Not a great of the game

Sir Wayne Smith has an unexpected way of describing his rugby playing career: “I was an All Black, but I wasn't a great of the game. I was a player who wanted to play for great teams and had limited ability.”

But it’s amazing how far you can get even if you’re not a ‘great of the game’.

“I soon found out that so long as I had really purposeful intent about how I applied to every training and every game and every week of my life and got up every day and tried to be best in the world, that's what counted.”

Smithy carries this framing through to how he coaches his teams.

“It's an important concept because not everyone's going to be a legend of the game, or a superstar, are they?”

“If you want to be part of a great team, anyone can be a cog in the team as long as you're prepared to give everything you've got.”

Smithy’s players reflect on these questions:
1. Am I helping my teammates flourish? 
2. Am I leading by example?

“There's always a match up in sport between sustained effort and winning. And so having a group that are committed to each other, and committed to the team and the sport, they're going to put in sustained effort.”

“There's a saying, ‘Death is afraid of them that have the heart of a lion.’ And that's what you want in your team.”