Peter de Villiers (born 3 June 1957 in Paarl) is a South African rugby union coach who was the coach of the South Africa national rugby union team. After his successes with South African U19 and U21 squads, de Villiers was named as the coach of South Africa's national team, the Springboks in January 2008, the first-ever non-white to be appointed to the position. He has since enjoyed such milestone successes as defeating the New Zealand All Blacks in Dunedin, a record victory over the Australian Wallabies that same year, a series victory over the British and Irish Lions and most recently the winning of the 2009 Tri Nations. He played scrum-half during the apartheid era, when the Springboks faced widespread international boycotts as the face of the white minority government, including exclusion from in the first two Rugby World Cup tournaments in 1987 and 1991. Following a 11–9 defeat to Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final, De Villiers stated that he will see out the rest of his contract that end in December 2011.

John William Smit (born 3 April 1978 in Pietersburg, South Africa) is the 50th captain of the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks, and currently playing professionally in England with Saracens. He has played most of his career as a hooker, but played twice for the Springboks off the bench as a prop prior to the South Africa coaching staff's decision to use him as a tighthead prop for the 2008 end of year Tests. On 22 November 2008, he surpassed prop Os du Randt as the most-capped forward in Springboks history. He retired from international rugby following the 2011 Rugby World Cup as the most-capped player in South African history, with 111 appearances.

While still active at club level, Smit was inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame on 24 October 2011, alongside all other Rugby World Cup-winning captains and head coaches from the tournament's inception in 1987 through 2007 (minus the previously inducted John Eales).

Smit went to Pretoria Boys High School where he was head prefect in 1996 and played in the First XV from 1994 to 1996.^{[citation needed]}