Aaron Smith looking forward to linking up with former All Black
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
Whether it's 2021 or 2023, this is going to be a battle for the ages. #FRAvNZL #AllBlacks #LesBleushttps://t.co/cvs7y7agCh
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 15, 2021
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.
“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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Comments on RugbyPass
Bulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis 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”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to comments