Obituary: Greg Smith

By WYNNE GRAY and AGENCIES

Australian rugby coach. Died aged 52.

Greg Smith, the man who guided the Wallabies through the early years of professional rugby, died in a Sydney hospice on Tuesday from a brain tumour.

Smith was admitted to the Sacred Heart Hospice of St Vincent's Hospital eight days ago. He underwent emergency surgery for a brain tumour four years ago and again last November after wrapping up a short stint as coach of the Fijian national team.

Smith coached Sydney and the New South Wales Waratahs before becoming the Australian coach.

The highlight of his Wallabies tenure was guiding them on an unbeaten 12-game tour of Europe in late 1996, winning tests against Italy, Scotland, Ireland and Wales; England declined to play a test to offer a grand slam.

But the All Blacks became something of a nadir for Smith. Under his reign, the Wallabies lost each of their five tests against the All Blacks. It was these results as much as some quirky selections which found Smith replaced by Rod Macqueen after two seasons.

Smith's results against the All Blacks may not have been flash but his ideas were very similar to those being espoused in the past few weeks by Eddie Jones as the way forward for the Wallabies.

In 1992, Smith first tangled with the All Blacks when his Sydney side thrashed the midweek combination 40-17 at Penrith. It was the heaviest defeat in All Black history.

But when he next met the All Blacks, as Wallaby coach at Wellington in 1996, the All Blacks played superbly in dreadful conditions to win 43-6.

Smith had no chance to try the plans which he used with NSW to outmanoeuvre Queensland.

"I am not convinced," he said, "that side-to-side rugby - moving the ball from a setpiece across to the winger - is the way to go.

"I think it is really dated football. So I'm trying to get Australia to play through the middle of the field because in that position at the breakdown you have a lot of options while you split the opposition defence."

It is a tactic which the All Blacks have used under John Mitchell and one which Eddie Jones wants to pursue later this season.

Smith had his innovations but was also a prickly character, scrapping publicly with John Hart in 1996-97. However, people were not to know then how much his mood swings were affected by his fragile health.

Former Wallabies skipper John Eales paid tribute to the 52-year-old who became test coach when Eales took over from Michael Lynagh as the Australian captain in 1996.

"I've got a lot to thank Greg for because Greg was the guy that first made me Wallaby captain," Eales said.

"I really enjoyed my time with him."

New South Wales Rugby chief executive and friend John McKay said Smith had been in a lot of pain.

"I'm very sad. Greg was only 52 years old and he has got a lovely wife and two young daughters."

Macqueen, the coach who steered the Wallabies to World Cup success in 1999, said Australian rugby owed Smith a lot.

"He had an extremely difficult job because he came in at a time when rugby went professional and there was a lot of things happening," he said.

"He was always a person that believed in what he was doing and believed in the game passionately."

Smith is survived by his wife, Janet, and two daughters, Alana and Rachel.