Wayne
Smith

Wayne Smith is one of the finest players and coaches to ever represent the All Blacks. Discover more about his career with RugbyPass, your resident rugby gurus.

Wayne Smith Bio

Wayne Smith is a giant of New Zealand Rugby. As a former player and coach of the All Blacks, he spent more than 20 years serving New Zealand rugby.

Born 19 April 1957, Wayne Smith grew up playing for Waikato Secondary Schools. At this time, he also worked his way up the ranks and represented the province’s Colt and ‘B’ teams. After becoming frustrated with a lack of playing time at Waikato in 1978, he began to look elsewhere and joined Canterbury.

Throughout his domestic career, Wayne Smith represented Canterbury and enjoyed a great deal of success. As a result, in 1980, he was called up to represent the All Blacks for the first time. Between then and 1985, he made 17 appearances for the side in tests and 35 appearances overall.

When his playing days ended, Wayne Smith immediately moved into coaching. After holding roles at ASD Rugby Casale and Benetton Treviso, he got his first big break in 1997 when he joined the Crusaders in Super Rugby. He then coached the side to back-to-back Super Rugby titles in 1998 and 1999 before he was appointed as the coach of the All Blacks following the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

However, after a disappointing few years as the head coach of the All Blacks, Wayne Smith resigned from his post in 2001 and joined the Northampton Saints, where he stayed until 2004. Since then, he’s held assistant coaching roles with the All Blacks twice and enjoyed a stint with the Chiefs as an assistant coach.

When Wayne Smith retired from coaching in 2017, it ended his association with the All Blacks. In total, he coached the side as the head coach or assistant coach 212 times. Since retiring from coaching, Wayne Smith has held the post of Director of Rugby at Kobelco Steelers.