LONG READ Nicky Smith: 'I really didn’t think I was going to leave the Ospreys.'

It won’t be the same at the Ospreys in the new season. Nicky Smith won’t be around, with the 30-year-old Wales international instead lining up for Leicester Tigers. The move may not have registered on every rugby follower’s Richter scale of shocks, but it’s one the man himself admits he wouldn’t have foreseen just a short while ago.

“I really didn’t think I was going to leave the Ospreys,” says Smith, who made his bow in a black jersey at the age of 18 in 2013 and went on to pull on his home region’s shirt 191 times.

“I thought that was going to be me.

“Coming through the academy, all I wanted to do was play for them. I’ve made great mates there, boys I’ll stay friendly with for life, and the coaches and supporters have been brilliant. The rugby has been something else, too.

“They are my home region and I went from school to Waunarlwydd, my first proper club, then the Ospreys’ academy and onto Swansea before making the Ospreys side.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

But it’s over now. The product of Pentrehafod Comprehensive School decided in the spring to sign a ‘multi-year’ contract to play for Leicester Tigers. It said much for his standing locally that the decision to leave attracted not a jot of criticism. Pretty much all knew exactly how much Smith had given to the Ospreys over the years. If anyone was in any doubt on that score, then perhaps he or she hadn’t been paying attention. But everything has a season, as the line goes, and for Smith the time just seemed right to try something different.

Just to be clear, Welsh rugby is losing a significant player.

That much was proved conclusively in April when Smith went head to head with the Stormers’ Springbok tighthead Frans Malherbe, a man who is used to having his own way on a rugby pitch and especially at scrum time. When the 6ft 3in, 21st 7lb South African is on his game, he has few peers in his position. Someone worked out a couple of years ago that he had won 34 more scrum penalties than he had conceded in his Test career.

But he didn’t bag one in the URC game against Smith, with the Welshman emerging from the encounter with immense credit, actually causing his opponent problems at scrum time and putting in a major shift around the field.

Smith isn’t officially considered to be among the top three looseheads in the country. Let’s take a wild punt and suggest the latest meeting of the ‘Nicky Smith for Wales’ club didn’t end with three cheers for Warren Gatland.

What the performance didn’t do, however, was change the minds of the Wales selectors, who promptly left out the Osprey for the Australia tour this summer, following on from his omission for the Six Nations.

At this point, then, Smith isn’t officially considered to be among the top three looseheads in the country. Let’s take a wild punt and suggest the latest meeting of the ‘Nicky Smith for Wales’ club didn’t end with three cheers for Warren Gatland and his forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys.

But such is life. Selection is subjective and people see different things. Those at Maesteg in the second half of the 1980s watched Allan Bateman regularly splitting opposition defences with his kestrel-sharp eye for space and electric speed over 30 metres; they marvelled at the defensive skill that led to the Llynfi Valley product later being hailed as ‘The Clamp’. But those who picked the Wales team at the time appeared blind to such qualities, with Bateman touching 25 before he won his first cap, which followed a move to Neath.

All a player can do is keep delivering.

No doubt, Smith will do exactly that in the new season, albeit from his new base in the east Midlands. Some have assumed his call to leave Welsh rugby was rooted in exasperation after being repeatedly overlooked by Gatland and Co. They are wrong.

“Moving to Leicester Tigers wasn’t a Wales decision,” says Smith.

“It was to try out something different, to see if I could improve as a player and hopefully challenge for knockout places and win stuff.

“If Wales call me, I’ll be landed, but the decision to leave had nothing to do with the national team, because selection is out of your control.

“Everyone wants to play international rugby and I’m no different. Being in the Wales squad is fantastic and I hope to be involved in future, but if I’m not, there’s nothing I can do other than keep trying to play well.”

Competing with someone shouldn’t affect a friendship.  We had a great relationship and it won’t change. I’m happy for Gar [Gareth Thomas] that he’s doing so well. He’s only going to get better.

The hot favourite to start the autumn Tests for Wales in the No. 1 shirt, of course, is Smith’s old regional team-mate Gareth Thomas.  The two players have been competing for the same jerseys for years but remain close friends.  “Gar’s been awesome for Wales, racking up his caps at an unbelievable rate,” says Smith. “We’ve been good mates for a while, and I’d like to think after rugby I’d stay friends with him and a lot of the other boys I’ve grown up with. Of course, we both wanted the shirt for Ospreys and for Wales, but you can still get on well. Competing with someone shouldn’t affect a friendship.  We had a great relationship and it won’t change. I’m happy for Gar that he’s doing so well, and he’s only going to get better.”

Smith has been training with Leicester since early June, with the south-west Walian settling quickly at a club known to be welcoming.

He is leaving behind a Welsh game mired in financial difficulties, with a salary cap and ongoing talk of mergers and reducing the number of professional teams. Did such a backdrop contribute to Smith’s decision to depart?

I can’t remember Mike Ala’alatoa being driven back like that. Ever.

Hell of a shove from Nicky Smith. #OSPvLEI pic.twitter.com/jjR8Mc7AsU

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) January 7, 2023

Certainly, under those circumstances, even the most rooted of individuals could be forgiven for wanting to make for the nearest fast car, pile in his family and head at breakneck speed towards the sign that says ‘Fresh start this way’.

At the very least, the uncertainty must have been difficult to deal with.

“What was going on made it tough for all the boys,” acknowledges Smith.

“Players are affected in different ways, perhaps depending on how busy they are on social media. Me, I’m not fussed on it. I have one platform and barely use it, so I’m not always up to speed, but others are on it more and if they see an article suggesting teams might be merging it can have an impact.

“Boys just want stability and knowing what they’ve signed for is what they’ll get. If Welsh rugby has that, you’ll see it excel, but when you are constantly looking over your shoulder and negotiating contracts in a state of uncertainty, it’s not good.

There were people who thought I moved to get a better deal, but I’m on the same at Leicester as I was on at the Ospreys, so it wasn’t a financial decision.

“The contract that’s just run out for me was all ready to sign in the January, then I had a phone call from my agent saying we were merging with the Scarlets. So I was due to recommit to Ospreys, but all of a sudden it looked as if I might be signing for a team called something else. I had to hold out, then, with the whole thing dragging on until April before I put pen to paper.

“When you are young and single, you just think of yourself, but I look at it now with a young family and I try to do what’s best for them. As long as they are secure and happy, the rest is a bonus.”

Married to Kirsty and with children aged three, one and new-born,  Smith continues: “There were people who thought I moved to get a better deal, but I’m on the same at Leicester as I was on at the Ospreys, so it wasn’t a financial decision.

“I’m 30 now and that’s still a good age for a prop. I just thought it would be an opportunity to move to a different environment and test myself.  I wanted to do it while my kids were young so we wouldn’t have to drag them from school before it all starts to get more structured.

“I like that Leicester pride themselves on the things the Ospreys value, like forward dominance and the set-piece, and because of that I felt the transition would be easier.

“So far, it’s gone really well. Obviously, you’re nervous to start, like a kid on the first day at school, but the boys have been outstanding and the coaches, too, making me feel welcome.

I think I’ve made the right call. I remember going to Welford Road with Wales U20s for a warm-up game, thinking it would be class to play there but expecting it to be empty because I didn’t believe people would want to watch kids, but the stadium was half full.

“Tommy Reffell was flat out with Wales but he messaged me and we’ve also spoken, while Olly Cracknell, who I played with at the Ospreys, has been great, filling me in with the details about things on and off the pitch.

“I think I’ve made the right call. I remember going to Welford Road with Wales U20s for a warm-up game, thinking it would be class to play there but expecting it to be empty because I didn’t believe people would want to watch kids, but the stadium was half full.

“And when the Ospreys played there the season before last, the away changing room was small, but the whole thing was brilliant – old-fashioned and brilliant. You ran out with the crowd on top of you. As a visitor it was some experience. I can’t imagine what it would be like to run out with the home team.

“That said, it was still a difficult call because of what the Ospreys mean to me and I have a feeling they are on upward curve, with a lot of promising youngsters, among them Harri Deaves. He’s just an absolute dog who’ll scrap for everything. He’s quite small and people on the outside may form a certain impression of him, but, by God, the boys in a circle before a game value him so much. They know he’ll run into anything, he’ll tackle everything and he’ll scrap for ball on the floor. He’s really physical and just keeps going. He could be something special if he carries on playing as he has been.”

Smith says he is indebted to a number of coaches over his career, not least Mefin Davies and Duncan Jones. “They helped me hugely,” he adds.

“Mef was excellent for my development at an early stage, while Duncan has been great ever since I’ve known him. I always remember when I first came in I was shy and a bit nervous and didn’t speak much, in contrast to Duncan, who spoke for the whole squad and more. He came up to me and just made me feel welcome. He’d make sure I put the work in and he’d go through things with me, and he did all that as a player.

“For boys coming through in the front five at the Ospreys now, they are very lucky to have Duncan as coach. He’s certainly one of the best I’ve worked with. Not only is he good on the technical stuff, he also has a passion for the Ospreys, especially in the Scarlets week. He understands the region and is one of the main cogs.”

Me, I don’t like to look into the future. I just want to get through pre-season and make sure I give my best every week. With Wales, what will be will be.

Smith will be 33 come the next World Cup, no great age for a prop, but he isn’t looking that far ahead. “You want to play as well as you can for as long as you can, but you can’t say for sure how anything will go,” he says. “You can’t predict form and you don’t know who’s coming through the ranks.

“Three years is a long time. One year is a long time: you can’t say for certain what’s going to happen next week or next month, let alone next year or further down the line. Me, I don’t like to look into the future. I just want to get through pre-season and make sure I give my best every week. With Wales, what will be will be.”

Job number one in the new campaign, then, will be for Smith to earn his stripes at the Tigers. It is a challenge he is looking forward to.

Gatland and Humphreys should watch the situation closely. Over the border should not mean over and out. Smith is too good for that. Much too good.