Smit set for SA Super 14 record
Springbok captain John Smit will become the first South African to play 100 games for one Super rugby team when the Sharks hosts the Cheetahs in round two of the competition.
The 31-year-old will reach the landmark in Durban on Friday and will be joined by Pedrie Wannenberg a day later when the loose forward makes his 100th Super Rugby appearance for the defending Super 14 champion Bulls.
Former South Africa internationals AJ Venter, Ollie le Roux and Albert van den Berg have all played more than 100 games but for different teams.
George Gregan holds the Super rugby record with 136 games for the Brumbies.
Smit made his then-Super 12 debut in 1999 and, apart from a brief spell at French club Clermont, has spent his entire career at the Sharks.
The Sharks and South Africa captain told the Sharks' website it was an amazing feeling to reach the milestone.
"I missed a season through a shoulder injury and one spent in France and through those things you wonder to yourself where it will all end and to be sitting here now, 31 years old about to run out for my 100th game for the Sharks, I'm pretty proud of that," Smit said.
"I'm grateful as well, it so easily could have been impossible and here I sit, back from France, captaining the Sharks.
"It's a pretty amazing feeling."
The front row forward also holds the world record for the most international caps as captain having led South Africa in 67 tests.
Smit's Sharks have never won the Super 14 title despite reaching the final in 2001 and most dramatically in 2007, when they lost to a last-minute try from the Bulls.
The Sharks made a disappointing start to its 2010 Super 14 campaign last weekend when they lost 19-18 at home to the Chiefs.
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