Leeds Rhinos captain, Cameron Smith, has worked his way up to becoming one of the regular faces in the side, but his journey to be coming skipper hasn’t been so smooth sailing.

The Castleford-born loose forward began his career at Lock Lane, before moving to Castleford Panthers. He also played rugby league at his school, Castleford academy, where he was picked up and brought into the Leeds system.

Smith, who has been battling a back injury for most of 2025, is a 168-time Rhinos player, and for many seasons of late has been one of the established names on the team sheet.

However, the 27-year-old, who is celebrating a testimonial year in 2026, has revealed some of the adversities he has been through that got him to this point in his career.

In a candid interview with BBC Radio Leeds, Smith has told his journey from being a player in his high school team to making his Super League debut within the space of a year, something he can’t quite believe looking back.

Smith’s first Rhinos appearance came on Boxing Day in 2015, which is a fixture well-known for giving Leeds youngsters their first senior taste of Blue and Amber.

In the April of 2016, Brian McDermott who was Leeds boss at the time, gave Smith his chance at first-grade during the busy Easter schedule, as he rested the more experienced men in the team.

Reflecting on the whirlwind 12-months that saw him make the swift step-up, he said:  “I’m almost a little bit embarrassed sometimes, when I look back at old photos or videos of me playing, because I was nowhere near ready to play.

“Back then, there was the [Easter] fixture. You’d play on like a Friday, Monday, and then following Friday, so there was such a turnaround for players, luckily Brian McDermott gave me my debut in April of 2016.

“I couldn’t process anything really, I was just so young. I don’t think I’d even played much academy games by then, I’d literally just gone from playing against kids to playing against grown men. Looking back now, it’s a bit crazy to think, because now I’m 27-year-old and I’m seeing all these lads that are 17-18 coming into the first team, it would be crazy for some of them to play.

“I’m extremely fortunate, but at the same time, I’m almost like ‘I was never ready’.”

Smith would go on to make one more appearance that season, in the Middle 8’s against Leigh, he would also get a chance in 2017, but spent the majority of that year on loan at Bradford Bulls.

Leeds Rhinos skipper reveals potential positional switch

Fast forward to 2019 and Leeds have a new head coach. McDermott had left the club, with former player Dave Furner taking the reigns, as he left his role of assistant boss of South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL.

Smith, who had played 20 games in the season just gone, had found himself in a bit of a dilemma. Switch position, or find himself on the fringes of the side once again. At this point, he was typically used off the bench, and would feature in the back row. However, the Australian wanted him to change his role completely, much to his surprise.

“Dave Furner wanted me to be a half-back when Brian McDermott left. I did a full pre-season at half, and I thought ‘well is this me now? Am I going to play half?’ and I had to get my head round that a little bit.”

“We’d have a joke and a laugh with the lads at the time, because I love to play with the ball and the joke at the time was that I could escape the middle and be on the edge and not have to make 50 tackles a game.

“Playing half for Leeds comes with immense responsibility. I was only 19-20 at the time, and I was nowhere near the standard of being the half for Leeds there and then. Whatever the coach at the time wanted me to do, I was doing it because I just wanted to play.”

His time as a playmaker was short-lived, as he reverted to the pack in March of 2019, and remained in the middle of the field for the rest of that season.

Wembley omission “devastating” says Smith

Furner was sacked half way through 2019, after a string of bad results and poor performances, He was replaced by Richard Agar, who Smith revealed suited his style of play, as he transitioned into a loose forward on a permanent basis.

He developed well under the former Wakefield and Hull FC boss, and founded himself with a weekly spot in the team under his reign. The club reached the Challenge Cup final in 2020, as they faced Salford Red Devils, which they would go on to win, however what should have been a joyous moment for the 27-year-old, was in fact crushing and hurtful.

“Half way through the year, we’d just come off the back of a loss, and we were doing a pretty physical contact session, and I’d just collided with Mikolaj [Oledzki] and fractured my jaw in two spots,” said Smith.

“That sort of derailed my season, I was out for quite a while, and it was leading up into the Challenge Cup [Final]. I’d raced back to play in the semi-final against Wigan… and I thought ‘I’m going to get the chance to play at Wembley here’, after having such a rubbish time fracturing my jaw.

“A week before the game came, I’d been playing, I was part of the 17 every week and then I found out I wasn’t playing. I can’t tell you how devastated I was.

“I think that had a significant impact, not on my mental health, but the way I viewed a lot of things around the Rhinos and rugby league and I was just absolutely devastated.”

After being 18th man on the day, the celebrations in the changing rooms afterwards were so hard for Smith to watch, despite his proudness of the team.

He said: “I just couldn’t stop crying. This is hell for me. I was so happy that the team has won, but I just wanted to be a part of it.”

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