A Career-threatening injury changed Franco Smith's view of rugby and how to approach the game. And it's from that experience that he has developed a coaching philosophy that favours hard work over talent and teamwork over the individual.Smith, 44, last week coached the Free State Cheetahs to their first Currie Cup title in nine years while winning all 10 matches in the competition.He developed a style of play that was both attacking, even loose, but structured at the same time.It's that approach that Springbok coach Allister Coetzee is hoping to tap into when Smith joins the backroom staff on the November tour to Britain and Italy for tests against England, Italy and Wales.story_article_left1Having played and coached in Italy for almost a decade, Smith is fluent in the language, which will come in handy when the Boks are in Florence preparing to play the Azzuri next month, while he also understands European conditions.But mostly he understands what it's like to build a team made up of underdogs. He did it at Benetton Treviso, Shimlas and now at the Cheetahs."I'd had a bad injury as a player in the mid-1990s when I tore my hamstring off the bone," Smith says. "I never had surgery and as a result I was always a bit slower than most backline players. So I had to equip myself differently to be competitive."I became a player that thought more about nuances and started becoming more of a distributor by bringing other players into the game. It's something that has stayed with me as a coach."In his prime years as a player that earned him nine test caps in the Nick Mallett era, Smith absorbed coaching lessons from coaches he respected.Mallett, Andre Markgraaff at Griquas, who Smith credits with showing him true professionalism for the first time, New Zealander Craig Greene, Rassie Erasmus and even Carel du Plessis have all moulded his thinking."Rassie was very structured and Craig, who I worked with as player/assistant coach for three years in Italy, was not."Both guys got me thinking about the game and I've tried to adapt a philosophy that doesn't favour structure over freedom or vice versa," he says. "You need a structured set-up where you can still see space and apply yourself as a rugby player."A big question that is raised around that approach is: "Do you need special players to see it through, or can ordinary players be taught?" It's an important question right now because Springbok rugby's talent pool is not as deep as in previous years."Rassie believed in natural talent above all, but I argued against it," Smith says. "I said that a person born into a circus lifestyle is not born juggling three balls, they have to learn that skill.story_article_right2"I believe the same is true of rugby players if they work hard enough. I've done a lot of studying in that regard and I firmly believe that you can teach somebody, at the very least, to become much better at something as long as they also put in the hard work."With the Boks, Smith wants to introduce that type of thinking to the players and even the management staff. But as always, lack of time will hinder any drastic implementation of new ideas on this tour.So his main goal is to work on simpler fixes. Smith has ostensibly been brought on as a backline coach, but Coetzee suggested he would also work on tactical kicking.With 14 years coaching experience, Coetzee is likely to lean heavily on Smith during the tour as the Boks try to turn a dismal season around. Four wins in nine tests and a record defeat against New Zealand at home have marred Coetzee's debut season in charge.Defence has been a huge weakness for the Boks. It's an area Smith might be able to find a hasty solution."I have a great belief in line speed and intensity and it's something we can do in a short space of time," Smith says."It's a hugely important part of the game that has been neglected in South Africa."..