Seth Smith - Homegrown SaberCat Ahead of Houston's Championship Debut

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Seth Smith - Homegrown SaberCat Ahead of Houston's Championship Debut

June 26, 2025 - Major League Rugby (MLR)
Houston SaberCats News Release


Written by Joe Harvey

When the Houston SaberCats reached their first Major League Rugby Championship, it may have meant a little more to Seth Smith.

On the road against the Utah Warriors, the Richmond, Texas, native was a try scorer as Pote Human's team upset their hosts to win 33-19 and clinch a first-ever Western Conference title.

As an 11-year-old, the hooker, nicknamed 'Viking' due to his braided blonde hair, was taken to watch Houston play their home games at Constellation Field in Sugar Land.

At the same time, his obsession with rugby was in its infancy. Now, it is his profession.

This weekend, just five days after celebrating his 20th birthday, Smith will be taking his hometown team to Rhode Island's Centreville Bank Stadium to take on the New England Free Jacks live on ESPN2 and have a shot at lifting the MLR Shield in the season finale.

"It (winning the Championship Final) would easily be one of the best feelings in the world, if not the best feeling to date," Smith said.

"Going up against a team like New England and being able to have a positive result on my birthday week, for a team that I started watching in 2019 and now being able to play for them, thinking about it has me speechless.

"This is something that the SaberCats have been looking to do for a very long time, and not having had success in the Playoffs, to now winning two games and being in the Final, it's a great feeling."

Coming into this year's Playoffs, presented by Sportsbreaks, the SaberCats had never won a game of knockout rugby.

Despite qualifying for postseason rugby over three consecutive seasons, the team had seen their dream of lifting the Shield dashed at the first time of asking.

Last year was the most painful of those losses. In 2024, the team was the Western Conference leader, boasting a 14-2 record and in its prime.

Just 80 minutes of rugby later, their push for glory was over as the Dallas Jackals turned them over 34-22 at SaberCats Stadium.

A year later and a year wiser, Houston entered the fray again. So far this year, the side has displayed 160 minutes of relentless, unforgiving rugby and dispatched Rugby Football Club Los Angeles and the Warriors on the way to Rhode Island.

Much further down the line than ever before, and anything is possible. All that's left now is preparation for another 80 minutes, this time against the back-to-back champions.

"Big week's an understatement," Smith grinned. "It's the biggest week of the year.

"All the boys, we're so energized, and we're ready to get to work, especially going up against a team like New England. They're a goliath of the league.

"We know there's a lot that we have to do. Preparation is huge. Especially going up against New England.

"They have such an explosive winger in Paula Balekana, and their forward pack is big and dominant. They're set-piece-oriented.

"We have to put in that preparation to be the best prepared we can be."

YOUNGEST PLAYER IN MLR HISTORY

It was at the start of the 2024 MLR season that we all learned the name, Seth Smith.

After he'd impressed with the SaberCats 20s on a short-term contract after he'd graduated high school, Smith made an impression and was invited back to help the team prepare ahead of the 2024 season.

With Tiaan Erasmus injured and Pita Anae-Ah Sue still in New Zealand, he got plenty of reps with the first team and was handed his debut off the bench against the Utah Warriors in the season opener.

"I think I had 50 to 60 people, friends and family, who came to that game," Smith said. "Every single game I roster at home, there's at least 10 to 20 friends and family who show up to the game.

"Being able to do that in front of them and to do it in my hometown, it's an amazing feeling. It's so hard to come by that feeling.

"In Utah, I was actually saying to Keni (Nasoqeqe) about how short life may feel sometimes, but how grateful we are to be in the position we are.

"It just makes me speechless because I really am blessed and grateful to be where I am and to be part of that in my hometown."

Thanks to those three minutes on the field, at 18 years, eight months, and seven days, Smith surpassed the previous record held by Kahanu Koi by six days. More records followed.

Almost two months after his debut, Smith became the first MLR U18 academy graduate to score a try in the league and has since racked up numerous XV of the Week awards and several Player of the Week nods.

He then missed a chunk of the season to compete with the USA U20s and came back ahead for the final stretch of the season.

Even at Fulshear High School, he had a knack for providing landmarks, whether it was as a fullback on the football field or on the wrestling mat.

In seven years, Smith went from first picking up a rugby ball with the Katy Barbarians, inspired by his father Charles, to playing at the highest domestic level in the USA.

Now, marrying his time with the SaberCats with studies at Life University, there is a palpable sense that Smith could be one of the players lining up for the USA Men's Eagles in the 2031 Rugby World Cup opener on home soil.

But for now, being a hometown hero will have to do.

Already, the 20-year-old harbors ambitions of coaching once his playing days are over and of giving back to the pathway that nurtured his arrival in professional rugby.

Inundated with messages from young players seeking advice, Smith responds to as many as he can, telling them about the reality of 6:00 a.m. drives to his high school gym with his mom, Callie, and one-track mind.

"Sacrifice," he said. "You are going to sacrifice so much to be where you want to be.

"I didn't have many friends in high school because there were only a couple of people like me (who wanted to be professional athletes).

"I just tell everybody, if you are really winning to do what you want to do in life, and if you are going to achieve that goal, you have to sacrifice so much.

"It is not easy to wake up every morning and go to the gym.

"The main thing I tell everybody is if you're willing to get done what you need to get done, sacrifice some things, your achievements will be worth the sacrifice."

FOR HOUSTON

Smith does not need to be told what winning this Saturday would mean for the SaberCats.

For the first four years of MLR, Houston was a Playoffs outsider and, for the last four years, has strived to get to a showpiece finale.

It will be tough against a Free Jacks team looking to complete the three-peat.

When asked what sets his team apart from everyone else, Smith is quick to point out the culture implemented by the coaching staff and leadership group.

"We have a great group of guys," Smith said. "We all hang out together, eat together, and on off days, the boys will play cards together.

"We have just done so well incorporating everybody together. It's a big happy family here in Houston."

Everyone donning a black and yellow jersey this Saturday at 2 p.m. ET when the Championship Final gets underway will hope that family feel can bring the Shield home with the SaberCats for the very first time.

Success will be the culmination of many years of hard work.

Not just for Smith, whose entire teenage years have been shrouded by the SaberCats, but for everyone involved with the franchise.

"To be in my first full year with the team, in my home city, and to accomplish what we have already accomplished is a tremendous feeling," he said. "Not just for myself, but the city.

"As players, we owe this to our owners and staff for all the hard work they have put in. All this started in 2017 when the team started.

"One of the things I was told growing up is that you honor the people in front of you.

"To be a part of it so young and to step into such a high-quality team with high-quality coaches this weekend is not just proving ourselves, but to the world and the city of Houston, who the SaberCats are and how we play."

Just 80 more minutes.



Major League Rugby Stories from June 26, 2025


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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