He is arguably the finest rugby brain in the world — a man the players he coached dubbed ‘The Professor’.
In this long-awaited memoir Wayne Smith will tell his best, most entertaining, insightful, and amusing anecdotes from an amazing career in in the game. We’ll look inside the Black Ferns’ World Cup triumph, which saw Wayne go from a man entitled to free bus rides with his Gold Card, to the dancing leader of a diverse, vibrant group of players and coaches who won all Kiwis’ hearts. We’ll hear from not only Wayne, but also the women and men who took the Ferns to a World title.
We’ll learn about the start of his career, as a kid from Putaruru, who went to Christchurch in his trusty Valiant, and found himself in the great Canterbury Ranfurly Shield team of 1982–85, a time he rates as one of the most memorable in his life. The sweep of his playing career is huge, from being in the All Blacks with legends like Sir John Kirwan and Graham Mourie, to captaining a New Zealand team, including Sir Wayne Shelford and Zinzan Brooke, to victory at the 1986 Hong Kong sevens.
Italian rugby and English rugby are special to him too. He coached and captained the Casale Sule Sile club near Venice for two years from ’86, and returned to coach Benetton in 1992. Italy, he says, shaped his attitude to coaching. At the Northampton club in England life was great, but a call in 2003 from Graham Henry to return and work with the All Blacks was too much to resist.
As the Crusaders’ coach he won two Super Rugby titles, in 1998 and 1999. He can tell us exactly how the Crusaders’ dynasty was created. His first term with the All Blacks finished abruptly in 2001, but with Henry and Steve Hansen he’d help shape the great All Blacks World Cup-winning teams of 2011 and 2015. It was no surprise that after his first World Cup triumph in 2011, he was assistant coach to Dave Rennie with the Chiefs in 2012 and 2013 when, against all odds, they won back-to-back Super Rugby titles.
His intelligence, expertise, decency, and sense of humour will make this a great memoir.
About the Writer: Phil Gifford is one of New Zealand’s most respected and experienced sports journalists. He has more than 20 sports books to his credit and at various stages of his career was a genuine multi-media personality. He has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio (where he became one of New Zealand’s most recognisable voices) and television. This will be Phil’s 25th book and he believes it will be easily the most important he will ever write.
