Ollie Smith Trains With Brisbane Broncos?

[G.K]

Just seen this as the reason why Ollie is not available at the moment. But does anyone know WHY he has ben training with Brisbane rather than with Tigers in France and playing the pre-season matches? Can't myself see how training with another club can be better than training with the one you normally play with.

[100%rugbygirl]

apparently he is trying to get some of is old flare back after a poor season last season so the club sent him out to Aus to train with a league team to improve running lines etc

[Rizzo]

there is another thread on this subject. But here's an explanation anyway

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.j ... leic02.xml

[Dave Angel]

The obvious (and incidentally, correct) answer as to why Ollie was traing with the Broncos rather than with Tigers is that Pat felt he needed to get away from Leicester, rugby union & Tigers for a while to sort his head out.

Ollie hasn't been the same since his dad passed away and Pat thought he needed a fresh perspective on lots of things so that he could come back a new person.


He couldn't come back as a new person if he had spent the summer with the same old people, in the same old city, with the same old club could he?

[Bunchy]

Just seen this as the reason why Ollie is not available at the moment. But does anyone know WHY he has ben training with Brisbane rather than with Tigers in France and playing the pre-season matches? Can't myself see how training with another club can be better than training with the one you normally play with.

probably one reason why you are not a coach....
we have some negative people on here occassionally

Where is the faith man ?? Bill W !!!!!

[simon redshaw]

Well said Dave. That was something I hadn't appreciated and understood properly myself until I saw what Pat had done for Ollie. As I said in the other thread, it was a tremendous gesture by Pat and shows what a top class bloke he is. If only more employers cared for their employees like that! It will be great to see Ollie back soon and raring to go and see how him refreshed. Also, if any of you get a chance to speak to Ollie at a member's evening can you please ask him how he enjoyed South America as stated in the Mercury article and where he went as I really enjoyed Peru.

[Bruce Hornby-Trainset]

I'm sure that all the nice things about Pat are true, and he would have been thinking about Ollie's welfare. But he is also a hard-nosed coach and I guess that he was also thinking hard about Ollie's ability to run effective lines (which IMO was Pat Howard's greatest strength) and his need to master the art of defence-breaking offloads. Of all the positions in RU, I would have thought that Centres would benefit the most from some intensive RL training. I look forward to Ollie being given at least a subs run-out in the very near future!

[G.K]

Bunchy - I am sure there are a lot of reasons why I am not a coach and Rizzo I missed the original thread due to being in Spain most of August.

Anyway I hope it works out for Ollie and Tigers but I'm not really a fan of the RL influence, it didn't seem to help the England players much in the last few years.

[Austin#1Fan]

All I can say is that yes, Ollie is sorely missed and it would be great to have him here at the moment. But if time and a chance to get away is what he needs, then here's hoping he gets what he needs and comes back a happier and better player for the experience.

Missing you Ollie but cant wait to see you back wearing the Tigers Green, Red and White soon buddy!!xx

[anything_but_ordinary]

i have a feeling it could be so that he can get his confidence back and get to his old self again!