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Smith: A new life in France beckons

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Ollie Smith has signed a pre-contract agreement with the Top 14 side Montpellier for next season over both Leicester and Gloucester.

At the end of last season Smith signed a one-year Tigers deal with the plan of moving on at the end of the 2007/8 campaign. He has now made the decision to move to the sunny south of France over both Gloucester and Leicester.

As youngest player to start a game for the Tigers and making 180 appearances for the club he will also take with him Heineken Cup and Guinness Premiership winners' medals as well as England and British and Irish caps. He is determined to prove there is time for him as a player yet.

"People think that I am a lot older than I am for some reason. I am still younger than someone like Danny Hipkiss, but people seem to have written me off. I have a lot more rugby left in me," he told the Leicester Mercury.

The 25-year-old will fly to the south of France to this summer to begin a completely different life. His choice over Gloucester was primarily down to the culture difference.

Holiday

He said: "I wanted to go and live by the sea, whether it was Biarritz, Bayonne or somewhere else."

"It will be a huge culture change from Leicester, but I have been on holiday in the south of France and really enjoyed it. I didn't want to go too far away, but I wanted something that was completely different to what I have had in the eight or nine years I have been at Leicester.

"That was one reason why I chose not to go to Gloucester."

Commenting on a possible move to Gloucester, he said: "I had a look around there and was thinking about it - but it would have been too similar."

"I am excited about learning French and I am sure that, at the first training session, I won't have a clue about what is going on. But it's something that I am looking forward to."