Smithy: Endless Winters & The Spring of '22

by Wayne Smith, Phil Gifford

Wayne Smith is arguably the finest rugby brain in the world - a man the players he coached dubbed 'The Professor'. In Endless Winters & The Spring of '22, we'll hear from not only Wayne, but also the women and men who took the Ferns to a World title. In this long-awaited memoir, Wayne Smith will tell his best, most entertaining, insightful, and amusing anecdotes from an amazing career in in the game. We'll look inside the Black Ferns' World Cup triumph, which saw Wayne go from a man entitled to free bus rides with his Gold Card, to the dancing leader of a diverse, vibrant group of players and coaches who won all Kiwis' hearts.

Genres: Biography, Sports

389 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2023

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Bloomin’ legend of the sport. Mostly picked this one up for the Black Ferns story, but enjoyed his insight into the All Blacks teams of my youth in the 2000s, through to the back-to-back World Cups. Loved the piece about connecting the Chiefs to their region to build an identity, and the high school origin story of my current fave AB, ALB.

[Rob Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks Smithy, thoroughly enjoyed it!

[Aiden Ransley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The chosen one

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting biography autobiography. Not only does this covers Smithy’s playing and coaching days but also basically the whole entire history of New Zealand rugby from it’s path to professionalism until the rugby scene today of the regional and national level. As many kiwis, I’ve grown up watching Smithy as a player and then as a couch so it was fascinating to read his story and his own words.

There’s no way to quantify the effect that Wayne Smith has had on not only Canterbury NPC rugby, Crusaders rugby, All Blacks rugby Blacks Ferns rugby, but also both sevens teams. Not a single part of the sport of rugby has been left untouched by Wayne. It is phenomenal how one man has managed to influence so many different areas of rugby not only as a groundbreaking player but a groundbreaking Coach and he has truly earned every accolade he’s ever had. This book is testament to that, with the fact that everyone who is well known in rugby from Andrew Mertherns, Justin Marshall, Dan Carter, Ritchie McCaw, Robbie Deans, Steve Hansen Murray Mexted, Todd Blackadder, Ruby Tui and many more were willing to write a page of two about the way Smith has helped or influenced them.

[Lindsay Mouat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sports 'autobios' can be a bit, "thus year we did this, and next year we did that," a record of matches played, won and lost.

This differs for a couple of reasons, firstly it begins at the end with the remarkable story of coaching the Black Ferns to World Cup glory.

And throughout there are snippets of insight into the man they called the Professor. There is the humanity of a highly intelligent coach always questioning himself.

Reading this reminds of the foolishness by which Smith was replaced as ABs coach by John Mitchell - a decision taken by old men so far removed from modern sports science and coaching.

Despite the nuggets, it loses a star for Smith being critical of himself, but never critical of others. The heroes are highlighted, but where are the disappointments in his long career. Some balance would have been good.

[Barry Lacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book on a great man and All Black contributor on and off the field. Explains how he did things especially in regards to team cultures and building teams up from scratch. The only criticism I can think of is that the Black Ferns section of the book is longer than his playing career section. But I suppose recently bias will help sell lots of copies.

[Jaimie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first knowledge of Wayne Smith is largely as an All Blacks coach during the 2000-2015. As always learning about his playing and coaching early days was hugely enjoyable. A real gentleman of the game in Aotearoa. Any Kiwi rugby fan should read this.

[C Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best rugby autos