Smithy’s “First Decent Thing”

“You know what, Smithy? That'll be the first decent thing you've done all year.”

How do you find game-changing ideas?

You try things. And you try lots of things that aren’t game-changing.

In 2011, Wayne Smith was assistant coach for the All Blacks. At a pre-World Cup camp, and he had an interaction with Ali Williams that he’ll never forget. Here’s Smithy’s retelling of the story:

“I brought over a guy called John Donahue who is an extreme jiu-jitsu coach. He runs the combat sessions for Melbourne Storm in his dojo.”

“And so he worked with us for a few days on tackling.”

“After three days I'm walking off the field and Ali Williams, our lock, came over and he put his arm around me and he said, ‘You know what, Smithy? That'll be the first decent thing you've done all year.’”

Smithy laughs. “That’s coaching.”

“You’ve got to be prepared to try things. A lot of them don't work. But some things do.”

“And you've got to have that relationship with the players where someone can come up to you and say that sort of thing. It was a bit of a joke, but still, he was right.”