Tom Smith

Tom James Smith was the greatest Scottish rugby player of the professional era according to Sir Ian McGeechan. A man who redefined the role of rugby’s prop forward. He was in fact born in London, in 1971, to a Scottish mother and an English father. His father’s untimely, early death saw the family move to Scotland where Tommy became a boarder at Rannoch School.

In 1990, Sandy Hutchison got a phone call from Tom, whom he had coached for Scottish Schools as a prop. Tom was coming to Abertay and wanted to join Dundee High. He spent four years with the team where his pace, skill and game intelligence marked him out as a generational talent. However, it was a talent that, allied to his tender age, modest frame, and trends of the time, meant he was up against it in the tight. However, Tom never took a backward step and took up weight training, but not at the expense of his pace.

In the early Nineties, the club was mixing with the top teams in the country and regularly got invited to the Melrose Sevens. Tommy shone at the abbreviated game and on the television coverage, the great Bill McLaren stated that young Smith was a player to look out for. Rumour has it that Jim Telfer upped his interest in the young prop after these very performances.

Tom was a quiet man yet when he spoke, you listened. So when the ambitious prop made it clear he needed increased game time, a move to Edinburgh and a new club swiftly followed. He joined Watsonians. During the 1995-96 season, High played them in the semi-final of the Alloa Brewers Cup, (forerunner to the S c o t t i s h Cup) and T o m m y ’ s boys put one over Dundee that day. But the gracious Tom never gloated.

The rest is the stuff of rugby dreams. The wonderful documentary Living with Lions captures two great Smithy moments: Once, singing Wonderwall, and the other of him listening to Keith Wood informing him and Paul Wallace to give him the ball if they are in trouble. Tommy says nothing – and everything – in that clip.

Sadly, Tom was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer in 2019 and was lost to us in 2022. During those three years he gave up his time unstintingly to the bowel cancer charity 40tude, one of the many good causes he supported in his all-too-brief time with us. All the while, Tom went about his work with the same quiet dignity he did against the very best.

We were also honoured that Angus Smith accepted the award on behalf of his father.

Finally, Ian McGeechan has named his all-time Lion’s XV, placing Tommy Smith at No 1.

Tom Smith
Born: 31 Oct 1971, London, England
Clubs: Dundee High, Watsonian’s, Caledonia Reds, Glasgow, Brive, Northampton Saints
Scotland debut: v England, 1997
Scotland caps: 61 (Six tries, captain three times)
British & Irish Lions caps: Six

Chris Hewett (rugby journalist):
"Smith has long been renowned for being a quiet one. Yet rarely has one of rugby’s silent types shown such strength, either of body or of character. One of the modern Titans? Without Question"

Debbie Lochhead

Debbie played at the very top level of rugby while at Dundee High Rugby, having returned to the city in 1993 following a stint working down south. In 1994, Scotland played in the Women’s World Cup for the first time, hosting the tournament at short notice after the Netherlands pulled out. Debbie was selected at tight head prop for the game against the eventual winners, the powerful England, in what was one of Scotland’s first ever Women’s international matches. But her rugby journey starts much earlier than that…

Born in Dundee in 1963, Debbie went to Morgan Academy, being made School Captain in her final year in 1980/81. Head of PE at that time was none other than our current President, Derek Black. Rugby wasn’t an option for girls back then, but Debbie excelled at hockey at Morgan, playing for the Midlands while at school, then Scottish Universities and eventually being selected for the U23 Scotland indoor squad.

Debbie’s family were always into rugby, however, and the first “proper” match she ever went to watch was the mighty All Blacks playing the Anglo-Scots at Mayfield in 1979, where the efforts of dozens of Dundee rugby enthusiasts, working throughout the night, had been just enough to keep the game from being frozen off the following day.

It was while down in Northampton in 1989 that Debbie first got the chance to play rugby, being invited to come along and give it a try at Northampton Casuals. All of 5’6”, for some reason Debbie initially found herself playing in the 2nd row, but she quickly engineered a move to prop, from where she never looked back!

Returning to Dundee in 1993, Debbie joined Dundee High Rugby, who were then playing in Division 2 in the Scottish leagues, and was selected for the squads for Scotland Women’s first ever international games, versus Ireland and Wales, but was unable to play due to work commitments, until at last getting her chance v England in the World Cup. Scotland finished fifth in that World Cup of 1994, and Debbie went on to play many more internationals. Highlights included that first ever Scotland game against England at Meggetland in front of a hugely vocal crowd of 5,000, and a 5 – 0 away win in December 1994 against a formidable Welsh side at Bridgend, a muddy forwards battle when the Scots team held out on their line for what seemed like forever until the final whistle went for a first ever away win.

A couple of years later, there followed an outstanding display by Scotland in the FIRA European Championship in Nice 1997, where Scotland beat Italy and Spain before finishing runners up to England, losing 24 - 8 against them in the final. Other fond memories are of some training sessions while at Northampton under the eagle eye of Buck Shelford, the legendary New Zealand No. 8.

A cruciate ligament injury brought an end to Debbie’s international career, and work commitments meant she moved on to play for Perthshire, then to Forfar where she and her partner Janet helped found Strathmore Women’s side, and where she played for another four or five years before finally retiring. Debbie then took up coaching, getting her badges and working her way up the ladder to coach the North & Midlands. Her concerns about being able to coach the backs at that level were eased when she met fellow prop British Lion Peter Wright on her Level 2 coaching course, and saw him going through the very same drills as her. A trip to the Holy Grail, New Zealand, for a few months in 2001 then followed, to look at the coaching and women’s game development there, and see how far ahead they were of everybody else back then.

A true rugby enthusiast and Dundee Rugby’s only full Women’s Internationalist to date, we were delighted to Induct Debbie into the Dundee Rugby Hall of Fame.

International Rugby Union Caps

Ian Rankin

How much rugby can you pack in to one lifetime? If you’re Ian Rankin, known to everyone in rugby as Ranks, an outstanding contributor to Dundee High Rugby’s success story, and an even more outstanding contributor to Scottish Rugby generally over the past six decades, the answer is “a heck of a lot”!

Ian’s first taste of rugby was at Morrison’s Academy, where he flourished in the back row during his time there, being selected for both the Midlands then the Scottish Schools teams. Those were the golden days of schools rugby – the highlight being a month-long tour with the Scotland team to South Africa in 1974, Next stop after school was Edinburgh, where Ranks joined Edinburgh Wanderers, one of the great clubs in Scottish rugby, then proudly playing in Division One of the recently formed Scottish Leagues, at the time when international players all still played for their clubs. Ferocious games against the Border giants included many a toe-to-toe battle with our own David Leslie, playing in the back row of the fearsome Gala pack of that era. Ranks captained the club in 1979-80, and had won a number of Edinburgh U23 caps, when in 1980 the opportunity knocked to take over Edenwood Farm, near Cupar, where he still farms to this day. Joining 2nd Division Howe of Fife, Ranks was selected for around 50 matches for the North & Midlands over the years, including a game at Mayfield against the formidable Australia touring team in 1988. Picked for a number of Scotland training squads, Ranks was unlucky never to quite make that final step to a full cap. The competition was intense in that Grand Slam era – the Calder twins, David Leslie, John Jeffrey, John Beattie and Ian Paxton to name but a few. Eventually, a detached retina sadly put paid to Ian’s playing days in 1989. Much to Ranks’ surprise, an invitation quickly arrived to coach the North & Midlands U18s team, who promptly went and won the Championship! Then Edinburgh Wanderers came calling – over 100 players attended his first training session there as coach sharing, as he recalls, at least three balls between them! A North & Midlands U21s appointment was rapidly followed by him taking over the reins at the newly professional Caledonia Reds side in 1996, who in turn promptly went on to win the Scottish Inter-District Championship outright for the first time ever in 43 years. Incidentally, in the final “winner takes all game” in that championship winning season, against Glasgow in January 1997, a certain Tom Smith was left on the bench by Ian – six months later, he was starting for the British & Irish Lions as they won in South Africa! That championship success led to Caley Reds playing in the Heineken Cup the following season, where one of the teams they faced was Brive, a club that Tom later went on to play for. In yet another connection with our Club, Frank Hadden assisted Ranks when coach at Caley Reds.

Professional rugby experienced severe birthing pains in Scotland. Caley Reds were merged with Glasgow, and Ranks moved over to coach the combined Edinburgh/Borders side, Edinburgh Reivers, before becoming their manager. Other coaching appointments during that spell were with Scotland U20s, along with John Rutherford, and 4 seasons in charge of Scotland A.

Then came the big breakthrough! In 2003, Dundee High Rugby took the bold step of appointing Ranks as coach. How well was that boldness repaid, as Ranks led us through the “glory years”, a 10 year spell when the club competed with the very best in Scotland, and often won. Two Scottish Cup finals, both narrow defeats, against Hawks and Boroughmuir. Promotion from National 2 to National 1, the top table in Scottish rugby. Patiently and professionally teams were built, and rebuilt, at Mayfield as Ranks attracted players, improved players, inspired players. Irishmen like Neil McComb, Tony McWhirter, Mark Jenkinson. Overseas players like JJ van der Esch, Shannon Wilson, Mike Kerr. Club internationalists like the three Dymocks, Alan Brown, George Oommen, James Fleming, Richie Hawkins. Other gifted players like Lindsay Graham, Cammie Ferguson, Colin Whittaker, Danny Levison, Barry Jones, Chris Cumming. His son Callum. Not to forget those two evergreens Dougie Gray and Davie Mason, still playing yet! All of these and so many many more, too many to mention, made vital contributions to that journey. During that time, Ranks also mentored a number of young coaches cutting their teeth on the rugby ladder, including one Bruce Aitchison, his proposer or the Hall of Fame!

As if coaching a big club like Dundee High Rugby wasn’t enough, Ranks took on many other rugby roles during his time at Dundee. A Sports Management Company was set up to help look after young pro players making their way in the game. The Club Internationals came along in the mid 2000s, a chance for the very best “amateur” players in the Home Nations and France to represent their countries in the professional era. Who else but Ranks could be appointed as their Coach, then Manager, along with other back-room staff from the club like Tom Dymock, Mo and Dave Pacione. And for good measure, he still found time to take Dundee University all the way to the final of the British Universities Cup at Twickenham, losing to the Cardiff Institute of Sport.Ranks’ time at Dundee drew to a close with two momentous seasons. In 2012, the team finished second in the Premiership, having had a chance of taking the title till the very last game, in a season that saw them come from 35 -9 behind just after half time against Melrose at the Greenyards to win 37 – 35 in the 10th minute of injury time. That 2nd place finish led to our participation in the British & Irish Cup in the following season, where we played Swansea RFC, a club that can boast 23 Lions, Cornish Pirates and Carmarthen Quins. What a journey!

Job done at Mayfield after ten great years, often coaching four nights a week, plus full-on match days every Saturday and sometimes Sundays, should have been enough to make anyone take a break. Not Ranks! Immediately after leaving Mayfield, he ran for and became SRU Vice-President in 2013-14, then President in 2014–15, famed for his pre-match fist bump with Gordon Reid before the Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham. He has remained heavily involved at Murrayfield ever since, being a member of the United Rugby Championship Board along with SRU CEO Mark Dodson, a former Trustee of the SRU Trust, and Chair of the Murrayfield Injured Players Foundation.

What a wonderful career Ranks has had in rugby. We were delighted to induct him into Dundee Rugby’s Hall of Fame.