Right before training this week, I was glad to finally interview Queensland Reds lock Ryan Smith. After cementing his spot in the Reds starting line up this year, he was selected to play for “Australia A” against Samoa and Fiji, before returning to close out a big club rugby season for Brothers. Along with a number of his Reds team-mates, Ryan is in the midst of a tough finals series, with a knock-out clash with Uni (University of Queensland) this Sunday!
As well as chatting about club rugby, we talked about everything Reds/rugby related, I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading our conversation!
Hey Ryan, thanks for chatting today! I’m very excited that you’ve signed with the Reds for next year.
This is Reds Rugby Rules, but of course it’s club finals time at the moment! Congratulations to you and the Brothers on the win last weekend!
Cheers mate, it was obviously a pretty tough one. We had a pretty long game, not as long as the Wests/UQ one, that game went for about 120 minutes! But our one was pretty good, getting it all the way down to 80 minutes there. Lucky to get that one, but we’ve sort of done it the hard way by finishing in third [on the table], so we’ve got to win two games in a row to make it through to the grand final.
How are you and the team feeling, heading into the game against UQ this Sunday?
Yeah really good, we had a good training session earlier this week. We usually play on a Saturday, then into this finals stuff, the way it sort of works is that we’ve been playing on Sundays. So it’s been bit of a disjointed week and our game was a bit closer to our Tuesday session than it would usually be. So we are training here at Norths at the moment, as the field at brothers is out of action for a little while. The training was a little bit lighter on the Tuesday so it’s given us a good opportunity to get through a bit more knowledge and a few different plays, so that’s been good. The boys are gelling well and looking to put through a complete performance on the weekend.
I’ve enjoyed watching you play for the Reds this year. What’s been a highlight of the 2022 Super Rugby season?
Cheers! Yeah, I’ve enjoyed playing it as well. I think, even though we didn’t win any of those games against the kiwi guys, I really enjoyed those games. Especially those two very last ones against the Crusaders, obviously playing against Sam Whitelock and Scott Barrett. They’re some pretty experienced locks there, it was was good to sort of test myself against those guys.
I also enjoyed all the home games at Suncorp. That Fiji Drua game was pretty awesome with the was the crowd was. I’m enjoying most games, if not all of them, at the moment!
Congrats on making the Australia A squad, earlier this year! What was your highlight of that experience, over in Fiji?
Um yeah! That was an awesome tour. I think, besides the rugby stuff, that was great, even the Fiji game
They’ve put in some good strong performances against even the Wallabies in recent years, so for us to put in a strong performance, even as an “A” squad was pretty good.
Away from the rugby specific stuff, I think that kind format, where you come together as a group shortly before the competition, was pretty interesting. That’s something I haven’t done since I was fifteen, playing in those “rep” sort of squads. To have sort of a “misfit” group, as such, come together was pretty exciting, and test ourselves, so that was a pretty cool experience.
Looking to 2023, what are some things you are looking to implement in the coming season of super rugby?
I think this year I noticed my playing weight was down a bit and my fitness was where it should be and where I was playing my best footy. So even over these next couple of weeks, we’ve got a good opportunity to “a” get back in the gym, but also “b” work on that fitness stuff. I’m pretty keen to be at a nice pretty nice light weight, about that 114, 115 sort of weight is what I’m happy with at the minute. I’m keen to keep chipping away and then, bring on the kiwis when we get to play them. Hopefully we’ll put some good scores in against them!
That set-piece sort of stuff, working around the scrum, the line-out, even the break-down can be seen as a set-piece for locks, being able to secure the ball for your team and even disrupt the opposition ball is pretty crucial. I think the defence stuff is massive, being really accurate around your tackle, being accurate with your carry, you might not make too many big breaks (laughs), I don’t make many big breaks, you might only get three carries a game, but you don’t want to be turning over one of those, that’s not a good conversion rate there.
What are some of your current goals, both inside and outside of rugby?
Outside of rugby, I’ve just got a bit of work to do on my house, I’ve been putting up a shed, so I’ve got to finish off that… and with the rugby stuff, I’m pretty keen to try and get a Super championship under our belt with the Reds… and as a person I’m keen to keep pushing for higher honours and be selected for a Wallabies camp of some sort in the future.
Who have been some of your rugby heroes?
Growing up as a kid, like most guys my age I loved watching Quade Cooper come through, it’s not a position specific one, so much… and then after that great try for the Wallabies, I was always a Radike Samo fan. He’s pretty abrasive around the park. I’ve met him since and he’s a really lovely bloke. He’s a pretty good bloke to model yourself off of, just in being a nice bloke on and off the field.
Have you enjoyed being an indigenous ambassador for the Queensland Reds this year?
That’s a great question! Being non-indigenous, it’s been a bit of a different role, it’s really opened my eyes to the indigenous culture. I’ve been trying to get into it as much as possible. I just did a presentation out at Clontarf about two weeks ago and went out to Cherbourg and had a bit of a chat with some of those young kids out at the State school there.
I’m really enjoying my time and trying to get to know more about indigenous culture and it’s been a great experience so far.
Finally, what’s your favourite post-training food?
My instagram is full of my “Macros 4 U” posts. I’m pretty happy with those meals, it’s pretty easy to just slap ‘em in the microwave, but I’ve been on the salmon and rice recently, as I was saying, trying to keep that weight down.
So not too many trips through KFC lately unfortunately at the moment, but during off-season there’s a couple of weeks that I might tempt myself. We’ll see what happens (laughs).
Thanks for chatting Ryan. All the best for this Sunday, may the best club win!
Thanks mate! Appreciate your time and go Brothers!
*Harry Wilson walks past and throws some banter in Ryans direction.
Brothers will front up against UQ this Sunday at 3:10pm at Bond University!
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