Former All Black Ben Smith made a shock return to his boyhood club yesterday, turning out for Dunedin's Green Island and helping them to a 35-12 victory over rivals Kaikorai at Miller Park.
A large crowd gathered to witness Smith bring up his long-awaited 50th cap for the club, a moment he said he had "been looking to do for a while".
"I really enjoyed running around and playing club rugby again. It’s taken a few years to get my 50th but it was always something I wanted to do," Smith said.
"I’m not getting any younger. That’s why I thought it was a good opportunity to play today and the body’s feeling good, so the timing was perfect."
Green Island coach Dean Moeahu said Smith's presence alone was "huge" for the club.
"He’s an absolutely great role model for Green Island Rugby Club. It means a hell of a lot for him to come back and play, even for the community, it’s massive," Moeahu said.
"We’d love to have him week in week out. The guys have been absolute sponges sucking up all the information from him today and if he could play all of next year it’d be brilliant."
While Smith said that would be something he would like to do, he would need to get approval from his family first.
"My wife’s around somewhere – she said I’ve only got one game. Obviously we’ve got young kids so it’s pretty full on, so we’ll see what the boss says," Smith laughed.
"Hopefully I passed on a wee bit on what I’d learnt and hopefully they took something out of today. It’s no different to when I was 18, 19 years old and trying to cut my teeth in rugby.
"I know sometimes it’s lost about club rugby and moving on to the professional game, but for me club rugby is where it all starts and where you get a lot of enjoyment."
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