Franco Smith: 'He's better skilled than me, but he can't kick a leather ball'

Glasgow head coach Franco Smith believes his son Jean is a more skillful player than he was and has “his own heroes” for inspiration rather than watching “black and white” footage of his father.

Fly-half Jean Smith, 22, is poised to make his debut for South African side the Sharks on Friday after being named on the bench for their URC opener against his father’s Warriors at Scotstoun.

Smith Sr, who won nine caps for the Springboks as a fly-half and inside centre in the late 1990s, admits it will be a “little bit strange” to face his son, who joined his mum and dad for dinner in Glasgow on Tuesday, but it will be “all business” until the match is over.

“It’ll be very good to see him out there,” Smith Sr said. “He’s worked really hard, he came back from two back-to-back injuries after a very good Under-20s year. It’s been unfortunate, but he’s now slowly working his way back in and he’s gaining in confidence.

“I’m really excited for him to make his debut, hopefully here against us. I’ve noticed that he’s better skilled than me, but he can’t kick a leather ball, I can tell you that! That comes out of my era more than his.

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“He’s a good all-round player, good passing game, good kicking game. He’s played well as a junior. It’s converting that now into the senior environment that’s going to be a challenge, but I think he’s level-headed.

“He’s a very good pro, he looks after himself very well. I think he studies enough of the game; he’s got his own heroes. I think my films are black and white to him, so I think he’ll probably use more of the later examples of quality players to base his game on.”

Friday will not be the first time Smith has come up against one of his sons during his coaching career. Franco Smith Jr, now 25 and also a centre, played for Zebre Parma for two years during Smith’s first two seasons in Glasgow before heading to South African side Cheetahs last year.

“Look, it’s the second one, Franco Junior was with Zebre, so we’ve had our things against each other already,” he said.

“This is a little bit different. You can see he [Jean]’s a little bit shy to talk to me during the week. He doesn’t really want to make too much contact to avoid letting a cat out of the bag, I suppose. So he’s very coy about the way he approached this week.

“On Tuesday night it was all about what’s happening at home and so on. I’m excited for him. I’m glad if he comes off the bench and hopefully gets some time to find his feet and that he will progress from here.

“Obviously one wants to do the best for him and hopefully he’ll learn something that he can take forward in his career tomorrow night.”

While Smith prepares for his debut for the Sharks, his father has handed 20-year-old centre Kerr Yule, who made a record 25 appearances for Scotland’s Under-20s side, his senior bow for Glasgow.

Yule, the son of former Commonwealth Games weightlifter Stuart Yule, who has been the Scotland rugby team’s head of strength and conditioning since 2017, will line up alongside captain Stafford McDowall in the absence of Sione Tuipulotu, who is being eased back gradually following his exertions for the British and Irish Lions in Australia.

“I thought Kerr played really well in the first two [pre-season] games,” Smith said. “He merits the opportunity to now establish himself and I’m not saying that’s a trend that we will see, but slowly but surely, we need to… otherwise, all the conversations that we’ve had before the season start is just talk.

“I’ve got all the confidence in the world in Kerr. He has been on the Scottish radar as a junior player for a long time and he’s produced some very good performances against Northampton and Bath, so we’re happy to allow him to make his first steps into senior rugby.”

Glasgow will need others to step up and take some of the midfield load in the absence of Lions centre Huw Jones, who is not expected back until the new year after ankle surgery, and pending the return of Tuipulotu, who Smith said would be reintegrated “at the right time” after training for 10 days with the team since returning to Scotstoun.

“He’s settled in nicely, he’s energised,” Smith reported. “He obviously had a full five-week break which was important for him to resettle, but he looks physically in good shape and he’s now, from my perspective, in my eye, getting back to being the influential player that he can be, so everything at the right time I suppose.”

Regarding Jones, Smith added: “Obviously it’s a bit of a disappointment, but we might have him back for the most important part of the year, so everything has a positive spin on it. I believe also everything happens for a reason, so hopefully when we need him most, he’ll be fine.”

Captain Kyle Steyn meanwhile could return to full training as early as next week as he recovers from a hand fracture. “He’s almost there. He’s trained most of the week with us, so hopefully next week his participation might be more specific,” Smith said.

But the head coach was reluctant to put a timescale on when key tighthead prop Zander Fagerson might return, having suffered bone bruising to his knee during his rehabilitation from a calf injury which forced him to withdraw from the Lions tour.

“I think he’s just off the crutches today or tomorrow,” Smith added. “It was just to take a bit of the weight off. He’s progressing, but again we’ll have to take it one day at a time, or one week at a time for that matter. Any day that he’s going to be available for us or get back from this niggle is going to be a bonus. We’ll take it as it comes.

“It’s obviously due to a lot of rehab, the tense rehab to get him ready with his calf. He did a lot of slow running and obviously that led to a little bit of some bone bruising. He’s a bigger man and that often happens.

“Obviously we’re doing everything and hopefully we’ll see him before the autumn internationals. At this stage I will not be putting my head on a block on a specific date. It might be earlier hopefully, but hopefully he’ll be fine for the autumn.”