London Irish

[sam16111986]

Taute reminds me of latter day Matt Smith in the centres, nothing spectacular but a good pro who makes his tackles and rarely lets you down

Perhaps, but Smith had seious gas in his earlier years. Always felt he played his best on the wing although perhaps not in his latter years as his pace dipped.

Smith has a bit of a renaissance once Mauger arrived. He seemed to get a bit extra out of him as a centre. I think a trick was missed with Smith not concentrating on 15 more in his early years, he broke through as a wing that could cover 15 but wanted to play centre. The Allen and Smith combination worked quite well, particularly in defence but had he worked on his tactical kicking he could have been a very good 15. He was a powerful bloke and coming from deep running lines off the others in the backline he could have done a lot of damage. Always had plenty of power in his kicking as well as being handy under the high ball (being 6ft4 and north of 15 stone didn't hurt).

[DaveRave]

Taute reminds me of latter day Matt Smith in the centres, nothing spectacular but a good pro who makes his tackles and rarely lets you down

Perhaps, but Smith had seious gas in his earlier years. Always felt he played his best on the wing although perhaps not in his latter years as his pace dipped.

There's got to be some comment to be made about the r's exiting from serious gas.

Perhaps we should sign Mason Williams for his Classical Gas.

[Tiglon]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but the last time we conceded as few as 7 points in a Premiership match was more than 2 years ago.

Strong defence and consistent lineout have been two things sorely missing for a long, long time.