Cape Town - He is the most-capped and most successful Springbok captain of all time and the majority of Sport24 readers would rather come to his rescue, in a time of need, than one of the country’s most beautiful women.

Welcome to the world of Bok skipper John Smit, the man Sport24 readers – the majority of whom are males – would help before coming to the rescue of FHM beauty Lee-Ann Liebenberg.

Over 20 questions were put to Sport24 readers in an easy-to-use online survey in October. Questions ranged from simple personal details (age, sex, marital status), to online reading habits, to readers’ interests and then, of course some fun ‘would you rather’ questions.

One of the ‘would you rather’ questions raised the following scenario, ‘John Smit, late for a Currie Cup game (so you heard on the radio), and Lee-Anne Liebenberg (late for the swimsuit section of a beauty pageant) are both hitch-hiking, who do you pick up?’. Incredibly, nearly 63% of all participants in this survey (of whom just over 70% were male) said they would rather offer the Bok captain a lift!

In all, over 7,000 of Sport24s most loyal readers took part in this informative online survey; with Smit’s crushing ‘victory’ over the lovely Miss Liebenberg just one of the many interesting results – all of which proved just how much South African men live for their sport.

More than 70% of the survey participants would rather watch live sport than ‘play’ with their partners, whilst Smit once again topped the polls when readers were asked to choose their ultimate dinner partner – the Bok skipper (36%) beating off golfing legend Ernie Els (17%), Proteas captain Graeme Smith (15%) and Bok coach Peter de Villiers (10%).

Commenting on the fun results, and the resounding success of the survey on the whole, Sport24 Publisher Andrew ‘Tank’ Lanning said: “Sport24 is a hard-hitting brand for real sports enthusiasts.

“We have knowledgeable writers and readers – all of whom are not scared to make themselves heard. But, at the same time, the website also has a fun side to it and we wanted to know more about our readers in order to stay on top of our game.”

Stay tuned for more on this in-depth survey later this week, as we reveal some more habits of Sport24s beer-drinking, moisturiser-using and – of course – fervently passionate sports fans.



Who would you rescue in their time of need?