My Life in Rugby: Ian Smith – Former Leicester coach and captain

Soon after I became the first head coach of Leicester in the pro era, I sneaked into Welford Road and walked out onto the grass, reliving my playing days in a bit of a daydream – it all felt a bit eerie, but reality soon smashed me in the face.
The groundsman – my mate Derek – was shouting, swearing like a trooper, telling me to get off his pitch. Of course, when he realised who it was, he brought me into his shed for a cuppa and asked me who was playing at the weekend.
That’s the thing about Leicester – you become part of a very big family. By the age of 14, I’d met Paul Dodge and we ended up alongside each other for Leicestershire’s first ever U14 side – the start of my longest rugby friendship.
Because our school was only 800 yards from the Tigers ground, our coach Mike Harrison used encourage us to train with Leicester’s youth team.
I progressed through that and into the second team, finally getting a chance for the firsts against Harlequins when Dave Forfar was away for a trial.
The Press were all over it because they doubted we could do anything without Dave. Luckily, I scored a try and we won. From there, Leicester went on a trailblazing run, claiming three John Player Cups in a row.
The game exploded in the Eighties – about 10,000 watched the 1979 final, but ten years on we set a record for the biggest attendance at a club match of nearly 70,000 when we faced Bath.
Professionalism was a matter of time after that. I always said the difference between the two was that, as amateurs, we wanted to win; now, they have to win. If not, they get their P45s.
I see that know through my son Matt. He is under a huge amount of pressure every week but I am tremen- dously proud to see him representing the Tigers in the way I used to.
The best side I coached was mid-Nineties Leicester, who bridged the two eras, and reached the final of the Heineken Cup in 1997.
Coaching has been very special, wherever that has been. The most satisfying thing is looking back on the long list of brilliant players I’ve worked with. There have been England regulars, Lions and World Cup winners – but the greatest man I know is Matt Hampson.
To keep his enthusiasm and passion for rugby after his accident is something that really inspires me. He genuinely values his Leicester Tigers family.
I never got a full cap, but still count myself lucky and one Christmas I faced my childhood hero, Tony Neary, in the traditional Barbarians fixture.
Funnily enough, I was called up to play against him in a final England trial a fortnight later. I never even dared to dream I’d represent Tigers, yet I travelled everywhere from Bahrain to Zimbabwe with them.
We were the first English side to tour Australia in 1981 and I still have a picture of me scoring the winning try against Randwick, the best club in the country at the time, with Mark Ella holding onto me as I put the ball down.
Perhaps the most special thing was playing for divisional sides against the touring teams. At 21, I played for the Midlands against the All Blacks.
We lost, but afterwards I grabbed their captain Graham Mourie for a chat. When he had walked off, I looked around the bar at all the Test players and felt like pinching myself.
Then, Paul Dodge, also playing in that game, came up and whispered, “We’ve come a long way since Leicestershire U14s”.
He was right, but there was a lot more to come.