The ‘get out of my face’ training ground bust-up Brad Thorn had with Wayne Smith just days before All Blacks’ 2011 Rugby World Cup win
Former All Blacks enforcer Brad Thorn has revealed a training ground incident with Wayne Smith, inset
Retired All Blacks second row Brad Thorn has revealed he had a training ground bust-up with Wayne Smith two days before the 2011 Rugby World Cup final versus France in Auckland.
Now 51, the no-nonsense forward has recently published his autobiography, Champions Do Extra: Lessons Learned in Footy and life to build a Winning Mindset.
Included are multiple tales about the mindset be had to become a rugby union and rugby league great over the course of a career that including winning the World Cup with the All Blacks in his 59th and final Test appearance for New Zealand.
Among the round of promotional interviews that Thorn has done about the book was a two-hour sit-down on The Dom Harvey Podcast, where the host wanted to know more about the argument the former player had with a coach revered around the rugby world.
“My language wasn’t good…”
Asked when he went “snapping at the professor”, Thorn explained: “That was final week. He wanted me to do some new drill thing to help the backs. Like, are you crazy, mate?”
Quizzed if he swore at Smith, Thorn continued: “Heck yeah. Swearing is something I battle with. You have always got work-ons, but you know when I talked before about routine – as a routine, me and Keve (Keven Mealamu) would do this on a Thursday.
“We’d sign off on our physicality on the week for what we were going to bring on Saturday, so we’d do tackles and we’d hit each other hard with a pad and then full breakdown hits, flying in. I like Keve because he is a great guy. Being a shorter guy, too, it forced me to hit low and all that sort of stuff.
“Smithy is like trying to call me over for something he wants to do. ‘It’s like Thursday, what are you fricking, what are you thinking, mate?’ My language wasn’t good. I’m there to get a job done; this is business time.”
Thorn went on to describe his mindset in that moment. “The round-robin, I wasn’t interested in apart from the build. That’s why you see guys have big highlight packages and you beat these lower teams. There are all these great tries and it’s all a fantasy world.
“The world starts quarter, semi and final, three grand finals. You have got to earn the right to make the semi, earn the right to make the final. So shutters came down for me. Once it came to the quarter-final, at the start of that week, it was almost a relief because now there was something on the line and that’s what makes me tick.
“The round-robin, there’s nothing to be lost or won. Now I am in my world where there is stuff on the line, so I am preparing and I was in the zone. So you’d imagine, having told you all that, coming to the Thursday before we are playing the French in a World Cup final, hadn’t won it in the 24 years, all that type of stuff, my last Test, I’m 36 – I didn’t take that well.
“’Mate, you know we are good enough, what are you thinking? I am not interested in your footwork thing for the backs, I’m not interested. Get out of my face, I don’t want to know’. That’s how I felt.”
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Fifteen years later, Thorn suggested that Smith now understood his mentality at that time and explained why he had never apologised to the coach. “No, no, no,” he admitted when asked if he said sorry for his outburst.
“That is why it says in the book, Smithy, he gets it. I would still say to this day, ‘What were you thinking? What were you thinking? C’mon, man. He’s the professor. He should know better than that. Get some other non-playing 23 guy to do that. Why are you asking me?’”
Another story that Thorn elaborated on with Harvey was the bizarre reason behind the calf tear he suffered in Nelson in April 2011 in a 26-18 defeat for the Crusaders against the Highlanders.
He was supposed to fly out the next day for a three-match Super Rugby tour with matches in Perth, Cape Town and Bloemfontein, but the injury excused him from the trip and instead provided some much-needed rest that he ultimately benefited from in a World Cup year.
“When I was in Australia, I used to like getting Rugby News for when we got on a plane and went down to play in Sydney because I like my rugby. When I was in New Zealand, I would get the Rugby League Week. I was in a newsagent’s in Nelson before, where I sort of remembered it was there.
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“I went to get it on game day because I want to look at it. I thought it wasn’t too many streets away. Usually, I put shoes on and I was 36 – you have got to get more diligent around your body. I was always professional around my preparation. But I just wore thongs (flip-flops), I just thought it wouldn’t be much of a walk and I’d just go and get it.
“I went and it wasn’t there. I then started walking around Nelson, walking for like 45 to an hour in thongs, and it was on concrete, and I think that added up to me pinging my calf in a scrum. It was actually the best thing that happened to me because it gave me a break.
“I hadn’t been injured, I had been playing a lot of games each year and it gave me a freshener up that helped me to finish that Crusaders season better and then go into the World Cup year, so it was actually a blessing.
“I was off to Africa the next day, they went off to Africa and I didn’t go. I had just done a lot of footy over a lot of years, and I’d wanted to have a bit more of a break that year, but Richie (McCaw), his foot had been an issue the year before and was again, and Sam Whitelock got injured. I was supposed to go to South Africa, and all of a sudden, I wasn’t going. It was a blessing.”
