Len Smith (1918–2000) was an Australian representative

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 ...

and

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 ...

footballer who played in the 1930s and 1940s. He captained the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

in two Tests in 1948 and was controversially omitted from the 1948-49

Kangaroo tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours to ...

of Great Britain.

Rugby union career

Smith played with the

Eastern Suburbs RUFC The Eastern Suburbs Rugby Union Football Club is a team in the Intrust Super Shute Shield, the premier club rugby union football competition in New South Wales. The club is based in Rose Bay in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, and was founded ...

in the 1930s and after making state representative appearance for

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

against Queensland, Victoria and the

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he was selected as a

Wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...

for the ill-fated 1939 tour of Great Britain. Docking at Southampton the day before World War II was declared, the side left England without playing a game.

Wartime

Smith enlisted in the AIF during World War II and served in Palestine, Egypt and Syria before returning home in 1942. Playing rugby league in the army Smith realised that many union players in Sydney had converted and on his return he switched codes to be able to compete against the best players. He remained in the Army whilst playing for Newtown. For the 1944 semi-final against the

St George Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...

Smith had to travel 25 hours by train from an army camp in Melbourne. Smith saw further active service and a command from 1944 to 1945 in New Guinea. At discharge in October 1945 he was a Captain in the 2/2 Australian Ordnance Stores Company. 1943 Newtown premiers

Rugby league career

Club career

Smith joined the Newtown Bluebags in 1942 and played with the club until 1948, aside from the 1945 season when he was on active service. He scored 45 tries for Newtown during his five-year career at the club. During the final years of the Second World War, when players and coaches became scarce, Len Smith co-coached the Newtown first grade team with Frank Farrell.

Representative career

He was selected in Sydney Firsts in 1946. In 1947 at age 28 he was selected as captain of Sydney and NSW and won the NSW Player of the Year award. He debuted for the

in 1948 being named as captain-coach for a two Test series against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The Australians were beaten in a shock upset 21–19 in the 1st Test in Sydney but regrouped to win the 2nd test in Brisbane 13–4. Smith's tactics of running himself like a forward at the Kiwi centres was critical to the victory. He is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No. 247. In 1948 he was also named New South Wales player of the year.

1948 selection controversy

Having just played a key role in the Kangaroos' 3-1 series victory over New Zealand it seemed a mere formality that Smith would be chosen to lead the team of young inexperienced Kangaroos on the end of year 1948 Tour of England. However on the night the side was announced Smith was left out of the party. It was unfathomable that the current Australian captain/coach having would not be good enough to be selected in the touring squad of 28. There was press uproar at the time and lobbying for a change by Newtown. Some of those involved at the time when interviewed many years later by sporting journalists still spoke bitterly of the episode. Whiticker pp129-131

Accolades

In 2008, the centenary year of rugby league in Australia, Smith was named in the Newtown Jets 18-man team of the century.

Dual-code international status

Regarding the 1939

squad, the Whiticker reference records that "the squad played at exhibition match in Bombay on the journey home so that the players could be afforded international status"Whiticker, ''Captaining the Kangaroos'' p129. and consequently refers to Smith as a dual-code international. However, the Pollard reference records that the Wallabies played against a "Gymkhana XV made up of military men and others".

Later life

After football Smith became a respected sportswriter establishing ''Sporting Life ''magazine. He was a senior administrator in the trotting industry and worked for the New South Wales Trotting Authority. He was involved in the 1967 establishment of the ''Miracle Mile'' event. Smith died on 25 April 2000 in St George Hospital following bowel cancer surgery.

Sources

* Whiticker, Alan (2004) ''Captaining the Kangaroos'', New Holland, Sydney * Pollard, Jack (1984) ''Australian Rugby Union: The Game and the Players'' Angus and Robertson Publishing

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Len 1918 births 2000 deaths Australia national rugby league team captains Australia national rugby league team coaches Australia national rugby league team players Australian military personnel of World War II Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Australian soldiers New South Wales rugby league team players Newtown Jets players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby union players from Sydney