Queensland Reds veteran George Smith weighing up future

Reds veteran George Smith returns to the run-on side to face the Lions.

The old and the young of Queensland rugby: 37-year-old George Smith, left, and 18-year-old Jordan Petaia. Both will start for the Reds against the Lions. Picture: AAP

It’s inevitable. When a Super Rugby player is 37, turning 38 in July, the word “retirement” is never far away but for the first time George Smith used the “R” word as though he has been seriously considering it.

The Queensland flanker is back in the starting side for the first time this season for the match tomorrow afternoon against the Lions of Johannesburg, the Super Rugby competition leaders, and the Reds’ average age immediately vaulted all the way up to 24 — which is quite a feat given that they have 11 players aged 21 or younger in their match-day 23.

Smith’s age has always been largely irrelevant. He was the last Reds player to receive the Stan Pilecki Medal as Queensland’s best player while Pilecki was still alive — “a great choice because he comes from both schools, the old school and the new school,” as Pilecki put it at the time — and it just seemed that Smith would go on defying the calendar indefinitely.

But though he is back in the run-on side, Smith no longer is taking things for granted, particularly after sustaining a potentially career-ending back injury.

He has had surgery and it is working well but when you do what he does for a living, bracing for massive clean-outs while attempting to steal the ball at the breakdown, nothing is forever.

“I’m not in a desperate position to sign a new contract with anyone,” said the 111-Test veteran, whose contract with the Reds expires at the end of the season.

“My situation is more about getting back, playing well and then I’ll assess things. I have thought about retirement — you tend to do that when you hit your 30s, it’s a natural thing — but I want to see how I go now.”

By his own admission, he will need to be at his absolute peak this weekend to contest with the Lions.

“I will have to be at my best to play against this team and so will the whole backrow and so will the forwards because they pride themselves on being a very good set-piece team and a very cagey mauling side.”

They certainly were all those things when they accounted for the Waratahs last weekend, beating them 29-0, the first time in Super Rugby history NSW have been held scoreless, and while Queensland can take comfort in snippets and passages from their performance against the Chiefs last Saturday, the reality was they were comprehensively cleaned up 36-12.

The prospect is even direr this week, with captain and loosehead James Slipper having a collarbone issue and five-eighth Jono Lance out with concussion, but the reality is that Lance, while tackling manfully, has not been igniting the Queensland backline and perhaps it is time to give Hamish Stewart a chance at 10.

Smith conceded that he was impressed with Stewart from his earliest days with the Reds squad last year, particularly with his monstrous boot and the fact that he likes to mix it with the big boys and goes hunting for turnovers.

“You’ll see him bobbing in and out of the breakdown, trying to pilfer the ball. He doesn’t always succeed, but he’s a guy that doesn’t back off,” he said.

The Lions have demonstrated that, like the New Zealand sides, they have the ability to counter-attack from anywhere, so Stewart will have to be choosy when — and perhaps more importantly where to play — but with 18-year-old Jordan Petaia on the left wing, the temptation will be to explore his offensive opportunities at every opportunity.

Some extraordinary young talent has played for Queensland over the years … the likes of Jason Little, Elton Flatley, John Eales — all of whom played in a World Cup final — but it is extraordinary to think that none made their debut younger than Petaia. And tomorrow marks the first occasion he has been selected in the run-on side, ahead of Izaia Perese, no less.

“I’ve been impressed with him since he first stepped on to the training paddock,” said Smith. “He showed me up a few times, not that it’s hard to show up a 37-year-old. He’s a big guy, very strong with raw ability and he’s not afraid to take players on the outside and show them up.”