George smith rugby biography channel

From the English Premiership to the French Pro D2 is just one step for 23-year-old English second-row George Smith, who has just taken that leap. He arrives at USON Nevers as a medical joker until the end of the season.

“In September, he was loaned to Bedford in the Championship, where he played nine league matches (scoring one try) and three cup matches, the last of which was on January 24. He’s therefore in good shape and will be ready to go soon,” the club said in a press release on the morning of February 3.

Seeking more game time, Smith [listed at 6’9, 136kg] joined the Saints in June 2024, but only made one appearance. Yet his arrival had hinted at great potential, as Northampton’s director of rugby suggested.

“George’s superpower is that he’s 6’11” and can move extremely quickly,” enthused Phil Dowson. “He’s incredibly physical. When he arrived, we tested him and his power per kilogram was exceptional—the best we’ve seen in years.

“George has an unusual background, without a traditional academic path. He stood out with Coventry in the Premiership Rugby Cup—most notably against Saracens—and even scored a try against Gloucester.”

However, this little marvel didn’t seem to find his place within the team. As a result, Nevers is

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.

Rugby’s Greatest: George Smith

In the wake of an agonising 27-22 defeat to the Chiefs in the 2013 Super 15 final, Brumbies coach Jake White saluted George Smith.

“He’s a phenomena,” said the South African. It was easy to forgive the grammatical error. Over the years, Smith has certainly seemed like a plural form. Besides anything else, he has almost single-handedly altered the breakdown landscape.

Signed by Eddie Jones to the Brumbies, he stormed onto the Super Rugby scene as a dreadlocked 20-year-old in 2000, making his debut against the Sharks and scoring a try in the final as the Crusaders won 20-19.

A senior cap in France followed and 11 months on, the British & Irish Lions were Down Under. Smith’s reputation rocketed. The openside hauled Australia back into contention after defeat in the first Test, celebrating his 21st birthday with a Man of the Match display in the series-sealing victory at Suncorp Stadium.

Smith’s innovative ability to support his own bodyweight, latch onto ball and snaffle possession at tackle situations was an indelible feature of the Brumbies’ Super Rugby win later that year too, and individual prizes mounted up. Nine Brett Robinson Awards for Brumbies players’ player supplemented two John Eales Medals.

Smith then took his talents globetrotting with Toulon, Japanese outfit Suntory Goliath and Stade Français. Tempted back to Australia when the Lions toured in 2013, he starred for the Brumbies, clinching a tenth Brett Robinson gong and earning an 111th outing against Warren Gatland’s men. This would be his last appearance for the country.

Fixtures & Results