Riding the highs and lows
Southland club rugby is built on loyalty, commitment, and good old fashioned hard work. During the next nine weeks, Stuff will shine a spotlight on some key people through the Club Stalwarts series, starting with Pirates-Old Boys captain Craig Smith.
For Craig Smith, it started through a conversation with former Southland No 8 Stu Harvey. When Smith left Southland Boys’ High School in 2006 he had to find a rugby club to play for.
The lock had played his junior rugby with Tokanui, but he had his sights on playing in Southland’s premier competition which ruled Tokanui out.
It prompted the yarn with Harvey, who was prominent in the then-named Eastern Hawks Rugby Club.
‘‘He said, ‘come down and play for the club, we’ll get you a job’ and that’s where it started. I didn’t look back from there,’’ Smith said.
Thirteen years on and Smith is a central figure in the club.
The Invercargill builder has lined up for the now named PiratesOld Boys each season since 2007, barring one when he was playing in England.
That’s a fair few Tuesday and Thursday night trainings at
Surrey Park.
It’s a lot of Saturdays putting his body on the line for his club, and plenty of Saturday nights dissecting that afternoon’s game over a beer with his rugby mates.
‘‘I enjoy playing and enjoy being with people. It’s your social time I suppose, rather than just going to the pub and having a beer, you go and hurt each other first and then you go and shake hands and have a beer with each other.’’
Smith just missed the club’s 2006 Galbraith Shield win, joining the club the year after.
For him, the highlight was captaining his club in the 2018 final against Marist, despite losing that final.
The veteran lock admits it hasn’t been all smiles during his 13 years at the club, but he has no regrets about sticking it out through the club’s challenging seasons.
‘‘I’m pretty loyal to a club. There’s obviously been some downward spiral years but you can’t leave a club for that reason, you just try harder the next year.’’
While Smith concedes club rugby playing numbers have dropped from when he first started, he said the willingness to compete remained intact.
‘‘There’s still the same amount of passion in it . . . I still reckon there are just as big of hits going in as there used to be, there’s just not the same amount of player numbers.’’
Smith’s toil has been rewarded with six games for the Stags over the years. His first couple came in 2014, the rest were notched up last year.
He remains keen for another crack at the Mitre 10 Cup level this year.
Smith’s Pirates-Old Boys team started the season in impressive fashion on Saturday when they recorded a gritty 12-7 win over Marist.
But they will need every bit of that grit and some more in their next assignment against competition favourites Woodlands on Saturday.
In other premier fixtures on Saturday, Blues will host Star, while the Eastern-Northern Barbarians and Marist will square off in Gore.