Arneta Honey Hireme-Smiler (born 3 May 1981) is a former New Zealand rugby football player who has represented her country in rugby league, rugby sevens and rugby union. Due to her multi-sport career, Hireme-Smiler has been referred to as Honey Bill Williams, in reference to her New Zealand male counterpart Sonny Bill Williams.
Arneta Honey Hireme-Smiler was born on 3 May 1981 in Putaruru Maternity Hospital to Caryn Ngarewa Hireme and Leonard Charles Hunter and was to spend her early life in PutÃÂruru in the South Waikato. At the time of her birth her father was working at the Pinedale Timber Mill and later became a bushman in Tokoroa and then worked at the Kinleith pulp and paper mill. Hireme-Smiler was born with a club foot which was corrected by surgery a days after she was born, which resulted in her departing hospital with her foot in a cast. The club foot was hereditary and appeared in other members of her family. She has a two brothers, Buddy and Quintin as well as two older two step-sisters Coralie and Joan via her father's previous relationship.
While her mothers details were entered on her birth certificate, her father's weren't even though he was living with her mother and drove her to the hospital and waited outside. Her parents married when she was five. She spent her childhood as Honey Hunter. When she learnt of the lack of a father on the birth certificate, she asked her father for the approximately $150 needed to legally add his name, he refused, considering it a needless waste of money. Soon after getting her drivers licence at 17 as Arneta Hireme she had a disagreement with her father and as payback took her birth certificate to school and requested that henceforth Hireme be used as her surname.
Her parents relationship was tumultuous and at times violent, driven by alcohol consumption during the weekends and led at one stage to her mother briefly taking herself and her children to a Women's Refuge in Auckland When they were older Hireme-Smiler and Buddy would often ring the police late at night to ask them to come and restore the peace. Her father was passionate about rugby league and so disliked rugby union that he would mow his lawn during All Blacks just to annoy his neighbours wanting to watch or listen to the game.
Following her primary school education at Oraka Heights Primary School she attended Putaruru High School.
Due to her father's love of the game Hireme-Smiler was exposed to rugby league at an early age and at the age of five began playing for Putaruru Dragons and then progressed into the senior women's grades playing for the Papakura Sea Eagles club in the Auckland Rugby League women's competition. She has represented Counties Manukau, Bay of plenty, Waikato and Waicoa Bay in the New Zealand Rugby League's women's competition over her 20-year career at representative level.
Hireme-Smiler has played in four Rugby League World Cups, she played for the Kiwiferns in the 2003 Women's world cup 2008 and 2013 World Cups. She captained the team in 2013. She was named in the world women's rugby league in all 4 world cup tournaments, and also awarded player of the Tournament in 2013.
She played in the 2017 Rugby League world cup representing the kiwiferns finishing the tournament as the highest try scorer and finalist for player of the tournament.
In June 2018, Hireme-Smiler joined the St. George Illawarra Dragons ahead of the inaugural NRL Women's Premiership commencing in September 2018. She co-captained the New Zealand women's rugby league team, with Laura Mariu, between the pair they had over 36 years of experience at international level. She was awarded New Zealand women's rugby league player of the year in 2018, her third time winning top honours. She was also a finalist in 2018 for the International Women's Golden boot award.
In rugby union, she plays and coaches Melville women's Premier rugby team and represents Waikato in the women's provincial championship.
She made her New Zealand rugby union debut at the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup, where she was named to the World Cup Dream Team and the World XV team.
She competed in the Women's Rugby Super Series in 2015 and 2019.
Hireme-Smiler appeared for the Black Ferns in the 2016 Laurie O'Reilly Cup against the Wallaroos, scoring tries in both test matches.
Hireme-Smiler began playing rugby sevens in the early 2000s during the summer, ending up in a Bay of Plenty sevens team coached by Peter Joseph.
She later commented, âÂÂPhysically and mentally, PJ took my game to a whole new level. Sevens is a different beast to league with all the fitness but he never doubted our rugby knowledge and let us play, The way the team hooked you in was addictive. The girls became your sisters and we stayed in touch years after it happened. PJ helped many girls through hard times. We were trailblazers really.âÂÂ
She initially played on the wing where her then poor passing was less critical. Compared with the fifteen-a-aside game where she didn't get much ball Hireme-Smiler found it fast, exciting and she got to handle the ball more often. Three nights a week she would travel to Rotorua to train with the other women alongside the Bay of Plenty men's sevens team, with another two nights a week devoted also at Rotorua to fitness training under fitness coach Mark Edmonds.
Through Joseph the 21 year old Hireme-Smiler became a member of the Aotearoa MÃÂori team that defeated the United States at a tournament in Whangarei in 2002. Her parents attended and even her father was impressed by sevens. When Joseph took up an invitation to take the Aotearoa MÃÂori to the 2002 Hong Kong sevens tournament Hireme-Smiler was a member. She had to fund raise to cover the costs with some provided by sponsorships from her employer Te WÃÂnanga o Aotearoa who also gave her special leave so that she could be paid by them while she was away. The team scored 159 unanswered points before defeating the United States in the final 14-7.
She returned with Aotearoa MÃÂori to Hong Kong to win the 2003, 2004 and 2005 events. Between the 20224 and 2004 tournaments she gave birth. Also with Aotearoa MÃÂori she completed in and won the 2010 and 2011 Roma rugby sevens titles. She was co-captain in 2011.
In 2012 the New Zealand Rugby Union organized a nationwide "Go for Gold" grassroots initiative to identify talent with the potential to represent New Zealand in the Sevens competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where rugby sevens was making its debut.
When she heard about "Go for Gold" it rekindled the thought she once had when she competed in athletics to go to the Olympics. Despite having just turned 31 she thought she had a chance due to her prior sevens experience. was one of the oldest applicants approximately 800 women turned up at 14 trials held around the country. She was nursing an injury at the time of the Waikato trial and instead was asked to assist with talent spotting, collecting information and making notes. She was one of 50 selected to attend a training camp at Waiouru. Here they were exposed to the exhausting 80-60-40 shuttle runs consisting of a 80 metre sprints followed by a 60 metre sprint back and then a 40 metre sprint developed by Gordon Tietjens for men on the final day they were split into teams which played three games against other with each game followed by a 80-60-40.
She didnâÂÂt make the team for Oceania and while she attended the training camp for the inaugural 2012âÂÂ13 IRB Women's Sevens World Series series she wasnâÂÂt selected for the first tournament which was held in Dubal. She was the one of the oldest in the team which had an average age of 23. Allan Bunting put a lot of effort into one-on-one training while in camp to improve her weak left to right passing, the pair often getting up at 5.30 am to practice on the beach. They were soon joined by Ruby Tui who also had a poor passing technique. She took the opportunity to play for the Waikato team which lost 36-17 to Manawatu in the 2013 final of the national sevens tournament held in Queenstown on 13âÂÂ14 January 2013. Her performance was sufficient to impress the national coach and she was selected for the Houston tournament.
After an outstanding performance at the recent national sevens championship in Queenstown. Hireme-Smiler made her debut for the New Zealand sevens team at second round of the internal series, which was held in Houston on 1âÂÂ2 February 2013.
Following Houston she was among the 26 players who were selected in late February 2013 for a core high performance squad which it was intended would form the basis of New Zealand's attempt to win both that year's Rugby World Cup Sevens but also the Olympics in 2016.
She played in the third tournament of the series which was held at Guangzhou on 30 and 31 March 2013.
That year she finished the inaugural World Series as the leading try scorer.
In 2013 she was a member of the team that won the 2013 Sevens World Cup which was held in Moscow on 29 and 30 June 2013. She scored a try in the 29-12 success over Canada in the rain soaked final.
Following the event, while the rest of the team returned to New Zealand she travelled to England to participate for New Zealand in the Rugby League World Cup in Leeds.
She then returned to sevens duty as a member of the New Zealand team which came third in the 2013 Oceania Women's Sevens Championship which was held in Noosa in October 2013.
In January 2014 she was among the first 19 women seven players awarded a professional contract While the amount was not sufficient to allow a full-time commitment, it allowed her the option to work and train part-time.
After taking a break in 2014 to play for the New Zealand fifteen-a-side team she was awarded a 12 month contract in January 2015 to play for the sevens team.
By the start of the 2015-2016 season she was noticing that she was no longer as quick as she had once been. In the Dubai tournament of the 2015-2016 Sevens series she acquired a hip flexor injury pa 129 and picked up a number of niggling injuries, with a back injury during training at the China tournament which eventually forced her to be pulled from the second half of the final and demoted to a travelling reserve for San Paolo the rest of the season Pg130
In January 2016 she was selected as a member of the squad of 22 from which it was intended that 12 players would be selected for the New Zealand sevens team to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games.
After completing the training session in Hamilton prior to training camp in Fiji it was discovered that she had torn a cartridge which ruled her out of going to Fiji. She began a rehab plan and thought she had a 60-40 chance of still being selected.
Hireme-Smiler was at home when she received the telephone call from the coach Sean Horan that she hadnâÂÂt made the team for Rio, as they were concerned that she would only be back to full fitness by August. Hireme in her autobiography considered at the time that âÂÂ80 percent of Honey is still better than a lot of players...âÂÂ
She reacted by becoming drunk within 90 minutes, before later in the day attending a âÂÂLetâÂÂs feel sorry for ourselvesâ meal at Carla HohepaâÂÂs house. She then spent a few days on her own at a bach in the Coromandel coming to terms with the decision. Her father had already purchased a travel package to watch her in Rio which fortunately he was able to cancel. She subsequently decided to retire from playing professional sevens rugby again, taking a $30,000 payout from New Zealand Rugby, she was 35.
In total she appeared in 11 tournaments helping New Zealand win the 2013 World Cup and series titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015 as well as winning 37 consecutive games in 2014 and 2015, ending her career with 45 tries.
She also represented New Zealand MÃÂori in sevens.
She was: