Ian Smith (Scottish Rugby Player Born 1903) - Biography

Biography

Smith was born in Melbourne in Australia in 1903, but was brought up in New Zealand. He was educated at Winchester College, where they did not play rugby, and then went to Oxford University. It was at Oxford that he was persuaded to play rugby by GPS Macpherson. Up until then he had only played Association Football.

He discovered that although born in Melbourne he qualified to play for Scotland due to relatives from the Borders region, and was first capped for Scotland in 1924. His first match was against Wales on 2 February 1924, and he scored two tries on debut, in a 35-10 defeat of Wales. He played another two games that season, against Ireland and a Calcutta Cup match against England, although he was unable to score again.

In the second half of 1924 he was selected to tour South Africa with the British Isles. It was on this tour that the British Isles were first given the "Lions" nickname. Smith played in the first two Tests of the tour, both of them lost. In 1925 Smith played in all four of Scotland's Five Nations matches. The first was against France at Inverleith, where Smith scored four tries, and helped them to win 25–4. He then played against Wales at Swansea and scored another four tries; Scotland again won, this time 24–14. Their third game of the Championship was against Ireland at Lansdowne Road, and alought Smith was unable to score this time, Scotland still won 14–8. Scotland's last match of the Championship was against England at Murrayfield Stadium. This was the first match ever played at Murrayfield, and was watched by over 70,000 spectators. Although Smith did not score in the match, he was involved in a crucial Scottish try. The ball was passed through several hands before Smith passed to Johnny Wallace who scored in the right-hand corner. English supporters claimed Smith had put his foot into touch, but the Welsh referee disagreed and awarded the try. Eventually Scotland triumphed 14–11 to go undefeated and claim their first ever Five Nations Grand Slam. Smith's eight tries for a single Championship remains an individual record.

He continued to play for Scotland throughout the 1920s mostly as a member of the Edinburgh University club and London Scottish with whom most of his caps were won between 1925-29. He played all four Scotland matches in the 1926 Five Nations, and scored two tries against England at Twickenham; his only tries of the Championship. He played three matches in 1927, this times scoring four tries, two against France and two against England. In both 1926 and 1927 Scotland shared the Five Nations Championship with Ireland. Smith did not play in 1928, but returned in 1929. Again he played all four matches, and scored three tries, two against England. This year Scotland won the Five Nations outright for the first time since 1929.

In 1930 he played three matches, missing the England game, and did not score any tries. He did play all four matches in 1931, and scored his only tries against England. This was the fourth time he scored two tries in a match against England. In January 1932 Smith played for Scotland against South Africa, which was won 6–3 by South Africa. By 1932 France had been ejected from the Championship due to allegations of professionalism, and the four Home Nations returned to only playing one another for the International Championship. Smith played all three matches in 1932, but scored only once, against England.

In 1933 Smith captained Scotland for the Home Nations Championship. Because of his background of playing Association Football, team mate James Henderson said of Smith:

"He was great, of course, 'The Flying Scotsman', but when he was our captain in the 1933 Triple Crown success, we never had team talks before the game. He would just tell us to get on with it; no great plans or anything, because he didn't know much about the game."

Smith played in all three matches during the Championship, and scored one try when they played Wales in February. They played Ireland last after the planned match had been cancelled because of a blizzard. They won the match 8–6 and secured the Championship and the Triple Crown. It was Smith's last match for Scotland.