South African scrum-half Dillon Smit played in Major League Rugby between 2022-2023. He represented the Houston SaberCats.

Smit’s signing was announced by the Houston SaberCats in December of 2021 ahead of the 2022 MLR season, he joined from the Lions organisation in South Africa where he was playing in the Currie Cup competition since 2016. He appeared in 15 of Houston’s 16 regular season games, as well as the SaberCats’ first ever Championship Series game in the 2022 playoffs, a 27-46 loss in the Western Conference Final to the Seattle Seawolves. His 3 MLR tries all came during the 2022 season, including a try just 13 seconds into Houston’s Round 5 game against Rugby ATL which was the fastest try in MLR history at the time (since surpassed by Conner Mooneyham in 2023).

Smit was re-signed for the 2023 season in January of 2023 and was in and out of the lineup primarily due to injury. He earned another 7 MLR caps (all starts again) to bring his total to 23 over his 2 seasons with Houston, gaining 115m and completing 42 tackles. On 27th September, 2023, Hoerskool Waterkloof, a high school in South Africa, announced that Dillon Smit had joined their staff as Rugby High Performance Manager in January 2024. While Smit has not announced an end of his playing career, this will most likely rule Smit out of returning for the 2024 MLR season.

Achievements:

• MLR Team of the Week: 2022 – Round 3