Rugby royalty gathered in Christchurch this evening to celebrate the launch of Sir Wayne Smith's book Endless Winters & The Spring Of 22.
Hundreds turned out at the exclusive event held at Smith's beloved Belfast Rugby Club, including family, friends and players —former and current.
Among them was Black Ferns co-captain Kennedy Simon, who said she was incredibly proud to be at the event alongside a number of fellow women's players.
"Smithy's such an important figure in our journey now for the Black Ferns.
"He's obviously a genius. He's an incredible human and everything he delivers is gold — it sounds silly but he came into our team and turned it around," she said.
Someone who joined Smith on that remarkable Women's World Cup campaign was former All Blacks coach Graham Henry, who proudly wrote the foreword in Smith's book.
"He's one of the great rugby men of the last 120 years I'd say... and I don't think that's an exaggeration," Henry said.
Former All Blacks captain Kieran Read echoed those sentiments, saying his influence on the black jersey has been massive.
"He always pushed you, always looked for ways for you to improve and that's the best thing about him — he had those conversations with me from my first game all the way to when I finished up."
Smith was supported by a number of former Canterbury rugby legends, who came together for the launch.
Warwick Taylor said it's been a privilege to watch Smith's career post playing flourish.
"He was a coach before his time really cause when we were playing he was already coaching and just had the idea of how things went.
"What he's done for New Zealand Rugby is outstanding," he said.
Smith's former Canterbury coach Alex Wyllie features heavily in the book — in fact, Smith credits much of his coaching philosophy to "Grizz" — though Wyllie said Smith has been the maker of his own success.
"He was a deep thinker, played the sort of game we wanted to play when we had the Shield at Canterbury and he took everything on board and everything came very natural to him.
"He was one of those people that wanted to achieve the best, and he did that... well, he has done that."
All Black great Ian Kirkpatrick agreed.
Kirkpatrick was a particularly special guest, a player Smith grew up admiring — who tonight was gifted one of 10 limited edition copies of the book.
"He's been part of our history which has been very successful, and that speaks for itself really," Kirkpatrick said.
"I was lucky to be with his team when he was coaching in 2001 against France and Wellington and six years intro professionalism and I'm thinking 'this guy has something'.
"'Cause the way he dealt with the team and his whole demeanour, I just knew he had something that Wayne Smith — and he's gone on to do the greatest thing."
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