TOM SMITH TRIBUTE
Tributes to Tom Smith, Women succumb to the French, Edinburgh and Glasgow progress in the Challenge Cup
WELCOME: plenty to catch up on this week after a well-deserved break for the newsletter (it is true what they say: Scottish rugby never sleeps).
Sadly the biggest story of the last few days was the tragic passing of Scottish international and British and Irish Lion Tom Smith, following his battle with colon cancer. We have collected the best of the many tributes paid to the man, who was a true great of the game and will be sorely missed.
Elsewhere the Scotland Women’s battled but failed to fire against the French in their TikTok Six Nations match, Scotland Sevens were in action in Singapore (and the Melrose Sevens returned for the first time since 2019), we saw a very welcome age grade victory for the U18s, and Edinburgh and Glasgow discovered their fate in the European Challenge Cup. A true feast of Scottish rugby - just the way we like it.
TOM SMITH TRIBUTES: Scottish rugby was rocked this week by the news that Tom Smith had lost his battle to colon cancer, at the desperately sad age of just fifty years old. A famously quiet character who preferred to do his talking on the pitch, Smith enjoyed a truly extraordinary rugby career that encompassed 61 caps for Scotland, six test starts for the Lions (earned consecutively across the 1997 and 2001 tours), close to 200 appearances for Northampton and coaching spells at Edinburgh and Lyon.
He will perhaps be most fondly remembered for his role in the Lions winning tour of South Africa in 1997. A relative unknown with just two Scotland caps to his name, Smith was part of an iconic front row performance - alongside Paul Wallace and Keith Wood - that outsmarted the likes of Os Du Randt and laid the foundation for that famous victory - perhaps the greatest in Lions history. From there he became a cornerstone of the Scotland pack, toured with the Lions once more and excelled at Northampton. He is quite rightly in the conversation when it comes to picking Scotland’s greatest player of all time.
There have been many tributes paid to the man, by people who are far better placed than us. But the video below perhaps best sums up Smith the player. He had the vision and passing skills of a centre at a time when props were limited to the tight. Allied with his scrummaging nous, he was everything the modern front row eventually came to be.
Also admire his give and take (at about 6.30) for Jason Robinson’s try in the third test of the 2001 Lions Tour to Australia - not sure many of today’s modern centres could have done much better.
Tribute poured in from all corners this week - here are some of the best:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/61014702
https://www.theoffsideline.com/obituary-tom-smith-a-giant-of-scottish-and-lions-rugby/
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tom-smith-obituary-qt6h5qzf6
https://www.bt.com/sport/watch/video/clips/2022/april/tom-smith-tribute-a-quiet-man-but-a-mighty-man
WOMEN’S DEFEAT: Scotland Women slipped to their third defeat in this year’s TikTok Six Nations Championship, with France securing a 28-8 victory in Sunday's lunch time fixture.
Akin to the previous week, Bryan Easson’s charges came into this fixture as rank underdogs, and the eventual result was not a huge surprise. However, despite winning the second half 5-0, captain Rachel Malcolm will be disappointed by her side’s second quarter lapses, which saw France secure the bonus point before the half time oranges.
A decent Scotstoun crowd welcomed the Women, hoping to see a repeat of the side’s 2020 heroics which saw that famous draw. Scotland started reasonably well, yet the French were first to cross, scrum half Sansu scoring for a chip and chase try right out of the top drawer. Helen Nelson then got the home side’s first points, converting a penalty in the 20th minute for a 3-7 scoreline.
However, France dominated the ten minutes before half time, crossing for three tries that ultimately decided the contest. Some of their play was sumptuous, and you had to sit back and admire the attacking verve rather than berate any Scottish weakness. Yet as Easson and Malcolm reflected after, the set piece struggled and there was a lack of continuity in attack in the first half.
Whatever was said at the interval seemed to have the desired effect, with Scotland starting to exert some pressure with territory gains and a shored up set piece. And after France were reduced to 14 players after a yellow card for Annery, plus the introduction of Sarah Law on her 50th cap, Chloe Rollie (who else?) powered over in the corner. Yet this good work was too little too late, and Scotland were unable to add to their score.
Keeping France scoreless for a full forty is no mean feat, and something the side can build on. However, the disappointment of both coach and captain was palpable at the final whistle - “not good enough” the party line. There may also be an injury worry for powerhouse no 8 Jade Konkel, who has once again shone in this tournament.
The Women’s Six Nations is gathering a real head of steam - look no further than Saturday’s sell out crowd at Kingsholm for England versus Wales - and this momentum increasingly begs the question of the SRU: what is the plan for the Women’s game in this country? Rachel Malcolm has spoken of the need to “act now” to make improvements to the infrastructure in place before we fall further behind the pack. Murrayfield has made noises about entering a team into the Super 15s, and claims to have included the Women’s game as a key part of its strategic aims, but more detail is needed - Will this side be fully professional, and to what level? How much support will be given to those currently in employment or further education? Where are the Women’s academies?
No easy answers, but some very important questions.
Full match highlights below:
EUROTRIP: Edinburgh will host Bath in the last 16 of the European Challenge Cup, securing a home tie with a thumping 54-5 victory over Pau. Most Edinburgh fans would have expected victory on the night, Mike Blair going full noise with the likes of Schoeman, Gilchrist and Graham on show - while Pau had no real dog in the fight. Yet Edinburgh still put on a show, running in no less than eight tries, including doubles from Connor Boyle and Ramiro Moyano. Once again, the capital side played with a smile on their face, and should be reasonably confident taking on an improved Bath side. And looking at the rest of the draw, they should be confident of beating any of the remaining sides on their day - indeed, they have already got one over Saracens, perhaps the strongest team on paper, this season.
Highlights from Friday evening below:
Meanwhile, Glasgow - having dropped down from the Champions Cup - have been granted a reprieve in Europe, albeit in the form of a tricky away tie to the Newcastle Falcons. Your correspondent must admit that he had entirely forgotten Danny Wilson’s men were still involved in the competition at all, but this provides a good chance to get a cup run going. Given Newcastle are languishing at the foot of the English Premiership and made hard work of Zebre at the weekend, the Warriors really should be favourites going into this one. Famous last words and all that eh?
SINGAPORE SLING: it was a fairly disappointing return to action for the Scotland 7s team in the weekend’s Singapore leg, crashing out in the 13th place semi-final with just the one victory (over Wales) to their name across the weekend. After kicking off with that win over the Welsh, Scotland battled to a close loss to New Zealand before defeat to Argentina, consigning them to third place in their pool at the end of day one. Day two was a stinker however, with losses to both Spain and Japan. Ciaran Beattie’s squad has a fairly green feel to it, and hopefully with more time together the performances will improve. Jordan Edmunds showed why he was brought into the full national fold at the end of the Six Nations, crossing for six tries across the tournament - including just the 4 against Spain. Next up is the Vancouver leg.
RETURN OF MELROSE: sticking with the shortened form of the game, there was a welcome return for the Melrose Sevens at the weekend in what was also the tournament’s centenary year. Having been delayed by the pandemic since 2019, the tournament looked in rude health, with a decent crowd, live commentary feed and a nice mix of club and invitational sides. The British Army emerged as the eventual winners, defeating fellow guest side Samurai Rugby (who featured Heriots’ Callum Marshall and former Scotland 7s star Max McFarland in their squad) 26-14 in the final.
Occasionally the crowd at the Greenyards can take against visiting sides, but you couldn't help smiling at the way the Army played the game, this try in the final one of several highlights:
Although the final featured two guest sides, there were decent showings from several club sides, with both Melrose and Currie reaching the semi-finals. The Co-Optimists - whose squad included Edinburgh pros James Johnstone, Jack Blain and Freddie Owsley, and former Sevens internationals Tom Varndell and Cecil Afrika - will be slightly embarassed at their quarter final exit at the hands of Currie, albeit they were hamstrung by a mystery red card for Owsley.
Full results below (H/T The Offside Line):
LIGHT THE BEACONS! Scotland secured their first age grade victory in what feels like a lifetime, after the under-18 Men’s side defeated Italy in their Six Nations festival opener in the Parisian suburb of Marcoussis. The 31-17 victory included no less than five tries, two from Stirling County wing Logan Jarvie, and one apiece from scrum-half Murdoch Lock (surely playing out of position if you believe in nominative determinism), wing Amena Caqusau and hooker Elliot Young. No rest for the wicked though, as Ross Miller’s men take on the French on Wednesday.
As a side note, it is refreshing to see the relatively diverse make up of the under-18 squad. While there are some familiar names from both the clubs - Stirling County, Hawick and Boroughmuir - and the private schools, c.50% of the squad come from the state sector, while there is representation from the likes of Queen Victoria School, Dumfries Saints and Edinburgh BATS - still work to do, but a good start.
The under-18 Women’s side experienced mixed fortunes, going down 0-24 to Wales before battling to a 0-0 draw with Italy across two 35-minute matches staged to kick off their own age group festival, which is pleasingly being played at the DAM Health Stadium. Head coach Duncan Harrison was pleased with the effort on show, and that he was able to get game time for the entire squad. Next up is a full 70-minute rematch against the Italians on Wednesday.
SCOTS ABROAD:
European Champions Cup
Sale v Bristol: Ewan Ashman (16) v
Exeter v Munster: Jonny Gray (4), Sam Skinner (5) and Stuart Hogg (15) v - Hogg was back to his best on Saturday, finishing a nice set piece move and banging over a monster 50-metre drop kick in a match-winning performance.
Stade Francais v Racing 92: v Finn Russell (10) - Finn putting in a steady if unspectacular performance in a match that was largely decided by the boot.
Montpellier v Harlequins: v Huw Jones (15) - England cap and former Scotland U16 player Zach Mercer tearing up trees for Montpellier - how did we manage to lose him to the international wilderness?
European Challenge Cup
Brive v Saracens: v Andy Christie (6), Duncan Taylor (12) and Callum Hunter-Hill (19) - Telegraph scribe Charlie Morgan produced these interesting stats on Christie in the week.
Dragons v Gloucester: v Andrew Davidson (5), Alex Craig (19) and Charlie Chapman (21) - a welcome return from injury for Alex Craig, who impressed in his two appearances for the national side in 2021
Further afield in New Zealand, surely this lad has to have some Scottish blood?
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