George Smith

The Biography

Rupert Guinness

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781742693705

George Smith is one of the greatest players Australian rugby has ever produced, and certainly one of the all-time best, open-side flankers in the world arena. After becoming the fourth Wallaby and the 10th in the history of the game worldwide to reach a century of Tests, Smith went on to earn 110 Test caps for Australia. Throughout his career he bedazzled crowds—and more importantly, the opposition—with the tactical brilliance, technique, and physicality in his game. A relentless and supremely skillful terrier, he was spectacularly targeted by opponents as the player they had to close down but through all such storms Smith responded heroically. His glorious career included numerous best and fairest player awards in both Test and Super rugby where he played his entire career with the Canberra-based Brumbies. He also played in two World Cups, in 2003 and 2007, and starred in numerous Test wins in the Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations series, as well as in the Wallabies' stunning series victory over the British and Irish Lions when they toured to Australia in 2001. He became the 75th Wallabies captain, leading Australia for the first time in the 2007 World Cup against Canada in Bordeaux and on a number of occasions afterwards. But for Smith, an errant youth who'd been seduced by a bad crowd on Sydney's northern beaches, life could have turned out disastrously, barely before it started. He was raised in a Tongan family as one of nine siblings and after his expulsion from Balgowlah Boys High School it was this Tongan heritage, in the end, which proved to be his salvation. The dramatic road he's followed since, throughout a stellar amateur and professional rugby career, has been littered with pot holes. Some he fell into. Others he avoided. But, as in rugby, in life it's how one responds that really counts.

Table of contents

• cover
• half title
• title
• imprint
• dedication
• contents
• career in brief
• The Turning Point: To Tonga and back
• The Smith Family: A Rough Diamond Among Nine
• Ruby Smarts: Early Days To The Super Break
• Home away from Home: Canberra
• A Super Debut: With A Few Potholes
• Born A Wallaby: The Tri Nations–Bledisloe Cup
• The Second Year: Super 12 Glory To The Lions’ Roar
• The Brumbies: The Nucifora Years
• Lessons Learned: Off The Field
• The First World Cup Campaign: 2001–2003
• The Second World Cup Campaign: 2006–2007
• An Accidental Captain: Only In His Mind
• The Brumbies: From Fisher To Friend—2005–2010
• The Gambling Man: The Dollars And “Sense”
• One For The Road: The Last Wallabies Tour
• Back Row Battles: Waugh To McCaw And More
• The Big Decision: A Long Time Coming
• The Toulon Foreign Legion: A Change For The Good
• From Toulon To The Land Of The Rising Sun: The Journey Continues
• George Smith: A Career Well Played
• bibliography
• acknowledgments
• other books by Rupert Guinness