Honey Hireme

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.

Early life 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 Putāruru 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. 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.

Rugby league career 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 was named in the world women's rugby league in all 4 world cup tournaments, and also awarded player of the Tournament in 2013.

2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup Due to a shoulder injury she had missed out on selection for the 2017 Rugby World Cup but still hoped that she could still play in the 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup which was to be held in Australia between 16 November and 2 December 2017. At a consultation with Auckland orthopaedic surgeon Stewart Walsh, he informed her it would take six to eight weeks to recover from a full repair, which meant that she would miss the tournament.

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.

Rugby union career

Sevens 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, “Physically 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.”

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.

She returned with Aotearoa Māori to Hong Kong to win the 2003, 2004 and 2005 events. 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.

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.

2013 World Cup 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.

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.

In January 2014 she was among the first 19 women seven players awarded a professional contract

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 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.

2016 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.

She was playing rugby for the Waikato representative team when in 2002 she was invited to a Black Ferns training camp in Palmerston North by coach Darryl Suasua. When she told them that it clashed with a Kiwi Ferns training camp she told she had to choose between the codes. She decided to stay committed to league at a national league and as a result for a number of years was not considered the national rugby union side.

She finally made her Black Ferns debut as no. 176 on 1 June 2014 at Rotorua playing on the right wing during which she scored a try in the second half to contribute to the team’s 38-3 defeat of Australia. She was 33 years and 29 days old. Only senior players with 20 or more test caps were allowed to sit in the back seat of the team bus, but because of her age Hireme was allowed in her rookie year to sit in the row in front of them.

In 2015 she played in three games of the Women's Rugby Super Series which was held in Canada.

She finished 2016 with the Black Fern on a northern tour in November that saw them defeat first England 25-20 in London and then Ireland 38-8 in Dublin.

Through club rugby she met single mother Rochelle Smiler in 2012 and they were soon playing together in the Waikato team. Their friendship led to a deeper relationship and the couple marrying seven years later in the chapel at Waikato Hospital in late August 2019. The location was chosen as Hireme’s mother Caryn was receiving treatment for terminal cancer at the hospital and it would be difficult to leave. The couple adopted the surname Hireme-Smiler.

Smiler bought her children Kieran and Tyronne to the marriage.

Honours and awards She was: the New Zealand Rugby League's women's player of the year in 2007, 2012 and 2017.