At his core, Smith is a people person. He understands what makes players tick. He has empathy and a softness that you do not see when he is in game-mode and is as intense as can be.
He preaches the importance of joy because he knows what it takes to get there. The long days, the brutal disappointments, the physical pain, the psychological uncertainty.
“You can be unhappy sometimes, but you must always have joy,” he says. “That is what I hope I’ve established here. Sometimes when we’re unhappy, that should be fuel to get the enjoyment back.
“I want the wives, the girlfriends, the partners and their children to cry with us, to have the enjoyment with us.
“We’re not robots out here. My philosophy is you’ve got to give to get.
“I’m a dream giver. I want these men to be proper husbands for their wives and dads for their children and the only way is to get them to know our environment and to understand my heart and the coaching staff’s heart.
“It’s about the sense of belonging, sharing each other’s values and influencing other people’s lives.”
That is a lot to take in, but every last player did precisely that because you do not do what Glasgow did last season unless you have the most remarkable spirit in your dressing room.
Smith inherited a battered squad with a demoralised mentality and has moulded them into a rugby machine, as happy to battle in the trenches in tight games as attacking with abandon in a runaway win.
Glasgow’s adventure with ball in hand was well-known, but last season they became an attritional powerhouse to boot. How?
“What the South Africans brought to the URC was physicality and to match that is important,” he says. “And that comes from a good mental space, good understanding of what a hard edge is.
“Compliments to the players for adapting, for understanding. You prepare people for the physical and the technical but in the end the mental preparation is the thing that is most important.”
Smith has a saying – “iron sharpens iron”. Good players toughen each other up. Standards rise.
When the international players are away, the ones who come in understand what is required. Smith went deep into his squad last season and got huge performances out of fringe players in big matches. Everyone felt a part of the ultimate triumph because everyone had contributed along the way.
And now for the next challenge.
“It’s important that Glasgow Warriors become significant over a long period,” he says. “We can’t win it all, but we’re gonna try. Good people make good players and that is a consistent philosophy that is followed by everybody that comes to the door.”
Can they raise the bar?
“I believe so,” he replies. “I think everybody else is going to, so for us to be at the business end of the competition we’ll have to lift our standards again. We can definitely still improve.”
If they can find another level they are going to be a thrill to watch all over again.
