World Cup-winning New Zealand full-back Ben Smith talks to NEALE HARVEY about the highlights of a stellar career, disappointment at Japan 2019, his decision to join Top 14 outfit Pau and the future of the All Blacks and Super Rugby.
How are you coping with lockdown in France?
We’re pretty lucky. I’ve got my wife and two kids and we decided to go and stay with my teammate, Luke Whitelock, and his wife Claire for lockdown. They live a wee bit out of Pau where there’s more space and a chance to roam a bit more freely with the kids.
Having a few fellow Kiwis at Pau must help?
Yes, we’ve got Luke, Tom Taylor, Colin Slade, and Daniel Ramsay, while Conrad Smith and Paul Tito are on the management team. I feel sorry for ‘Fish’ (Tito) because his family’s gone back so he’s in lockdown by himself and doing it tough. But he’s discovering the movie world and we’re all keeping in touch with him, which is important for a guy who’s so isolated. Not knowing how long this will last is frustrating for all of us but you can’t do much about it.
Why did you decide to join Pau?
I got a good insight because of the people I knew who were already here. They’re great guys who said it was a good club and the thing I liked is that Pau were a side that over the last few years have managed to get into the Top 14 and are now fighting to move their way up. At all clubs it’s about who you’re playing alongside and who you play for on the coaching side, and as a place it was a good opportunity for us to do some travelling. We’re pretty close to places like Bordeaux, Biarritz, Andorra and down into Spain so we’d planned to have a good look around before all this stuff happened.
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