Tom Smith, Scotland’s heroic slayer of giants

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful

What’s happening here?

It’s February 16, 2003 and Scotland’s loosehead prop Tom Smith, who by this stage had already started in six British and Irish Lions Tests on the hoof, is setting himself in the Scotland defensive line as the Scots try and repel yet another Ireland attack at Murrayfield. They are taking a painful beating but Smith hasn’t thrown the towel in, that was an alien concept to him.

What’s the story behind the picture?

Battling the odds. Smith didn’t have life easy and was ridiculously small for a world class loosehead prop when he would regularly be engaging opposition props who were four or five stone heavier than him. He was an underdog with a ferocious bark.

The son of an English father and Scottish mother, Smith was born in south London and his first rugby experience was in the lower school sides at Emanuel School, a noted rugby academy in that part of town. Then when the family moved to Scotland he found himself at remote Rannoch School, near Kinloch Rannoch.

There was rugby of sorts although the pitches were often frozen solid or under two feet of snow and cross country runs were ordered instead, or a 24 mile relay race between House teams around Loch Rannoch.

The small cadre of pupils learned to look after themselves and the small local community. The school – teachers and pupils – ran three mountain rescue teams to assist with the official Tayside Mountain rescue services; they manned fire brigade and ambulance services and maintained a powerboat to help patrol Loch Rannoch at the direction of the emergency services. All the pupils including Tom got fully involved.

What happened next?

Resilient and independently minded, Smith played first as an amateur with Dundee HSFP and Watsonians and then at the dawn of professionalism with Caledonian Reds. It was from the Reds that he won his first three of 61 Scotland caps and was a surprise call up for the 1997 Lions squad. Smith blossomed spectacularly as a player on tour and forced his way into the Test team with forwards coach Jim Telfer also hatching a masterplan to use Smith and the equally squat Paul Wallace to scrummage low and defuse the massively powerful Boks front row. Not only did Smith prove outstanding in South Africa he was equally prominent four years later when the Lions toured Australia.

And there was a subplot. Early on as a senior player he started suffering epileptic seizures which reoccurred occasionally throughout his career although he refused to view it as a reason for not living his life to the full. Smith largely controlled it with medication but he endured a seizure on the morning of his final Calcutta Cup game against England in 2005 before dusting himself off to play.

Why is the picture iconic?

Snapper Dave Rogers has caught the essence of Smith perfectly, the ultimate ‘little big man’ or ‘wee hard man’ of Scottish sporting mythology. The David of Test rugby who regularly gave Goliath a bloody nose and punched way above his weight. Smith is the ultimate proof that rugby is indeed a game to be played by athletes of all shapes and sizes.

Tom was officially listed at 5ft 10 inches and 16 stone but I raise an eyebrow at that. Certainly for much of his Test career he operated at scarcely 15 stone while on the 1997 Lions tour, as a modest 5ft 11 inches myself, I was surprised to find myself towering over Tom on a number of social occasions.

Yet he fills this frame, his presence is immense. He looks like a commanding figure and a supreme athlete. There is not a spare ounce on his lean frame, no sucking in of the stomach needed from Tom when those horrible skin-tight shirts were invented. He could be a scrum-half or centre, but in fact he is one of the best loosehead props in the world. The Scots seem to specialise in these power packed ‘miniature’ props with ‘Mighty Mouse’ McLauchlan and David Sole also coming to mind.

A couple of noughties fashion notes to record. This was very much the era of the industrial tape around the ears, the cut off Aussie football style sleeves, supposedly to stop the opposition props getting any sort of firm grip on your sleeve, something which can aid the whole illegal process of pulling you down.

Note also the neoprene gloves. They have me puzzled a little, a cross between cycling and GAA gloves and I’m not entirely sure of their purpose. Around this time they were thought to help with catching and handling – adding a little stickability – and certainly many backs tried them in the 2003 Six Nations. But could it also again be connected with scrummaging and trying to get the firmest possible grip on your own hooker and the opposition prop. Answers on a postcard please. Footnote: Smith was diagnosed with stage four cancer to colon, brain and liver in 2019 but fought the bravest of fights until passing, aged 50, in April this year.