Gregor Townsend may well stay as Glasgow Warriors coach beyond his new contract extension if they still want him.
The 82-times capped former international stand-off signed a year’s extension to his current deal yesterday, which itself was a year-long extension he signed in the middle of the 2013-14 season.
And as he prepares the team for the doubleheader against the Scarlets he hopes could be a springboard to the European quarter-finals, Townsend is quite happy with the situation.
“The last one I signed was the same, adding a year and I thought that went pretty well,” he said. “They might not want me in a year’s time and I’m comfortable (with just a year’s extension). That will be five years I’ve been at the club, and we’ll see next year if it is the right thing for me to stay longer.
“It has been a continual dialogue for a few months – from before the PRO12 final last year, in fact. These things take a while to get down to final details, but I have been chatting to (SRU chief executive) Mark Dodson for a long while.”
Townsend added that the support of the Union was part of the attraction, and the perception of many that he’d like to try his hand coaching in France or England in the future wasn’t necessarily true.
“When I played abroad professional was much more advanced in those countries, whereas now, at Edinburgh as well as Glasgow, we have proper professional teams that can compete at the highest level, with excellent structures,” he pointed out.
“It will be tough to continue to compete, but we are in a better position than we have ever been and the SRU is supporting professional rugby like they have never done before.
“Working with this group of players I know how lucky I am compared to a number of other coaches out there.”
Townsend’s decision to stay is supported by the squad and specifically the younger players, said No 8 Adam Ashe.
“Gregor’s done a fantastic job since he’s been here over the past few years and he’s certainly played a big part in bringing me through as a player so we’re obviously really pleased that he’s staying,” said the 23-year-old who broke into the Scotland team.
“It’s particularly great that he trusts in younger players, we have such a big squad but young guys get a chance. The likes of Scott Cummings and Ally Price getting opportunities it really does show that Gregor has that belief in all the players who are coming through.”
Townsend has kept the same side that was set to start against Leinster in the game lost to Storm Desmond last week, but with the Scotstoun pitch covered this week and a better forecast for today, it’s likely that Scarlets’ second visit this season will go ahead as scheduled.
“They’d worked hard to prepare for Leinster, they deserved their chance then and have done nothing wrong,” he reasoned, and added that he was confident to see Duncan Weir retain his place ahead of Finn Russell.
“Duncan has been training well and deserves the opportunity, while Finn knows he wasn’t his best against Treviso but has responded well.
“We have a competitive situation with two players who were in the World Cup squad, one playing well will force the other to play well.”
After two home games where the team had performed less well than was expected, there was a desire to put it right, he continued.
“Players are working hard and I see real improvements in areas like the set piece, scrum and lineout sessions this week were really physical. That will transfer into games.”
However, after the loss to Northampton, qualification and a brutal schedule over the next two months, the need to find form across the whole squad is acute, he conceded.
“We will have to win four of our five games in Europe or we won’t make the quarter finals,” he said. “The immediate priority for us is to make sure we are still in the tournament after these two games against Scarlets.
“We play Scarlets twice, Edinburgh twice, then three Champions Cup games. Games off have helped us a bit, but our core group of Scotland payers are clearly not going to play in them all.”
Glasgow team (vs Scarlets, European Champions Cup, Scotstoun, kick-off 1 pm, live on Sky Sports)
Stuart Hogg; Taqele Naiyaravoro, Alex Dunbar, Peter Horne, Tommy Seymour; Duncan Weir, Mike Blair; Ryan Grant, James Malcolm, Sila Puafisi; Leone Nakarawa, Jonny Gray (capt); Josh Strauss, Simone Favaro, Adam Ashe.
Replacements: Shalva Mamukashvili, Jerry Yanyanutawa, Zander Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Rob Harley, Grayson Hart, Finn Russell, Sean Lamont.