Now it's shoulder to the wheel for Smiley

You could say he's half the man he used to be, but his detractors had better watch out for the new-look Werner Swanepoel.

Not that the changes to the Swanepoel frame are striking. During last year's Currie Cup his shoulder was bashed, reconstructed and rehabilitated and now he has some convincing to do.

Has he lost any of the spark that made him the top scrumhalf in the country last year? He says not, but the Swanepoel tongue is probably less reliable than his long-range pass.

This weekend the talkative scrumhalf re-entered the race for a Springbok starting berth. Last season he comfortably attained that objective before surrendering it because of injury as the rugby gods first smiled then frowned on him in equal measure.

Now the Lions scrumhalf reflects on the topsy-turvy season as a test of character. He masks his recent pain and anguish with an almost dismissive: "I believe everything in life happens with a reason."

Swanepoel, however, is not the philosophical type. This weekend he put theory aside and started the practical aspects of his comeback when the Cats played the Sharks in a warm-up match in Durban.

It was a match in which he had to prove to himself and the Cats coaching staff that he is well and truly over his shoulder reconstruction.

"This was definitely one of my biggest injuries. The injury I sustained in the Super 12 when Ollie le Roux fell on me took eight weeks to heal but it wasn't as debilitating as this one," he said.

"I didn't require surgery for the first one but I did for my last injury. This one was reasonably serious in the sense that they had to replace all my ligaments and remove a piece of my collar bone. It is a long process and hopefully as the season drags on it will get stronger. It feels really good. The specialist reckons the recovery is complete. I would only have played the last 20 or 30 minutes this weekend but I thought I would explore the possibility of starting the match. It doesn't matter how fit you are, you have to test yourself in a match situation. The idea is also to test my fitness. One way of testing an injury that has healed is to get stuck in and make a few big tackles. That way you can get into the game and rebuild your confidence."

The timing of the injury, however, was particularly unfortunate. Last year South Africa's long-serving No 1 scrumhalf, Joost van der Westhuizen, struggled to free himself from the cobwebs of inactivity and Swanepoel deservedly got the opportunity to start ahead of the jaded idol.

"In that sense it was a huge blow. I was just getting into the swing of things after starting five Tests in a row and things didn't go badly at all," Swanepoel reflected.

With Swanepoel out injured, Van der Westhuizen was given another opportunity to kick-start his international career in Buenos Aires - the city in which he made his Test debut in 1993. He displayed patches of brilliance but on the whole he did not convince his detractors on the Springboks' four Test tour.

Cue Swanepoel. But the diminutive Cat does not want to get ahead of himself. "Everything now depends on how the Super 12 pans out. If the team does well then it is so much easier to make your mark," he said.

Although Western Province's Dan van Zyl also stepped out from Van der Westhuizen's shadow, Swanepoel does not believe he will have to pull a Houdini act to reestablish himself as the country's foremost scrumhalf.

"I don't think I have to produce anything extra to make up lost ground on the guys who went on tour. Judging from Harry Viljoen's playing style and from chatting to him I don't think I have to do anything extraordinary," he said.

"I will play my game as I know best but I firmly believe that a lot will depend on the Cats' form. I believe I'm good enough to be No 1 again but now its a case of getting match fit going out there to prove it."

Swanepoel has not been exposed to the Viljoen doctrine but he played "no more than two or three games" under the national coach during his stint at Pretoria University. It is a tally he is bound to increase providing his shoulder stays intact.