John Smit's new book (File)

Durban - Current Springbok and World Cup-winning rugby captain John Smit pulls no punches in a new book to be published this weekend.

Smit relates how Luke Watson had a "cancerous" effect on members of the national team, the inside story behind the notorious Kamp Staaldraad, and what he terms the rugby "treachery" of former Sharks prop Ollie le Roux.

Smit says: "He (Watson) never tried to become a part of us. I think he really wanted to play for South Africa, but couldn’t stand the environment, and the truth is that he irritated the living shit out of the guys. I had players in my ear about him every flipping day. He was referred to as “the cancer” of the team."

Captain In The Cauldron Captain In The Cauldron - the John Smit Story also outlines his assessments of Bok and Sharks coaches. On the one hand there is Kevin Putt's double-speak and Rudolf Straeuli's overly militaristic 2003 World Cup campaign; on the other he is full of praise for Dick Muir, John Plumtree, Jake White and Peter de Villiers.

Written with The Mercury's Mike Greenaway, the book states that former Sharks Ollie le Roux and Chris Rossouw were involved in "a poisonous collaboration" against a number of younger Sharks players, especially in their disastrous 2000 tour under Hugh Reece-Edwards.

"Those guys taught me a lot about what not to do in a team environment."

During practice, Smit wrote, Le Roux would deliberately hold back against the scrummaging machine - his way "of telling me that I needed to know my place".

As senior front rankers they had wanted to control the team and, night after night, he says, they had accused Smit and Craig Davidson of causing a rift in the team. He was appalled at the treatment meted out to former Sharks captain Wayne Fyvie - a true son of KwaZulu-Natal, who had put his body on the line in every match.

Smit is, however, very passionate about the Sharks and full of praise for their set-up.

While much has already been written on Kamp Staaldraad, Smit relates how this over-the-top militarism did not stop with Smit himself having to rip the head off a live chicken. The campaign was carried into the 2003 World Cup in Australia. In a stupid attempt to bring back memories of Staaldraad they were served chicken legs and eggs. They had guards posted at their doors and were trailed by the coach's spies (their chief Adriaan Heijns, a former undercover agent in the SA Police Force, being dubbed 000 by the players) wherever they went.

"All that suffering in the pit achieved nothing, in fact it had set us back," Smit says.

While he supports the goals of transformation, Smit also has some strong things to say about the role of some of the sport's administrators. Sadly, he thinks they are there for personal benefit, rather than for the good of rugby.

He relates how former rugby union deputy president Mike Stofile had never supported Smit in any way and had made his views known through the media.

It had hardly filled him with confidence to know that his employer felt that way about him.

However, Smit said, it did not take him long to get over things because Stofile lost his credibility through his actions.