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I should have put rugby on the backburner - Aaron Smith opens up on airport incident

Aaron Smith

Aaron Smith believes rugby should have taken a back seat as he attempted to patch things up with his family following his off-field indiscretion last year.

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In September, the New Zealand scrum-half was pictured entering a disabled toilet at Christchurch Airport with a female who was not his partner.

Smith was subsequently suspended by the All Blacks for “breaching team standards” before making a tearful public apology.

Ahead of his 100th Super Rugby appearance on Friday, the Highlanders number nine concedes it was a difficult period for him and his family.

“It was a huge mistake by me, obviously,” he said. “The way it hurt my family and my partner, and then myself obviously, it was just a really tough time.

“I probably should have put rugby on the backburner then and focused on myself and my family.

“But we’re past that and I’ve learnt a lot from it – I think a lot of positives have come from that incident for me personally, on field and off field.

“I fixed a lot of things mentally off the field and that cleared me up to train really hard in the off-season.

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“I’m in a really good place right now and I’m just loving how I am on the field and off the field, and how life is.”

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Nickers 37 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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