Ollie Smith
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- For the American general see Oliver Smith
Ollie Smith (born 14 August 1982) is a rugby union footballer who plays for Leicester Tigers and England usually at outside centre and occasionally inside centre or wing.
Smith was born in Leicester, the son of Melvin and Beverly Smith. He was educated at John Cleveland College and Loughborough University. As a boy he attended Tigers matches with his father. He joined Leicester in 1999 and was an unused replacement aged 17, making his Leicester debut after his 18th birthday. His age and ability led to comparisons with former Tigers' centre Paul Dodge who did make his debut aged 17.
Smith gained his first cap as a replacement against Italy. He started his first game for England in the trial against France. However, concerns about his defensive positioning saw him fail to make the 2003 World Cup Squad.
With injuries to other centres Mike Tindall and Will Greenwood, Smith was tipped by amongst others former centre Jeremy Guscott to take his place in the 2005 Six Nations side. However, Smith was overlooked in favour of Newcastle centres of Mathew Tait and Jamie Noon. Tait, aged on 18, played poorly in his debut against Wales and was substituted for Olly Barkley who played in the remaining matches. Noon was solid, if unspectacular and retained his place. Some good performances from Smith in club games saw him come onto the bench for the games against Ireland, Italy and Scotland, gaining two more caps against Italy and Scotland.
Smith was then named British Lions squad for the tour of New Zealand ahead of Noon and Barkley. Shortly after this announcement, his father died. Smith is 6'1" (1.85 m) and weighs 14 st 5l bs (91 kg).
External links
- Tigers (http://www.tigers.co.uk/sub_squad.ink?-database=squad&-response=sub_playerdisplay.ink&-table=detail&-sortField=surname&-sortOrder=ascending&-op=bw&sitename=tigers&-op=bw&type=P&-op=bw&season=2003/2004&-maxRecords=1&-skipRecords=40&-search)
- Sporting heroes (http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1600)
- Stats (http://www.planet-rugby.com/stats/players/player_breakdown.phtml/p_r/ENG?playerCode=KSM14&teamCode=EN&setCode=archive&navCode=)