Much value has been attached to the historic significance this New Zealand Rugby World Cup holds for the Springboks.

The first team to retain the Webb Ellis Cup. The first to win it three times. The exceptional achievement of winning rugby's Holy Grail three times in five attempts.

John Smit and his men have dedicated themselves to achieving these epoch-making goals; to overturning the realities of age, waning form and a lack of momentum to go to rugby's Mecca and make history.

There are those who believe in history repeating itself but the counterpoint is that what has gone has absolutely no bearing on the present. The latter is the realistic view but sport has an amazing capacity of throwing up instances in which teams have either failed because of not learning from the mistakes of the past or succeeded by cultivating great confidence out of previous victories.

That is why it is so ironic that this tournament should be in New Zealand where so many blunders have been made in the past - especially surrounding the captaincy.

A staggering statistic is that Smit has been on the winning side in just two of his last 10 tests, including the most recent victory over the All Blacks in which he came off the bench and Victor Matfield was the de facto captain.

That seems to indicate the template of Port Elizabeth should be repeated - Bismarck du Plessis to start and Smit coming off the bench. It is certainly a view endorsed by the younger man, judging by his petulant display when subbed.

My contention, however, is that it would be a grave error to erode Smit's authority early in the World Cup - and history backs this up.

South Africa's first tour to NZ was in 1921. The tour captain was Theo Pienaar, but the test team was captained by Boy Morkel in a drawn series.

In 1937, "the best side ever to leave the shores of New Zealand" was captained by Philip Nel, but run by a committee of five players. Danie Craven captained them in the first, losing, test, and Nel returned to lead his team to a famous series victory.

In '56, Salty du Randt was meant to be the skipper but after an altercation with Jan Pickard, the captaincy went to Basie Viviers, a man not sure of his place in the test team. The team surrendered a record that had made the Boks the best in the world for 50 years.

In '65, Dawie de Villiers was injured and Nelie Smith was the starting captain in another losing series. In 1981, tour captain Wynand Claassen was reprehensibly jettisoned in favour of Theuns Stofberg - ironically by Smith, who was then the coach.

The Boks went down in the first test and Claassen returned to lead his men to victory in the second before cruelly being denied at least a draw by referee Clive Norling's whistle in the fateful "Flour Bomb test", now a week away from being exactly 30 years ago.

In '94, Francois Pienaar was injured and Tiaan Strauss took over the leadership for the first test of that series - it, too, was lost.

So, to defy the portents of history? Smit should have the honour of leading his team into the tournament and onto the field in their first game against Wales.

That would be the right and wise thing to do. After that, though, great maturity and humility will be required. If Du Plessis is the best hooker, he must start for the rest of the tournament.