Tom Smith: Paying tribute to Scotland’s ‘greatest player of the professional era’

Here at Planet Rugby, we’ve always loved props.

Rugby folklore is all about the big lads, the pint sinkers, the beer drinkers, the piano pushers and the song singers and at every club around the land, there’s a prop or two that are as bigger part of their club furniture as the bar itself.

Smith was one of those props that the game loved and embraced like few others. A tiny man by modern standards, at 5’9” and some 105kgs, he was a technical wizard, able to unload his devastating power through short but explosive levers and happy scrummaging at a height that some might consider subterranean.

A few years back, Planet Rugby did a scrummaging masterclass piece with former Springbok tighthead Cobus Visagie, a man noted for his power in the tight.

“Who was the best loosehead you ever played against?” we asked. “Tom Smith,” was the instant reply that surprised us – we were expecting kudos thrown at Jason Leonard, Sylvain Marconnet, Christian Califano or Jean-Jacques Crenca, all massive powerhouses. But no, it was the wee man from the Borders that took the nod of approval.

Visagie went on to explain: “However I attacked Tom, however low I wanted to go, he’d cope with it. By the end of every game, he’d worked me out and had won. He was technically brilliant.”

Smith was part of the iconic 1997 series-winning side before touring again four years later, becoming the only Scottish player to have played in six consecutive Lions Tests.

The loosehead prop was selected for his first Lions tour to South Africa with only three Scotland caps to his name, having made his international debut earlier that same year, with forwards coach Jim Telfer a big admirer of the loosehead he first encountered playing for Dundee HSFP in a Sevens