Born with club foot, Keanu's feet rotate inwards at the ankle. Twenty-three hours a day, he wears special boots – a metal bar connecting his heels to slowly straighten his feet – and he'll do so until he's four years old.

A month after his birth, Keanu needed surgery to start the slow and painful process as his tiny body adjusts to the changes. But Smiler says having a son has changed his career and he's already counting down the days to being able to teach Keanu how to play rugby.

Smiler scribbles "KEANU" on his left wrist before Super Rugby games as a reminder of his inspiration.

"I was reading that one in 750 kids are born with it in developed countries, so it's not uncommon, and I've spoken to parents who have gone through it and the results are awesome," Smiler said.

"It was scary ... it was a bit of the fear of the unknown. But we sat down with the specialist and he said it was easy to fix.

"The thing about the surgery is that it doesn't affect the progression for crawling or walking.

"At times it's a bit painful when they change the angle of his feet, but he's starting to settle down now.

"Every day you see little changes in what he's doing. He's starting to make some noises, you can have a yarn with him. It takes your mind off rugby, [especially] if you have a bad game ... he gives you a smile and it melts your heart."

Smiler, the New Zealand-born former Sevens player, is launching his Super Rugby career with the Brumbies.

He has been in the starting side at blindside flanker for the past two games, taking his starting-cap tally to three in his brief career.

But his start to the 2014 campaign was delayed when Keanu was born in January. Smiler and partner Stacey found out at the 20-week scan that Keanu had club foot. They started researching a plan for when he was born and Smiler missed two Brumbies pre-season games to be with his family while Keanu had surgery in Sydney.

Keanu's Achilles tendon was snipped in both legs to loosen his feet and allow them to straighten.

There's an 80 per cent relapse rate for children who have the surgery. But Smiler has been buoyed by seeing the results for older children.

"It's given me a lot of focus, direction and purpose to life," he said. "It changes why you do things. You put family first and sometimes you don't understand that until you have your own kids.

"The Brumbies were great. The coaches told me family always came first when we had to go for surgery. It put me behind some of the other guys in pre-season and slowed the start to the year, but I don't regret it for one second."

The Brumbies have been hit with injuries to start the Super Rugby season. But the list of unavailable players has opened the door for Smiler to leave his mark in his first season on a full-time Super Rugby contract.

Smiler started with the Brumbies last year on an Australian Rugby Union-funded extended-player squad contract.

He played four games in his debut season, but had to wait until the clash against the Cape Town Stormers three weeks ago to get his first starting spot for the 2014 campaign.

"His challenge is to get repeated performances," said the Brumbies' director of rugby, Laurie Fisher.

"It's not that difficult for a good footballer to have a one-off top-shelf performance, but we need it three, four weeks in a row. He's got a lot of skill, but he's also got a hardness about him."