Meet Henry Smeed: The Germany Sevens star from Somerset

Henry Smeed is not your run of the mill member of Germany’s Wolfpack.

Because while many of his teammates would have used the words erfreut or zufrieden to describe their HSBC SVNS 2 victory in Kenya, Smeed left Nairobi “chuffed”.

Last month at Nyayo Stadium, Pablo Feijoo’s team took a big step to securing a top four spot in the second tier of HSBC SVNS competition and a place at this year’s HSBC SVNS World Championship events in Hong Kong, Valladolid and Bordeaux.

“I would say surprised, but we’ve been working so hard through the whole preseason,” Smeed told RugbyPass. “We’ve had camps in South Africa and Spain. We competed with those guys.

“We knew what we were capable of. We showed it. Just chuffed. The boys were buzzing. It was awesome.”

The Wolfpack’s quick start came at the end of a six-month long preseason. In the summer Germany had placed fifth in the Rugby Europe Championship Series before their preparation for a massive 2026 began.

Time at their Heidelberg base was split with a trip to Stellenbosch, where they went toe-to-toe with Philip Snyman’s Blitzboks, and then Malaga, where they took on HSBC SVNS Series teams Spain, Great Britain and France.

More warm-up games came against Belgium in the winter and then another trip to Spain’s south coast for another fortnight.

As opening gambits to life a professional rugby sevens player go, for rugby-obsessed Smeed, it was a brilliant introduction to what the future had in store.

“I think the South Africa camp was an eye-opener,” Smeed recalled. “We’d only been together for a month. In a couple of games we competed with them. There were a few where they gave us a proper whipping.

“In Malaga we were super competitive. We ended up beating Spain in one of those games.

“For me, personally, I had grown up watching these guys play, like Jordan Sepho who is super recognisable and has been playing for ages.

It’s quite daunting before, but then the feeling afterwards was that we were competing with those guys, we’re fit enough to play with these guys and we came out pretty confident.”

The long road to Heidelberg

Some of you may be sat there wondering why Smeed’s surname rings a bell. Younger brother of Somerset cricketer Will, the 23-year-old at one stage also seemed destined for a career between the stumps.

During his childhood Smeed loved rugby more. He was just better at cricket. Enrolled at King’s College in Taunton, which is predominantly a cricket school, there was no real avenue for growth as a rugby player.

 

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Part of the Somerset Academy as a teenager, while also getting the odd game with Bristol Bears’ Academy, an ACL injury at 16 kept him out of the game for 18 months. During that period his time at Somerset and with Bristol ended.

“That injury kind of blew up a lot of hopes,” Smeed said. “For me, I’d always preferred rugby. At that point I said I was done with cricket. I had no idea I’d end up playing rugby (at the standard he does now). I just went to university and signed up for preseason.”

While at the University of Bristol, Smeed got back on the rugby pitch and quickly picked up from where he left off. In the summer of 2023 between his second and third years at university a Super Sevens Series tournament opened the door to a whole new world.

Playing beneath their level, a full-bore Germany team pushed part-timers and university students to one side. With ease. It got Smeed thinking.

The 23-year-old’s grandmother, Ute, was one of 12 million ethnic Germans that had to leave their homes after World War Two ended. Eventually she met her future husband, Philip, and relocated to Somerset. The couple had three children and six grandchildren.

To pay homage to those roots Smeed got in contact and quickly got a trial. After an outing with a development team at RugbyTown Sevens that summer, but with the sevens set-up being full-time it was difficult to commit to the programme alongside his studies.

 

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In order to capture the services of the England-born flyer, Smeed was called up to the 15-a-side team and got his Test rugby debut off the bench against Spain in Madrid in the Rugby Europe Championship.

“Seeing the look on my dad’s face when I made my debut, that was one of the greatest feelings,” Smeed said. “I feel a lot of pride. It would be a shame for the German roots to be forgotten in our family. Dad is chuffed to bits.”

There was another twist to come in Smeed’s journey. Ahead of his final year at university he was training with Pablo Feijoo’s team in Sierra Nevada. It was his final push to get into the Germany Sevens programme full-time and after having made his debut in XVs, the 23-year-old had also been picked in a Bristol Bears U23 side. He was feeling good.

“In the last training session I did my ACL,” he said. “I’ve done both now. I couldn’t play last year.

“Luckily, and I’m very thankful to Pablo, he had seen enough and told me to finish my studies and after that they’d love to have me full-time. After Pablo said that I was properly fired up.”

In all, Smeed’s recovery from his most recent ACL injury was just shy of nine months and was hugely helped with the carrot of a professional contract at the end of it.

Now Heidelberg, where the full-time programme is based, is the place the 23-year-old has called home since last September. He even turns out for the town’s 1 Bundesliga team, RG Heidelberg, at the weekends. Plus, with Frankfurt Airport not too far away, it is easy to come home and visit family and friends.

“You’re in a position where you love what you’re doing,” Smeed said. “I just wake up and put everything towards rugby. Playing in Kenya was my goal from the start of my ACL rehab. It was to start the preseason, perform well and make the squad for Kenya.”

Montevideo and Sao Paulo await

It will probably come as little surprise that Smeed describes Pablo Feijoo as, “the best coach I’ve ever worked under.”

 

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Throughout his career the Spaniard has had a knack for driving teams to new heights. Now he is working his magic with Germany, who are in pole position to claim a place at the HSBC SVNS World Championship.

Everyone knows that a top four finish in HSBC SVNS 2 locks in Hong Kong, Valladolid and Bordeaux dates. That is why Germany, the USA and Kenya will be so keen to podium again in Montevideo on 21-22 March. It is also why Canada, Belgium and Uruguay will be on the hunt for a distinct change in fortune at Estadio Charrua.

“The main objective at the start of this whole thing was to make sure we finished in the top four,” Smeed said. “That’s still the main objective, to make sure we really nail that down and leave nothing to chance. We know now that we can compete with anyone in that tournament.

“Maybe the goal will shift. Maybe we will think; let’s win the whole flipping thing. At the end of the day, qualifying for that World Championship and making sure we’re in SVNS 2 again is the absolute minimum.

“When we qualify for the World Champs it’s an opportunity to just really enjoy it at that point. Just soak it in and test yourself against the best in the world. And, you know, who knows at that point?”

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