George
Smith

George Smith is a giant of Australian rugby and is arguably the greatest Wallaby of all time. Discover more about his career with rugby gurus RugbyPass.

George Smith Bio

George Smith is a legend of Australian rugby. Throughout his distinguished career, he was capped 111 times by Australia and 142 times by the Brumbies. George Smith was inducted into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame in 2021.

Born 14 July 1980, George Smith enjoyed a distinguished junior career where he often played above his age group. In 1999, Eddie Jones signed him to represent the ACT Brumbies. In his first year of professional rugby in 2000, he made his debut for the side and began to make regular appearances. Remarkably considering his lack of senior rugby, he was capped for Australia for the first time during the same year.

Over the course of the next decade, George Smith was a mainstay for both the Brumbies and Australia. During this time, he won a number of individual honours and was even voted into the Wallabies Team of the Decade. During this period, he also won the Brumbies Players’ Player of the Year award an astonishing nine times.

In 2010, George Smith then announced his retirement from international rugby and left the Brumbies to play in the Top 14 with Toulon. However, he only played for the side for one season before he joined the Suntory Sungoliath in Japan. In doing so, he signed a whopping $3.3m three-year deal.

He continued to play with the Suntory Sungoliath until 2017, but he also enjoyed stints at Stade Français (2012), Lyon (2014-15) and Wasps (2015-16) during this time. Plus, in 2013, George Smith also signed a short-term contract with the Brumbies and he was recalled to the Australia squad for the visit of the British and Irish Lions. His appearance in the third test was his 111th and final appearance for Australia.

At the end of his time with the Suntory Sungoliath in 2017, George Smith also played for Queensland Reds (2017-18) and Bristol Bears (2018-19) before he retired. Considered by some to be the greatest Wallaby of all time, today George Smith has taken on a coaching consultancy role in Japan.