Arneta Honey Hireme-Smiler (born 3 May 1981) is a New Zealand
rugby football
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league.
Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...
player who has represented her country in
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
,
rugby sevens and
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
. Due to her multi-sport career, Hireme-Smiler has been referred to as Honey Bill Williams, in reference to her New Zealand male counterpart
Sonny Bill Williams
Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the List of dual-code rugby internationals#New ...
.
Playing career
From
Putaruru, South Waikato, Hireme-Smiler played rugby league for Putaruru Dragons from 5 years old and then onto the senior women's grades playing for the
Papakura Sea Eagles
The Papakura Sea Eagles are an Auckland rugby league club based in Papakura. The Sea Eagles currently compete in the Fox Memorial competition run by the Auckland Rugby League.
History
The Papakura Rugby League Club formed in 1931. On March 26 th ...
club in the
Auckland Rugby League
The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is responsible for rugby league in the region, including both club and school rugby league. It began in 1910 when the fi ...
women's competition. She has represented
Counties Manukau, Bay of plenty, Waikato and Waicoa Bay in the New Zealand Rugby League's women's competition over her 20 year career at representative level.
In rugby union, she plays and coaches melville women's Premier rugby team and represents
Waikato
Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...
in the women's provincial championship.
Hireme-Smiler has played in four Rugby League world cups, she played for the
Kiwiferns in the 2003 Women's world cup
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and
2013 World Cups.
She captained the team in 2013.
She was named in the world women's rugby league in all 4 world cup tournaments, and also awarded player of the Tournament in 2013. Honey played in the 2017 Rugby League world cup representing the kiwiferns finishing the tournament as the highest try scorer and finalist for player of the tournament.
Hireme-Smiler has played for the
New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team
The New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team represents New Zealand in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games.
The team has participated in all rounds of the World Rugby Wome ...
in the
2013 Rugby Sevens World Cup in Moscow.
She has also played for New Zealand on the
IRB Women's Sevens World Series
The World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, is a series of international rugby sevens tournaments for women's national teams run by World Rugby. The inaugural series was held in 2012–13 as the successor to the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup held ...
and represented New Zealand Maori in sevens.
She made her
New Zealand rugby union
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...
debut at the
2014 Women's Rugby World Cup
The 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup was the seventh edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup, and the sixth held in Europe. The World Cup Final took place on 17 August.
All of the pool games for the World Cup took place at the Centre National du R ...
, where she was named to the World Cup Dream Team and the World XV team.
In 2014, she also became one of New Zealand's first contracted sevens players.
She competed in the
Women's Rugby Super Series 2013-2016.
In June 2018, Hireme-Smiler joined the
St George Illawarra Dragons women's team ahead of the inaugural
NRL Women's Premiership
The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...
commencing in September 2018.
Honey is the current Captain for the NZ women's rugby league team, co-captaining with Laura Mariu, between the pair they have over 36 years of experience at international level. Honey was awarded NZ women's rugby league player of the year in 2018 her third time winning top honours. Honey was also a finalist in 2018 for the International Women's Golden boot award
Honours and awards
She was named the
New Zealand Rugby League
The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year.Coffey and Wood ''T ...
's women's player of the year in 2007, 2012 and 2017.
Gallagher Waikato sportswomen of the year 2013, 2014
Player of the Tournament Women's Rugby league world cup 2013
Waikato Sports women of the year 2014,2015
Waikato women's Rugby player of the year 2013,2014,2015,2016
Top try scorer and player of the tournament finalist for the 2017 Rugby league world cup
In the
2020 New Year Honours
The 2020 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...
, Hireme was appointed a
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...
, for services to rugby league.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hireme, Honey
1981 births
Living people
Counties Manukau rugby league team players
Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit
New Zealand female rugby league players
New Zealand female rugby sevens players
New Zealand female rugby union players
New Zealand women's international rugby sevens players
New Zealand women's international rugby union players
New Zealand Māori rugby league players
New Zealand Māori rugby union players
New Zealand women's national rugby league team captains
New Zealand women's national rugby league team players
New Zealand Warriors (NRLW) players
Papakura Sea Eagles players
Rugby union wings
St. George Illawarra Dragons (NRLW) players
Waikato rugby union players
Rugby union players from Waikato
People from Putāruru