CHRIS HEWETT

TOM Smith was the best Scottish rugby player of the professional era. No question.
We can also describe him as the finest Lions loosehead prop since Ian McLauchlan, his similarly squat and fox-crafty countryman, scrummaged his way into the pantheon by using the size of far bigger opponents to his own advantage.
But let us not make the mistake of seeing Tom, who passed away last week at the heartbreakingly young age of 50, through too narrow a lens.
He didn’t shout about it – his was the sound of silence in a world of noise – but by playing rugby of such quality in the face of ...