Canada U20 Profile: Michael Smith

This is the first article in the Coast to Coast series featuring players at the men's Under 20 camp at Shawnigan Lake School. The camp is part of the preparation for the trip to Romania to take part in the Junior World Rugby Trophy tournament starting on August 28th. The tournament includes eight teams, Canada are in a pool with Fiji, Uruguay and Portugal. The tournament winner will be promoted to the 2019 Junior World Championships. 

Michael Smith - Surrey, BC

Like many Canadian youth, Michael's early aspirations were hockey, he didn't touch a rugby ball until Grade 8 when he attended Earl Marriott secondary school in Surrey. As he relates it, "hockey was pretty well everything for me, in Grade 8 I went to Earl Marriott secondary and Adam Roberts was my gym teacher - I didn't even know what rugby was to be honest. He wanted me to come out for the team and that was the start for me". That year he represented BC at the U14 level, it was to be the first of many provincial and national honours in his rugby career.

He continued to balance hockey and rugby during his high school years, it wasn't until Grade 12 when he decided to focus on rugby exclusively. He had made the Canada U17 team and began seeing himself as a national level rugby athlete now. He also wanted to attend UBC which has a top rugby program, "I wanted to get a good look from Curry and Rameses [UBC coaches] so I made the decision on playing rugby the whole way through", he reflected. 

How did his family react to this change from hockey to rugby? "They were super supportive of it, as much as they could, to be honest they didn't know much about the sport. None of my family members had ever played, my Dad was a big volleyball guy, and my brother kept playing hockey through juniors. They came out to watch and I didn't get a lot of car ride home criticism, as a lot of young hockey kids do, so it kept me enjoying the sport and doing well." He also recognized the other positive influences that rugby brought in, "It [rugby] brought in a lot of other characters into my life that were able to provide support, like Adam Roberts who has been a mentor figure throughout high school, and there are countless others as well"

Why did he choose UBC, besides the fact they have a top rugby program? "I take my academics pretty seriously, I have aspirations for med school down the road, I've always been school first, sports second. So UBC was always a clear choice for me due to academics but both my parents went to UBC, my brother is going there currently, my grandparents went there, so if I had gone anywhere else... [laughter]". 

Michael is not only an accomplished XVs player but also proficient in the Olympic version of the game, Rugby 7s. That becomes clear when asked about some of the career highlights to date. "The ones that standout? I played a lot of Elite Youth 7s under Shane Thompson, we won the first ever Vancouver 7s, that was at BC Place which was an incredible moment. That year we won Vegas and Victoria as well. More recently, with UBC the rivalry with UVic, we had a close game with UVic that we won at the whistle, the Wightman Boot game, that was pretty incredible, to get the win over another class university side. Playing with team BC, playing in the U19 CRC's in the last time, with Curry Hitchborn out there leading the team at Truro Nova Scotia, winning that championship was certainly an honour. To captain the team was something very special."

We discussed role models, Michael is a loose forward, meaning he can cover any of the #6, #7, #8 roles, blindside flanker, openside flanker or #8. He gave a bit of background on his choice of position first, "I started out my career playing centre, I had the wise advice of Spencer Robinson who was my BC U15 coach, tell me "I see you as a flanker", so I got right into that. For UBC I play #6. I play #8 here, I've played a lot #7 for team BC so I'm really comfortable as long as I'm on the field."  He then tackled the role model question, "Growing up as a young player, Grade 8, 9, 10, I'd say John Moonlight was a huge inspiration for me going from a flanker to the 7s team which I thought was pretty stellar for him to be able to do that and seeing him in that role as captain of the team as well. And obviously the classic internationals like Richie McCaw, he was a big influence when he was still playing for the All Blacks"

The big question what happens if the option of a professional contract comes up, considering your goals of further studies and medicine? "There's one example I'd like to use, as many in the rugby community are quite familiar with, the Sean Duke model. Where you can have a great international career, his was with 7s, mine could be with 7s or XVs playing professionally, and then going in [to med studies]. Sean, I think, started with UBC [med school] when he was 28, and he was there during my first year so I got to talk with him a lot about what the experience was like for him, and that's the model I look at. I can only really play while I'm young and I'm at the peak of my physical fitness so I most certainly would take time off to pursue this [rugby] career and my family supports me whole heartedly with that." 

You can follow Michael and his teammates on their trip to Romania through the Rugby Canada website and social media pages. 

Next in the series we'll talk to Jack McCarthy from Newfoundland and find out about his rugby journey and how it led to the Canada U20 camp.