Eugene Smith proud double centurion for Petone

Eugene Smith (left) and Misipalauni Moananu lead the Petone and Poneke teams out for Poneke's 125th match in 2008. 

Eugene Smith is proud to be joining the 200-game Premier club this coming Saturday when his Petone side plays its final regular season match of the year against Johnsonville at Helston Park.

The long-serving Petone hooker, former captain, Jubilee Cup and Swindale Shield winner is also satisfied with the opportunity this year to give back to the game and help develop the next generation of young players.

As well as helping with a bit coaching at Petone, Smith is part of the Wellington under 19 coaching group this season.

“It has sort of come full circle. When I left Wanganui and came to Wellington in 2001 my first rep team was the Wellington U19s, so it is special to be able to go back and help out coaching the team this year,” said Smith.

“We had lots of guys in our U19s team that went on to higher honours (Maa Nonu, Tamati Ellison, Hayden Triggs) and others that became club stalwarts such as Matt Egan and JP Tocker (both MSP), Ben Aoina (Upper Hut/Petone), Peme Leiutaua (Ories), Michael Barnes (OBU) and Adam Vardey (Norths) and a lot of the team are still good friends today.”

“You know some of the current U19s players are going to push on to higher honours and others will have long club careers, so being a part of that development is enjoyable.”

“It is a good coaching group and everyone works well together. It is my first coaching role in an official capacity, apart from coaching my son’s Petone U8 team and to be fair, that’s probably more challenging coaching them than it is senior players!”

Smith joined older brother and outside back Corey at then Jubilee Cup champions Petone in 2001 in his first year out of school after captaining Wanganui Collegiate First XV.

He made his Premier debut for the Villagers in the same year. “My first game was against the Wellington Axemen. Andy Parsons was Petone’s hooker and I came off the bench in the first round and then he was injured the following week so I made my first start against Wests in round two.”

Since then he has been involved in many legendary club rugby battles and experienced the highs and lows of being crowned champions and of battling to stay inside the ‘top 8’ (‘top 7’ this year) to contest the championship rounds.

Smith looks back on Petone’s 2005 Jubilee Cup win as an obvious club rugby career highlight.

This included his famous ‘strike of god’ in the semi-final against Poneke, winning a 78th minute tighthead scrum win that led directly to the winning try. In the moment at the time he didn’t realise the significance of it.

“It was a bit of blur to be honest. I didn’t know how much time we had left, I just thought at the time that I might as well have a strike at it and see what happens and I managed to win the feed for us.”

From the tighthead, left wing Alex Telea scorched down field and set up a try in the corner to centre Tumanu Martin. With scores now level, first five-eighth Earl Va'a slotted the sideline conversion. The following week Va’a kicked the winning penalty at Westpac Stadium as Petone beat Norths 21-20 in the final.

Also winning the 2004 Swindale Shield, in his first year as Premier captain, and sharing the Swindale Shield with Northern United in 2009 are other high points.

“Another highlight was our club’s 125th year celebration weekend in 2010, when we played Poneke. The whole weekend was special, to have all these former players and club people gather from around the country and from overseas and guys that I had played with for years come back and be a part of it.”

Smith also happened to score the winning try in injury time in Petone’s 28-21 win in that match.

Smith has had many rival teams and players over the years.

“We share a lot of similarities with Poneke in tradition and history and always had big battles against them. The Moananu twins and Evan Belford are three players I always had huge respect for. I played a lot against them as well as with them in representative teams and they were really tough competitors on the field but the nicest guys off the field as well.”

“Another obvious rivalry we have had is with Hutt Old Boys Marist - some of the most memorable matches I have played were McBain Shield games. Similarly Marist St Pat’s, who we have had many tough games against.”

Another career highlight was playing for the Wellington Lions in 2008 and winning the Ranfurly Shield.

“I was lucky enough to be on the bench for that Ranfurly win over Auckland [won 20-0] and got on the field for the last 15-20 minutes. I didn’t quite realise how big of a deal it was until we saw all the supporters at Eden Park and the next day at the airport and the parade that followed.”

As well as numerous campaigns for the Wellington Bs and for Wellington Maori sides he also played a season for Hawke’s Bay in 2010.

This was followed with a stint overseas playing in Germany. “I played in Frankfurt for a year and a half, alongside one of my mates from Hawke’s Bay Josh Keys and also Peniasi Tokakece from Tawa was over there as well.”

He returned to Wellington club rugby towards the end of the 2012 season and then in 2013 he made the Wellington Lions squad again.

This season has been a bit frustrating for Smith, both on a personal and team level.

“The past couple of seasons, while never actually saying I retired, I had intended on perhaps quietly moving away from playing but then for one reason or another I was encouraged to get back and play again. It just meant that it took a while to get back up to speed fitness wise and so I didn’t feel like I played the best rugby I could.”

“This season I had a good talk to (Petone coach) Jeremy Little before the season started and he said he would like me to keep playing so I decided I would come back, get a good pre-season under my belt and try and have a decent season. But then a slower than expected recovery from a knee injury and a couple of other niggly injuries disrupted my pre-season and then in my second game back playing for the B’s I ended up fracturing my foot so basically thought my season was done”

“Another reason I wanted to come back this year was because I thought and still do think we have the players and the management that we can win the Jubilee Cup. If this year was to be my last year it would have been good to finish on a high by winning the Jubilee Cup.”

But a spate of injuries in the squad and a run of close losses and a draw in the first round that could have gone the other way meant it wasn’t to be Petone’s year’s in 2018.

In the modern club rugby era, Smith will be joining former lock Chris Molenaar, prop Thomas Tupuivao and utility back Cam Incledon as Petone double centurions.

What about Smith’s playing options for the future.

“I am not too sure to be honest; I will never say I have retired as you never know what might happen in the future but in saying that the body is starting to tell me it can’t take much more and then it is also dependant on what I want to do with my coaching, but we will see”

Smith’s biggest supporters are his loyal parents Wayne and Anne, partner Stacey and children, 6 year old son Keone and 2 year old daughter Aubree.

“My parents, even when they were living in Wanganui, would hardly ever miss a game so their support has been great, and my partner and kids are a major reason I have kept playing so long, especially my son who would always encourage me to play so it’s pretty cool knowing that he will have memories of his old man still mixing it up with the young fellas out on the field.”

For now, the focus is on helping his Petone side against Johnsonville this week, in a last round Hardham Cup match that will determine one of the hosts for the semi-finals with Petone currently second on 20 points and Johnsonville third on 15 points.