Queensland Reds set to lure George Smith for Super Rugby stint

It is understood the Queensland Reds have signed former Wallabies breakaway George Smith for next season.

After a successful stint in England with Wasps, George Smith looks set for a return to Australia with Queensland Reds.

It is understood the Queensland Reds have pulled off a major coup by signing former Wallabies breakaway George Smith for next season.

Smith, recently named as the players’ player of the year in the English Premiership with Wasps, is understood to be sounding out Brisbane real estate agents about purchasing a home, which suggests that he intends to stay for more than a season.

Reds officials last night refused to comment on the rumour but, if true, it is a considerable boost to the cellar-dwellers of recent seasons, especially in light of the fact that their senior openside flanker, Liam Gill, is due to head to Toulon at the end of this season.

At 35, Smith — the 75th Wallabies captain — might be pushing the envelope but he is very much the exception that proves the rule. He takes extraordinary care with his fitness and teammates joke that he is made of rubber, so indestructible is he.

He played the last of his 111 Tests in 2013 in the final international of the British and Irish Lions series, having begun his Test career against France in Paris in 2000.

The former Brumbies backrower, who was voted Australian Super Rugby Player of the Year four years in a row from 2006-09, would at least have one of his Canberra teammates beside him at the Reds, with Wallabies captain Stephen Moore also returning to Queensland next year.

Smith announced his retirement from Test and Super Rugby as long ago as 2010 but he was lured back in 2013 for the Lions series.

More recently, he helped out Eddie Jones — the man who signed him to the Brumbies in 1999 as an 18-year-old — by assisting with the coaching of the England team as a breakdown coach during the Red Rose’s successful Six Nations campaign.