EXACTLY FOUR WEEKS after he started Munster’s URC quarter-final against the Bulls in Pretoria on the wing, Andrew Smith made his debut for Easts in Sydney.
Eastern Suburbs District RUFC, to give them their full name, are one of the leading clubs in the Shute Shield, where 25-year-old Smith has landed after his departure from Munster.
The move Down Under happened very quickly, although Smith says the URC quarter-final already feels like ages ago.
The Dublin native is sitting in the Coogee Pavilion a few metres from the famous Coogee Beach as he recounts how he made a quick decision to jet out to Australia as he seeks his next opportunity in professional rugby.
The hope is that playing in the Shute Shield, Sydney’s premier club rugby competition, will keep him sharp and open a door somewhere else. Smith will turn 26 this month, so he believes the best is ahead of him in rugby.
When it became clear that Munster wouldn’t be extending his contract, Smith looked all over for his next deal. Then-Munster coaches Mike Prendergast and Alex Colding searched for a chance in the Pro D2, and Bordeaux’s Noel McNamara also helped.
“They were really good to me,” says Smith, who knew plenty of Irish lads who had done well in the Shute Shield and thought about Australia as another possibility.
“That kind of fell through with the Pro D2, but I was asking Mike for advice, and he said, ‘Don’t fall between two stools. You don’t want to just be waiting for something in Pro D2, and for it not to happen.’
“So he was like, ‘If I was you, I’d go out there to Australia. You can always start playing, and if something happens, you can come back.’
“So I just booked a flight on the Monday, and left on the Tuesday.”
Smith arrived in Sydney on 14 June without having signed for anyone in the Shute Shield. He had been in touch with Irish players like Cian Hurley, John Poland and Michael McDonald, who were already in Sydney, asking for tips.
The day after he arrived, Smith went training with Norths to check out their set-up but then took it upon himself to get in touch with Easts, who won the Shute Shield in 2024 and reached the final again last year. They’re the current leaders this season.
Smith sent a text to one of the coaches the Friday after he arrived and signed with Easts that weekend. His timing was good as they had injuries in the back three and a player leaving for the English Championship.
And so, Smith has found himself playing for a stacked Easts team the last three weekends. He made his debut off the bench alongside former Scotland centre Nick Grigg, while there are several professional Waratahs players in the side.
“The player quality is insane,” says Smith, who played against Scott Fardy, Jack Daly and John Porch’s Hunter Wildfires a couple of weekends ago.
“It’s a different style. The running rugby is class. I think there was only one box kick in the whole 80 minutes in one of our games, so the running mentality is just class.”
That suits Smith down to the ground, given his exciting attacking skills and his penchant for winning turnovers in the wide channels, which was honed when he played for the Ireland 7s.
Smith is living with Kiwi hooker Jack Nelson-Murray, who recently helped St Mary’s to win the AIL, in an apartment in Coogee, so it has been easy to settle in.
There are still five regular-season games to go in the Shute Shield, and Easts will be pushing hard for another title in the play-offs. It’s essentially semi-professional rugby, so Smith is excited to see where this leads.
“Coming out of pre-season last year, I felt I was definitely going to be at the peak of my career, and I know I have a lot more to give, so last season was pretty disappointing,” says Smith.
“I’m still as motivated as ever to make something happen. It feels like starting from the bottom again, and you kind of question your worth sometimes, but as soon as you start playing again, you realise you love it.”
Though he’s still only 25, Smith has had lots of different experiences in rugby. He came through St Michael’s College in Dublin and cites the school’s director of rugby, Andy Skehan, as a major influence on him.
Smith was part of a talented Ireland U20s team who won their first three games of the 2020 Six Nations only for the remainder of the championship to be cancelled due to the pandemic. McNamara and Cullie Tucker were “class coaches,” says Smith.
He joined the Leinster academy the following season and smiles about how ambitious he was, saying he was “probably deluded” in thinking he could immediately break through with the senior team.
That said, he made his debut for Leinster in that 2020/21 season, starting on the wing against Connacht and getting another appearance off the bench against the Ospreys.
He had long aimed to be a Leinster player, but the timing wasn’t great and they lost both of the games he played in.
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Smith on his Leinster debut in 2021. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“I was probably just a bit pissed off because we lost,” says Smith.
“And it was a weird one because it was COVID time as well, so there was no one in the crowds. You know, your family weren’t there; it was a bit of mixed emotions, to be honest. I was proud, and that was always my dream of playing professional rugby, but it was bittersweet.”
It was at the end of that 2020/21 campaign when Smith was brought into the Ireland 7s set-up, and he had brilliant times in that programme, helping them to qualify for the 2024 Olympics and then going back to play at the Paris Games. He did still play some 15s, featuring as Clontarf won their AIL title in 2022.
Smith is sad that the Ireland men’s 7s programme is no longer and sees it as a short-sighted decision, citing himself and many others as players who developed their skills in 7s.
With his time at Leinster having ended, Smith’s excellence for Ireland on the 7s circuit helped him to earn a return to 15s with Connacht in 2023/24. He had the strange experience of being signed by Andy Friend, who had then left the province when Smith actually arrived.
But his first season out west was a happy one as Smith played 13 games and had some standout performances, including a player-of-the-match showing against Bristol in the Champions Cup.
“That game was one of the best in my career,” says Smith, who scored one try, had a trademark spectacular finish into the corner chalked off, and earned multiple turnovers for Connacht.
Smith loves acrobatic finishing, so he’s in the right place in Australia, where this kind of thing is commonplace in rugby league in particular. He has been working on it since Skehan got him doing finishing drills back in St Michael’s.
The idea of returning to the Ireland 7s fold for the 2024 Olympics was floated to Smith that season, and it was impossible to resist the opportunity. Then-Connacht boss Pete Wilkins backed him to go and play in Paris that summer.
It was tough adapting back to 7s in a short space of time, which Hugo Keenan also had to do, but Smith is proud to be an Olympian, even if there was heartbreak in the quarter-finals when Fiji’s second-half comeback was too much for Ireland.
“It was absolutely incredible looking back on it,” says Smith, “one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.
“It was such a talented group. I definitely think we should have medalled and that Fiji game was a tough one to take. The group was just devastated.”
Smith only recently got his Olympic rings tattoo, and he’ll always cherish the memory of being at the Games.
Smith [centre] at the 2024 Olypics with the Ireland 7s. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
However, it’s only natural that he wondered whether it damaged his 15s career, even though Connacht gave him their blessing. Smith barely featured the following season. Indeed, it was December before he made his first and only appearance
In the second half of the season, he realised his career was in trouble, so he got creative. Smith saw that Munster had injuries in their back three and asked his agent to propose a loan move for him. The wheels turned and Smith found himself moving to Limerick in March 2025.
“It all happened pretty fast,” says Smith. “It’s a weird scenario to be in where you want to leave a bit early in the season. You don’t want to leave the lads, but also your career is going to end if something doesn’t change.”
He took off in Munster, starting in some big games before the end of the season, including the Champions Cup round of 16 win away to La Rochelle and the quarter-final in Bordeaux. Smith scored three tries in those two matches.
“That day in La Rochelle was just unreal, you got to see what Munster was all about,” he says.
“Getting off the bus at the stadium, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was almost like you were in a riot full of Munster fans. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. The game itself was like pure chaos.
“I got yellow carded early on, then we came back, and we had an unbelievable day. Everything clicked for us. Jack [Crowley]‘s drop goal, that just shows the type of player he is. So yeah, really special day.”
Munster had seen enough and signed Smith up on a one-year deal. Though he would have loved a two-year contract, he was excited about where things were going.
Smith put down what he felt was the best pre-season of his life last summer, but then misfortune struck when he injured his ribs just before the start of the URC campaign.
He got back in October and started on the wing the day Munster beat Leinster at Croke Park but had to go off early after suffering an MCL injury in his knee and a hamstring tear.
He was out for the best part of three months and struggled to get back in the team once he recovered. Typically enough, it was only after it looked like he would be leaving at the end of the season that he returned to the starting XV, starting the last five games of the campaign.
It wasn’t a happy ending with Munster, and Smith’s initial search for a club in France hasn’t yielded an offer, despite all the ongoing help from old team-mates and coaches.
And so, he jumped on the plane to Sydney last month. The hope is that something will open up on the back of this exciting new adventure. He has seen the likes of Jack Daly and Cormac Daly jump from the Australian club game into Super Rugby, so his eyes are open for any opportunity.
“Rugby is a small world,” says Smith. “I still have a lot more to give.
“It’s a tough market to crack at the minute for players. There are a lot of players out of jobs, but if I keep giving what I can, something will happen.
“It just takes one opportunity or one game, and it can all change.”
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'I booked a flight to Sydney on the Monday, and left on the Tuesday'
EXACTLY FOUR WEEKS after he started Munster’s URC quarter-final against the Bulls in Pretoria on the wing, Andrew Smith made his debut for Easts in Sydney.
Eastern Suburbs District RUFC, to give them their full name, are one of the leading clubs in the Shute Shield, where 25-year-old Smith has landed after his departure from Munster.
The move Down Under happened very quickly, although Smith says the URC quarter-final already feels like ages ago.
The Dublin native is sitting in the Coogee Pavilion a few metres from the famous Coogee Beach as he recounts how he made a quick decision to jet out to Australia as he seeks his next opportunity in professional rugby.
The hope is that playing in the Shute Shield, Sydney’s premier club rugby competition, will keep him sharp and open a door somewhere else. Smith will turn 26 this month, so he believes the best is ahead of him in rugby.
When it became clear that Munster wouldn’t be extending his contract, Smith looked all over for his next deal. Then-Munster coaches Mike Prendergast and Alex Colding searched for a chance in the Pro D2, and Bordeaux’s Noel McNamara also helped.
“They were really good to me,” says Smith, who knew plenty of Irish lads who had done well in the Shute Shield and thought about Australia as another possibility.
“That kind of fell through with the Pro D2, but I was asking Mike for advice, and he said, ‘Don’t fall between two stools. You don’t want to just be waiting for something in Pro D2, and for it not to happen.’
“So he was like, ‘If I was you, I’d go out there to Australia. You can always start playing, and if something happens, you can come back.’
“So I just booked a flight on the Monday, and left on the Tuesday.”
Smith arrived in Sydney on 14 June without having signed for anyone in the Shute Shield. He had been in touch with Irish players like Cian Hurley, John Poland and Michael McDonald, who were already in Sydney, asking for tips.
The day after he arrived, Smith went training with Norths to check out their set-up but then took it upon himself to get in touch with Easts, who won the Shute Shield in 2024 and reached the final again last year. They’re the current leaders this season.
Smith sent a text to one of the coaches the Friday after he arrived and signed with Easts that weekend. His timing was good as they had injuries in the back three and a player leaving for the English Championship.
And so, Smith has found himself playing for a stacked Easts team the last three weekends. He made his debut off the bench alongside former Scotland centre Nick Grigg, while there are several professional Waratahs players in the side.
“The player quality is insane,” says Smith, who played against Scott Fardy, Jack Daly and John Porch’s Hunter Wildfires a couple of weekends ago.
“It’s a different style. The running rugby is class. I think there was only one box kick in the whole 80 minutes in one of our games, so the running mentality is just class.”
That suits Smith down to the ground, given his exciting attacking skills and his penchant for winning turnovers in the wide channels, which was honed when he played for the Ireland 7s.
Smith is living with Kiwi hooker Jack Nelson-Murray, who recently helped St Mary’s to win the AIL, in an apartment in Coogee, so it has been easy to settle in.
There are still five regular-season games to go in the Shute Shield, and Easts will be pushing hard for another title in the play-offs. It’s essentially semi-professional rugby, so Smith is excited to see where this leads.
“Coming out of pre-season last year, I felt I was definitely going to be at the peak of my career, and I know I have a lot more to give, so last season was pretty disappointing,” says Smith.
“I’m still as motivated as ever to make something happen. It feels like starting from the bottom again, and you kind of question your worth sometimes, but as soon as you start playing again, you realise you love it.”
Though he’s still only 25, Smith has had lots of different experiences in rugby. He came through St Michael’s College in Dublin and cites the school’s director of rugby, Andy Skehan, as a major influence on him.
Smith was part of a talented Ireland U20s team who won their first three games of the 2020 Six Nations only for the remainder of the championship to be cancelled due to the pandemic. McNamara and Cullie Tucker were “class coaches,” says Smith.
He joined the Leinster academy the following season and smiles about how ambitious he was, saying he was “probably deluded” in thinking he could immediately break through with the senior team.
That said, he made his debut for Leinster in that 2020/21 season, starting on the wing against Connacht and getting another appearance off the bench against the Ospreys.
He had long aimed to be a Leinster player, but the timing wasn’t great and they lost both of the games he played in.
“I was probably just a bit pissed off because we lost,” says Smith.
“And it was a weird one because it was COVID time as well, so there was no one in the crowds. You know, your family weren’t there; it was a bit of mixed emotions, to be honest. I was proud, and that was always my dream of playing professional rugby, but it was bittersweet.”
It was at the end of that 2020/21 campaign when Smith was brought into the Ireland 7s set-up, and he had brilliant times in that programme, helping them to qualify for the 2024 Olympics and then going back to play at the Paris Games. He did still play some 15s, featuring as Clontarf won their AIL title in 2022.
Smith is sad that the Ireland men’s 7s programme is no longer and sees it as a short-sighted decision, citing himself and many others as players who developed their skills in 7s.
With his time at Leinster having ended, Smith’s excellence for Ireland on the 7s circuit helped him to earn a return to 15s with Connacht in 2023/24. He had the strange experience of being signed by Andy Friend, who had then left the province when Smith actually arrived.
But his first season out west was a happy one as Smith played 13 games and had some standout performances, including a player-of-the-match showing against Bristol in the Champions Cup.
“That game was one of the best in my career,” says Smith, who scored one try, had a trademark spectacular finish into the corner chalked off, and earned multiple turnovers for Connacht.
Smith loves acrobatic finishing, so he’s in the right place in Australia, where this kind of thing is commonplace in rugby league in particular. He has been working on it since Skehan got him doing finishing drills back in St Michael’s.
The idea of returning to the Ireland 7s fold for the 2024 Olympics was floated to Smith that season, and it was impossible to resist the opportunity. Then-Connacht boss Pete Wilkins backed him to go and play in Paris that summer.
It was tough adapting back to 7s in a short space of time, which Hugo Keenan also had to do, but Smith is proud to be an Olympian, even if there was heartbreak in the quarter-finals when Fiji’s second-half comeback was too much for Ireland.
“It was absolutely incredible looking back on it,” says Smith, “one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.
“It was such a talented group. I definitely think we should have medalled and that Fiji game was a tough one to take. The group was just devastated.”
Smith only recently got his Olympic rings tattoo, and he’ll always cherish the memory of being at the Games.
However, it’s only natural that he wondered whether it damaged his 15s career, even though Connacht gave him their blessing. Smith barely featured the following season. Indeed, it was December before he made his first and only appearance
In the second half of the season, he realised his career was in trouble, so he got creative. Smith saw that Munster had injuries in their back three and asked his agent to propose a loan move for him. The wheels turned and Smith found himself moving to Limerick in March 2025.
“It all happened pretty fast,” says Smith. “It’s a weird scenario to be in where you want to leave a bit early in the season. You don’t want to leave the lads, but also your career is going to end if something doesn’t change.”
He took off in Munster, starting in some big games before the end of the season, including the Champions Cup round of 16 win away to La Rochelle and the quarter-final in Bordeaux. Smith scored three tries in those two matches.
“That day in La Rochelle was just unreal, you got to see what Munster was all about,” he says.
“Getting off the bus at the stadium, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was almost like you were in a riot full of Munster fans. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. The game itself was like pure chaos.
“I got yellow carded early on, then we came back, and we had an unbelievable day. Everything clicked for us. Jack [Crowley]‘s drop goal, that just shows the type of player he is. So yeah, really special day.”
Munster had seen enough and signed Smith up on a one-year deal. Though he would have loved a two-year contract, he was excited about where things were going.
Smith put down what he felt was the best pre-season of his life last summer, but then misfortune struck when he injured his ribs just before the start of the URC campaign.
He got back in October and started on the wing the day Munster beat Leinster at Croke Park but had to go off early after suffering an MCL injury in his knee and a hamstring tear.
He was out for the best part of three months and struggled to get back in the team once he recovered. Typically enough, it was only after it looked like he would be leaving at the end of the season that he returned to the starting XV, starting the last five games of the campaign.
It wasn’t a happy ending with Munster, and Smith’s initial search for a club in France hasn’t yielded an offer, despite all the ongoing help from old team-mates and coaches.
And so, he jumped on the plane to Sydney last month. The hope is that something will open up on the back of this exciting new adventure. He has seen the likes of Jack Daly and Cormac Daly jump from the Australian club game into Super Rugby, so his eyes are open for any opportunity.
“Rugby is a small world,” says Smith. “I still have a lot more to give.
“It’s a tough market to crack at the minute for players. There are a lot of players out of jobs, but if I keep giving what I can, something will happen.
“It just takes one opportunity or one game, and it can all change.”
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7s Andrew Smith Connacht Irish Abroad Leinster Munster Shute Shield