Howard Kahn cannot understand why so much criticism has been directed at Springbok captain John Smit after South Africa's 6-21 defeat at the hands of Australia last weekend.

"Just you wait and see, John Smit will be remembered as the greatest ever tighthead prop in the history of South African rugby."

Those are the words of former Springbok tighthead prop Adrian Garvey ? an ex-teammate of Smit's.

I just happened to speak to Garvs earlier this week in my guise as the Media Manager for the Cape Town Tens. (Without trying to digress, we are trying to convince Garvs to compete in next year's Cape Town Tens tournament after he pulled out of the 2009 event ? watch this space!)

We chatted about a host of topics. His age ? "Did you know I am 41 years old", he cackled ? came up, his coaching academy (www.garvz.co.za) was mentioned briefly, the Currie Cup was discussed and, then, we got onto the hottest topic in SA rugby at present; the Bok scrum and John Smit.

Many pundits and fans have questioned Smit's move from hooker to tighthead prop ? a position he played in his junior days.

Despite having never packed down in the front row in a Test match myself (or even coming close!), I have always liked the move ? especially with the brute force of Bismarck du Plessis on Smit's inside and, lately, the presence of Jannie du Plessis on the bench as back-up.

The only issue is the Bok brainstrust's reluctance to use the good Doctor Jannie from the bench when Smit tires. But then again as we saw in the first Lions Test, in Durban, the world champions tend to struggle without their captain on the field. The other option, of course, is to move Smit across to the loosehead side during the latter stages of a match, but giving him a decent breather every now and then could only benefit him and his understudy in the long-run.

To me, South Africa's over-reliance on Smit is a bigger issue than his recent struggles against the Aussies and, in particular, the barrel-chested Wallabies and Waratahs loosehead prop Benn Robinson ? who also gave Smit a torrid time during the Super 14.

Garvey, however, has no doubt about Smit's abilities up front, saying: "Look, I might be biased... After all, I know John and I've played with him and then, of course, I was a tighthead prop myself.

"I haven't exactly analysed last week's game, but there were about four or five bad scrums and now, suddenly, everyone wants John axed. It's unfair.

"Sure, Benn Robinson did well in those few scrums. But he's being picked to do just that ? yet he managed to disrupt a few scrums only, whereas John brings a lot more than that to the party.

"It's quite similar to my experience in 1998," continued the former Bok No.3. "We scrummed badly against the All Blacks in that come-from-behind Tri-Nations win in Durban (in 1998) and I was very worried about my place in the team for the final game against the Wallabies.

"As it turns out I was picked for that game and I scored our first try early on as we went on to win our first-ever Tri-Nations trophy. But this is not about me, this is about John and it's something I feel strongly about. Watch him have the game of his life on Saturday and score a try as we win the 2009 Tri-Nations."

Okay, let's look at some minor statistics...

John Smit has played 89 Tests, 63 of them as captain, starting 10 of his last 11 Tests at tighthead prop. With him starting in the No.3 shirt, the Boks have lost just twice ? in the third Test against the British & Irish Lions in July and last weekend to 'Dingo' Deans's underfire Wallabies.

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