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Aaron Smith looking forward to linking up with former All Black

By Tom Vinicombe
(Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Halfback Aaron Smith won’t feature for New Zealand during the Rugby Championship – but that doesn’t mean he won’t continue to play alongside an All Blacks No 10 this year.

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The All Blacks revealed on Wednesday that the 32-year-old halfback will remain in NZ for the remainder of the competition due to the impending arrival of his second child. There’s a small chance that Smith could join the squad for their northern tour, but the safer bet would be that his test season is done and dusted for the year.

Smith will, however, continue to take the field, and has linked up with Manawatu for the remainder of New Zealand’s provincial season.

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The Black Ferns are making progress both on and off the field.

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The Black Ferns are making progress both on and off the field.

The fast-firing halfback admitted that he’d experienced some wistfulness watching the All Blacks play in Perth two weekend’s ago but that his return to the Turbos should quickly offset that feeling.

“I’m sitting at home doing all these trainings but training with no one,” Smith told media on Wednesday. “You go from being in an environment every day with 30 guys, being in the gym together, being on the field, [you miss] that kind of stuff, the locker room stuff.

“I’m sick of training by myself, at a park. There’s nothing but that. It’s fun for a little bit but I’m missing that and can’t wait to play again, prepare for a game. I love getting ready for games.”

As soon as Smith knew that he was likely to be in New Zealand for the NPC, he reached out Manawatu coach Peter Russell to offer his services. It was in some ways a strange conversation for the halfback, being unsure how keen Russell was to bring him in on a potentially temporary basis.

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“It was a weird one… It’s weird ringing a coach to ask to play,” Smith said. “Usually, coaches ring you and say, ‘Would you like to play?’ or ‘You’ve been selected’.

“So I was like, ‘Hey Pete, what are the chances of coming up to Manawatu to play some games till the end of October?’ and he was like ‘Yep, yep, that sounds good’. And then after that, he was texting me every day about stuff and sending me moves and sending me gameplans. It’s been good.

“The call to my dad was probably better, telling my dad I was coming home and clear out the old sleepout where I used to haunt in my high school days.”

Smith has always been a passionate Turbos man and is looking forward to linking up with a team that’s showing plenty of upside so far in 2021.

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“I’m going into a team that’s looking pretty good,” Smith said. “A mix of experience and some guys I’ve played with – Jason Emery and stuff are back as well. And they’ve had a great start to the year with a good win and then nearly beating Canterbury as well.”

Smith also highlighted the presence of one-test All Blacks pivot Brett Cameron, newly recruited to Manawatu, as a particular point of interest.

“Excited to play with Brett Cameron also, a quality 10, ex-All Black. That excites me,” he said. “The 9 and 10 is always a great position and pretty critical.”

Cameron made his solitary appearance in the black jersey on the 2018 end of year tour, where he came off the bench to earn some minutes against Japan. The 24-year-old has struggled for game-time at Super Rugby level since, however, and will link up with the Kamaishi Sea Waves in Japan next season.

Overall, however, Smith is just happy to be close to his family, and looking forward to once again running out in Manawatu colours.

“It’s better than sitting at home watching the All Blacks and sitting there twiddling my fingers,” he said. “I’m excited to get home.

“Going back to play for Manawatu is really exciting and [so is] playing in front of my old man – he loves seeing me playing in the green hoops. And if baby stays in there like he should, I can hopefully get 50 games if I’m selected.

“If I can get to 50 for the Turbos, I’d be blessed. It’d be an amazing way to finish the year and I can’t complain about 2021: getting married, making a Super Rugby final and getting 100 tests. If it ends with the Turbos, I can’t complain. I’m a very lucky man.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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