Rupert Guinness - George Smith: The Biography

First published in 2011

Copyright George Smith 2011

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ISBN 978 1 74237 434 5

Cover design by Darian Causby/Highway 51

Front cover photograph Newspix

Typeset in 11.5/18 pt Sabon by Kirby Jones

eBook production by Midland Typesetters, Australia

To my father, Perry missing you but loving you always.

Rupert Guinness

I would like to dedicate this book to the people who have been a constant support in my life: my mother Selanoa and my father Richard; my brothers Patrick, Egan, Tyrone, Tevita, Lisiate and Tom and my sisters Margaret and Sulianna.

To my beautiful children, Wyatt, Soleil and Ryker, who bring me so much happiness. And to my wife Louise, who is the most special individual and my soul companion.

George Smith

Contents

To Tonga And Back

A Rough Diamond Among Nine

Early Days To The Super Break

Canberra

With A Few Potholes

The Tri NationsBledisloe Cup

Super 12 Glory To The Lions Roar

The Nucifora Years

Off The Field

20012003

20062007

Only In His Mind

From Fisher To Friend20052010

The Dollars And Sense

The Last Wallabies Tour

Waugh To McCaw And More

A Long Time Coming

A Change For The Good

The Journey Continues

1980 Born at Manly Hospital, Sydney, Australia on 14 July

198493 Started to play rugby at Warringah Roos Rugby Club

1990 Manly Blues U12s (tour of New Zealand)

199198 North Curl Curl Knights (rugby league)

1995 Sydney representative U15s (rugby union) Manly Vikings Rugby Club

1996 Sydney representative U16s (rugby union)

Australian U16s (rugby union)

1997 Seaforth Raiders

Combined High Schools Seconds rugby team (also tour of the UK)

Australian A Schools team

Australian Schools team

1998 Combined High School Firsts rugby team

Australian Schools team (tour of the UK)

1999 Manly Colts U19s

Manly First Grade

NSW U19s

Australian U19s

NSW U21s

ACT Brumbies

2000 ACT Brumbies

Australian U21s

Australian Wallabies

20002010 Manly First Grade

ACT Brumbies

Australian A

Australian Wallabies

20102011 Toulon rugby club (France)

20112014 Suntory Sungoliaths (Japan)

L ate 1995. The end of year awards day at Balgowlah Boys High School had just drawn to a close. George Smith, then in Year 10 at the Northern Beaches public school and captain of the Under 15As rugby team, was not a scholar. He had not won any prizes. He certainly was not expected to either. His mind was elsewhereon the summer Christmas holidays that were about to begin, on long hot days at Dee Why and Curl Curl beaches with his friends, on the exciting now of his mid-teens. On anything but the year to come and the direction of his life. That is, until his school principal took him aside outside the school hall and forced George to think very hardand very quicklyabout that future.

This was not the first time that George has been spoken to by Mr Houghton. He had already been suspended five or six times during the course of his school career for offences that ranged from swearing to being late foror simply not attendingclasses, to fighting. But this latest suspension, one that stemmed from Georges overly aggressive play in a school rugby union final against Mosman High, forced the principals hand. Going to the aid of a teammate who was being bashed, George retaliated by stomping on the head of the combatant, who lost half an ear.

For Mr Houghton it was the last straw and he had decided to eliminate the problematic George for good. The boy didnt need to be top of the class to realise that his days at Balgowlah Boys High were over and his most pressing problem was how to tell his mother Selanoa and his father Rick. Heading home with a poor report card was one thing, but to do so after the principal has told you that if you return you will not be welcomed back, was another.

With the quick thinking and intuitive tactics that would work so well in rugby in the years to come, George rapidly hatched the perfect plan. He didnt give his parents Mr Houghtons message. Instead of trying to worm his way out of the situation with excuses, he told his parents he would like to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers, Egan and Patrick, and spend the next year in Tonga at Tupou College, a Methodist boarding school founded in 1866 at Toloa, near the village of Fuaamotu, 35 kilometres from the capital of Nukualofa. I knew how happy they were that theyd done it, the feeling of going back and experiencing Tonga It had an affect on them. Mum thought it was a great idea.

George Smith is the son of a Tongan woman and an Australian father and was brought up in a large familynine siblingsas many Tongan families are. Although the Tongan language was not generally spoken in the household, the children were raised with Tongan and English values, attending Sunday morning service at the Uniting Church in Dee Why, where hymns were sung in English and Tongan and services were followed by traditional Tongan family lunches that included taro, sweet potato, chicken, pork and shellfish. George might have thought he knew about Tongan culture but he was soon to find out that he didnt have a clue.

Both of Georges older brothers had experienced a big culture shock when they went to Tupou, despite their Tongan heritage, so when George wanted to follow them there his siblings were concerned, more than his parents.

Patrick recalls: It was the little, things like showeringyou showered in [a tiny] tub Your scrubbing brush was a coconut husk. [And] it was very strict, very religious. Patrick has not forgotten the system that was in place at the school, which allowed not only teachers but also prefects to hit errant students. Patrick recalls his first experience: Because I was new everyone would call me over to talk to me. So the prefect called me out to the front and [as they did] one of the guys said, Break the stick. I had to touch my toes he belted me and the first time really hurt. Then I remembered the break the stick comment, so as he went for the second [swipe] I put my butt back a bit and the stick broke. Patrick recalls another occasion when all students were ordered to line up, sit down, lean forward and cop the hose across their backs when one of them had failed to hand in their paper after an exam. The beating left thick welts across his skin.