Hayden Smith didn’t play in the USA’s 64-0 hammering by South Africa in London’s Olympic Stadium on Thursday but then, as a basketball player from the Blue Mountains, you would not expect him to. However, only a knee injury, sustained in the defeat to Scotland, ruled him out of the Eagles’ biggest Rugby World Cup challenge. Smith has had more than enough special moments in his unique sporting career, though, and is looking forward to whatever life-enhancing experiences lay around the next corner. After all, he has already played elite level basketball, rugby union and American football, and lived in Sydney, Denver, New York and London.
Smith threw himself into sport growing up just west of Penrith: triathlons, soccer and cricket (younger brother Ryan played professionally for Derbyshire and now plays first grade for Penrith). A tall lean boy, he had fun playing basketball with his friends at Blue Mountains Grammar School. A couple of years later and he had earned a basketball scholarship to the New York Institute of Finance.
After his freshman year he transferred to work with famed former Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Dunlap at Metro State College in Denver. While Dunlap went to coach in the NBA, Smith went to play rugby. Despite growing up in the world’s deepest pool of rugby league talent, he had not played a minute of league and had only a few games of union for the school team. He was already 23.
“I was looking to play professional basketball in Europe,” explains the Bullaburra boy, now an eloquent 6 foot 8 inch 30-year-old lock forward. “A couple of mates invited me to play rugby with them in Denver.” Within two months he was in the US national team. “It was crazy. My first game was against Munster. Paul O’Connell wasn’t playing, fortunately.”
Two fellow Aussies also travelling the world via rugby guided his next move: US Eagles coach Scott Johnson sent him to Eddie Jones at Saracens, just north of London. “I was a project. My first game for Saracens Academy they put me on at six and I’d never played six before. I had no idea what I was doing. It was a bit ridiculous, but I set my mind to changing my body, worked incredibly hard, and made sure I never made the same mistake twice.”
That leap was extraordinary, but was surpassed by what happened next. After four years at Saracens, in which he became an established member of their successful squad, Smith decided to do it all again from scratch. He left rugby to try to crack the NFL.
“I realised my physical attributes leant itself more to a contact sport than basketball. Unfortunately my university didn’t have a football team. If it had, I most likely wouldn’t be here now.”
The man responsible for getting Jarryd Hayne into San Francisco 49ers – NFL agent Jack Bectha - has actually done all this before. After the 2011 Rugby World Cup, he got Smith a chance in the NFL.
“The window of opportunity was closing, given my age,” admits Smith, who hopes to play when the US close their World Cup campaign against neutrals’ favourites Japan on Sunday. “I hadn’t grown up playing rugby and hadn’t invested my whole life in getting where I was, so I didn’t have the loyalty to it. I spoke to Jack about my passion. We came up with a plan and Saracens gave me time off to go and work out with different teams.”
Again, there was method to the apparent madness. Smith wisely accepted an offer from New York Jets, primarily because they had two Tight End coaches, ensuring at least one would have time to teach him the ropes. He became the project of defence coach Tony Sparano, boss of a different New Jersey-based mob than his near namesake, and progressed through the ranks until making the active roster. He made his debut in ‘The Show’ three years ago, and managed to stay increasingly involved before being released by the Jets at the season’s end. So did a career in the NFL beckon?
“I wasn’t looking that far ahead,” he admits. “I knew the nature of the business. I’d already been there long enough to see 40, 50 people vanish – and that was just in the first few weeks of the season. I didn’t feel like a spare part, though. I played a part in helping the team, which was nice.”
His brief NFL life in New York was like a surreal dream. He recalls some highlights. “I’d never had to stay warm before. You could have been sitting there for 15 minutes or even longer. Their players get used to it but I was the idiot running up and down the sidelines, doing Jumping Jacks.
“We would take 161 staff to an away game and fly in our own jet. All the players got their own row: veterans up the front, us in the middle. The media sat in the back. We’d go through airport security under the stadium, get on the bus and drive straight to the runway! The most bizarre thing was who was there. You’d look to your left and there’d be Raymond from ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, and Adam Sandler was at every game. It was very special to be part of.”
Smith is arguably the only man on earth who truly understands what Jarryd Hayne is really going through now.
“Listen: he is doing an amazing job. He has done some unbelievable things, an outstanding job. I think more sportsmen could change sports but there’s no reason to change if you are playing at a high level. It’s pretty unique to make that move and it’s a very brave decision. There’s a reason not many people can play in the NFL as it’s incredibly difficult, very hard work and stressful. I didn’t have to cope with the media hype, either. You have to respect his ability to do that.”
Smith’s multi-cultural, poly-sport, international resume is commonplace in a cosmopolitan USA rugby squad. A Tongan, a Fijian, an Irishman and two Kiwi brothers play alongside raw youngsters from inner city Los Angeles, captained by an English public schoolboy. Among the 11 born and raised overseas, there are four New South Welshmen and the Defence Coach is former Manly, Cronulla, NSW and Australia league star Phil Bailey.
After three months living with the US squad, he was glad to spend a couple of days with his wife and dog in Hampstead, the high-brow London suburb which he hesitantly calls home, having spent most of the last eight years there. “We are probably experiencing some of the problems now that Super 15 teams have when they are on the road: cabin fever.”
A fringe player last season as Saracens dominated the English game, Smith has already turned the page on his next chapter, spending a day a week as a junior broker with insurance giants JLT in the City of London. “Saracens are great with the Player Development Programme. It prepares you for life after rugby, but it also helps with your rugby now as it gets you away you mentally and allows you to freshen up. It’s been fantastic, incredibly interesting. I’m certainly looking to do stay in re-insurance when I finish playing.”
That could be as soon as May 2017 when his Saracens contract expires, aged 32. “I would struggle to play anywhere else. I feel very lucky to be part of the team. Who knows where it will go from here?”
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion