Thomas James Smith (31 October 1971 – 6 April 2022) was an English-born Scotland international rugby union loosehead prop who played for Glasgow Warriors, Caledonia Reds and Northampton Saints and also represented the British and Irish Lions. He became a rugby coach after retiring from play. Smith was one of the finest loosehead props of the modern era. Education and background Born to a Scottish mother and an English father, Smith is the great-grandson of Scottish international footballer Jack Bell. Smith's father died when Tom was six years old. He was first educated at Emanuel School in London, before being given a boarder's education at the now defunct Scottish school on the banks of Loch Rannoch, Rannoch School. His rugby skills were honed by the school's science teacher. Smith stated: "The things I learnt while playing rugby at Rannoch were work ethic and fitness. Our pitch was covered in snow and frozen solid for three months of the year, so there was a lot of running up and down hills. We were pretty well drilled and were made to work hard. There were times when it was pretty tough and cold out here but at the end of the day rugby is a hard game and you need to be tough to play it". Club career Smith's career spanned the amateur and professional game. He started out at the amateur clubs Dundee High School FP and then played for Watsonians prior to the professionalism of the old Scottish District teams. Of these pre-professional times, Smith was to say: "You find out about survival the hard way. When I joined my first senior club in Dundee, there was an old prop called Danny Herrington, a bit of a local legend, who basically shoved my head up my arse in training, twice a week every week for what seemed like years. Now, that's what you call a learning curve. Those training sessions were my classroom." On professionalism in Scotland in 1996 he joined Caledonia Reds. The Reds won the Scottish Inter-District Championship in the 1996–97 season, the first Inter-District championship of Scotland's professional era. He played in the Heineken Cup with Caledonia Reds and also played in the 1997–98 Scottish Inter-District Championship the following season. In 1998, the Scottish Rugby Union decided it could not afford to run the traditional four Scottish districts at a professional level. Caledonia Reds and the Border