Brian Smith
Brian Smith
Formerly played for South Sydney from 1975 to 1979 and is best known as the coach of teams like the Illawarra Steelers and Parramatta Eels.
ProfessionRugby Player
Date of Birth14 March 1954
among aware came club community country eight express farewell gratitude great held high irish knew leaves london opportunity past player players playing proper publicly ranks regard remarkable rugby ryan season servant supporters throughout
Ryan Strudwick is an exceptional rugby player and person. I knew of him long before I came to London Irish and was aware of the high regard with which he is held throughout the professional rugby playing community in this country and abroad. He has been a remarkable servant of London Irish over the past eight years and ranks among the great ambassadors of the club and the game. While there will be an opportunity to say a proper farewell before he leaves at the end of the season I want to take this opportunity to express publicly the gratitude of the directors, management, players and supporters for all he has done.
against backs ball chance dominated expecting faith forward french kept last match pace performed players plenty run
We have kept faith with the players that performed so well last Saturday. As in that match against the French we are expecting a tough, forward dominated battle, but if our backs get a chance to run with the ball then we know that we have plenty of pace out wide.
advantage huge lose player position quality team
I think any way you look at that, for them to lose a player of that quality in their team from that position in their team should have been a huge advantage for us.
guys size
Our guys know the court's the same size we have here.
expect happen last reminded year yesterday
Yesterday was a joke. We don't expect that to happen again. It was a fluke. It reminded all of us about last year and how much we don't want to go through that again.
city danger impact putting seeing ships visual
We don't feel we are putting that roadway in any significant danger at all and don't feel that this has any significant impact on the city of Eastport in any way other than the visual impact of seeing the ships go by.
basketball played smart
We played smart basketball and did what we had to do down the stretch; we executed well.
hate race time
We hate that we won't be able to race at Joliet, but there just isn't enough time to get it done.
control game guys keys line
We had a lot of guys around the football. One of the keys to the game was that we were able to control the line of scrimmage offensively and defensively.
group match
Our first match in the group could not be more difficult,
field free good percentage throws
Our field-goal percentage wasn't good and our free throws weren't good; 14 of 23 (at the line) wasn't good.
attack bit blew boy came chris crowd early fortunate great heart learned learning maybe walk youth
Maybe some of our youth came out a little bit in that. But I think they learned their lessons. We were fortunate enough, like I said, to be able to walk out with one even after we blew that lead. It's all a learning experience; it's fun. I mean, a great crowd and the boy were into it -- I told Chris Newsome I thought he was going to give me an early heart attack and I'm too young to get one of those.
bang kid strong
Manning's a big, strong kid and Cole doesn't get to bang much down low. That should be one pairing to watch.
great played rugby
Kieron has played some great rugby for us this season.