Winning farewell for one of ‘The Best’
THE clock showed 65min when the little fellow in the blue
No 9 jersey walked off the field.
He did not muck around. As the crowd of about 15,000 gave a standing ovation at Forsyth Barr Stadium last night, he smiled, flicked a quick wave, walked off the ground with purpose and accepted handshakes from his teammates.
And that was that.
We will not see Aaron Smith in a Highlanders jersey in Dunedin again — and that is going to be very strange.
There was an early sense this was going to be no ordinary night at the stadium as the Highlanders hosted the Reds in a mustwin Super Rugby game that doubled as a farewell for their Japanbound great.
Aaron Smith masks — some bigger than the halfback himself, some the size of an ordinary face — showed up in each of the stands, and the usual polite applause for the team announcement on the big screen turned into a thunderous cheer when the No 9 appeared.
Then the man arrived, welcomed by probably the loudest support heard at the stadium in years as he walked out of the tunnel with sons Luka and Leo in his arms.
A quick wave, a kiss for the boys and it was business time.
There was an appropriate musical interlude during the first half when the stadium speakers blared out The Best, honouring both the great halfback and the late Tina Turner.
At the halftime break, a ‘‘streaker’’ seemed to be evading the usual security measures with suspicious ease — until he revealed a painted 9 on his back and he joined a special performance by the
Otago Dancers.
It was all very much a party at Aaron Smith’s house — and it had a fairytale ending.
The passing of the baton was complete when Smith’s understudy, Folau Fakatava, scored a lastminute try to seal a 3530 win that kept the Highlanders’ playoff hopes alive.
The Highlanders played for Smith but they were also thinking of teammate Josh Dickson, whose younger brother Sam died on Thursday night from cancer.