year, was yellow-carded last weekend for an off-the-ball tussle, that saw him lean his elbow on his opposite number’s neck, in the 52nd minute of the Stormers’ win over Edinburgh.

It came at a bad time when the Stormers were under pressure, and allowed the Scottish team to close the gap to 13-17.

Overseas critics have accused the 22-year-old of being unnecessarily confrontational, some calling his play dangerous and thuggish.

“Evan is a player who is really driven internally and he needs to find a way to control that emotion,” Smit said at a United Rugby Championship media call when asked how he would handle a player like Roos if he were captain.

“Players get away with absolutely nothing these days. The most aggressive thing you’ll see on a field now is someone grabbing a collar and looking angry.

“Eben Etzebeth does it very well, controlling his passion to the point of not getting into trouble. Evan needs to somehow know how to bottle that passion, and you don’t want to temper his enthusiasm.

“He just needs to be told that losing control won’t just cost him but the team too. I would tell him that the angrier he gets, the more the team’s ability to succeed is diminished,” Smit said.

Smit had arguably rugby’s hardest-ever enforcer to rely on in Bakkies Botha.

But sometimes it took all of his leadership wisdom to keep the legendary lock on the field.

“Yes, I had a few players in the Springbok team who sometimes suffered from over-stimulation!” Smit laughed.