Free State Cheetahs coach Franco Smith is only 44 but he has been coaching for 14 years‚ so it’s little surprise that his side have shown promising growth in such a short space of time. The Cheetahs are no longer a side of flair undermined by tactical naivety‚ and are rather a team of hard workers with ever-improving skills and structure. That’s testament to Smith’s attention to detail and belief that through focused hard work results will come.Smith was a player-coach in Italy in 2002 and over the years has worked with the likes of Rassie Erasmus and New Zealander Craig Greene as he earned his coaching spurs.Those formative coaching years at Benetton Treviso laid the foundation for the coach he is today because in the cash-strapped Italian leagues he had to muck in and do it all. He was still playing at flyhalf and centre but at the same time was coaching mauling to the forwards and defence to the backs. A lot of his philosophy was shaped in those formative years in the heartland of Italian rugby.A return to Bloemfontein at the beginning of 2014‚ so his son could attend South Africa’s preeminent rugby school‚ Grey College‚ led to his position at the Cheetahs and Saturday’s Currie Cup final.Beyond that Smith has also been seconded to the Springbok camp for their November tour to Britain and Italy.His skills as an all-round coach will be utilised although he’s going in the capacity of backline coach.“It’s important that we do‚ on a short term basis‚ look to improve our skill sets‚” Springbok coach Allister Coetzee said.“He’s a coach with a variety of aspects of the game that he’s coached overseas. “He was a Springbok flyhalf. He’s coached scrums‚ he coached mauling in Italy where there was no expertise and he had to do that.“He comes with a variety of skill sets and value that he can add. The immediate focus is to come in and add value.”The Cheetahs have gone through the 2016 Currie Cup undefeated and Smith admits that it’s been an even better return than he could have imagined.“This was the first year that the Cheetahs Super Rugby franchise ran without Griquas and the Griffons and that meant that we didn’t lose a lot of players going into the Currie Cup‚” Smith told TMG Sport.“We had continuity from Super Rugby and I believe that over time‚ if you work smart and hard enough‚ you can build a strong team.“We have improved defensive organisation under Charl Strydom who’s done a great job. I also brought in some ideas I had from my time in Italy where I focused on huge line speed and so far it’s gone well.“It’s taken the best part of 18 months to change the way we want to play and we’re still a work in progress‚ but we have come a long way.“We also took the conscious decision to have depth in every position and also an understanding by 45 players‚ of what our gameplan and systems are so that we could manage injuries. “Francois Venter [centre] is our main defensive organiser but when he was injured the value of being able to get our strategy across to everybody showed.“If we had built everything around Francois our campaign would’ve fallen apart when he was injured. Nico Lee stepped in and controlled the defence while Francois was out.”Smith won major titles with Teviso in Italy and of course famously guided Shimlas to the Varsity Cup title in 2015.Winning the Currie Cup would be another important step on his coaching journey‚ that could yet include the job of Springbok coach in future. – TMG Sport..