Guest Blogger: A tale of two coaches

Guest blogger and Glasgow fan 'The Pen' discusses the coaching situation at Glasgow Warriors.

I realise that it’s very early on in the season to be doing this but come May, every blog and journalist will be talking about it so, to stand out from the crowd a little, I’d like to take a little time to discuss Gregor Townsend and our incoming coach Dave Rennie (if the Springboks haven’t stolen him!)

The announcement that Gregor would be taking over as Scotland coach in the Summer of 2017 came as both expected and a bit of a shock really. When Townsend signed a 1 year contract extension with Glasgow around this time last year, it became obvious to most that he was heading away from Scotstoun but to me it was a shock that he remained with the SRU and didn’t head South to the bright lights of the Premiership or the Top 14 to continue his club career.

Townsend took over the good work which had been done by Sean Lineen and built on the team, good practices and spirit which the Kilted Kiwi had established. Lineens team had finished the season in the play-off spots, losing out on a place in the final, and had a core of good young Scottish players ready to make the break through. Hogg, Seymour Weir and Jonny Gray were all on the way through the ranks and the club was in a good place.

Townsend took that baton and ran with it. An impressive first season followed, making the play-offs again and finishing the season in 3rd place before making a major breakthrough in the  2013/14 season where he led the Warriors to 2nd and their first ever home semi-final, where they would defeat Munster and contest the final against Leinster, which proved a step too far for a Warriors team crippled by injury.

Townsend had by the start of 2014/15 assembled a squad of players that had competition in every position. Bringing through youngster like Bennett, Russell, Pyrgos and Horne, coupled with some intelligent signings like Nakarawa, Matawalu and Strauss, Townsend has shown time and time again that he is probably one of the best attacking coaches in the Northern Hemisphere. Leading his team to the Pro12 final and winning it raised his stock significantly and of course it was only a matter of time before he was linked with a number of potential vacancies and with the British and Irish Lions.

Townsend spurned these advances to stay at Scotstoun for one more year and in replacing Cotter with Toony, they have ensured that they have held on to a bright young coach, full of ideas and with a great understanding of the players he will inherit.

I for one was sceptical of Gregor when he was given the Warriors job as he had been part of a largely disaster coaching period under Andy Robinson. Watching Scotland at that time, it was hard to see how he could bring the good times to the Warriors.

I was completely wrong. The style of play he brought to Glasgow was quite something to behold. Townsend’s Glasgow in full flight is on its day, unbeatable. High profile victories against Bath, Northampton, Leicester and Munster in the Pro12 final, plus consecutive play-off appearances have shown he is a coach of the highest calibre. The only thing that blots that copybook is repeated failures on the European stage and with Rennie as head coach, this is something that much change.

Rennie has a fantastic pedigree in the Southern Hemisphere. He coached the U20’s All Blacks to the world title 3 years in a row, finished runner-up in the ITM Cup and won 2 Super Rugby titles.

Anyone who has watched the Chiefs in recent years will have been impressed with their game plan. They play very much in the style that Glasgow play. Quick passing, strike runners and devastating pace.

Rennie, who’s been heavily linked with the Springboks job in recent days, will inherit a squad that has real ability but he will no doubt want to stamp his own authority on the side. With a number of players out of contract in 2017, Rennie will have first say on who stays and who goes. This season has so far shown that Glasgow lack quality in depth so it will be up to Rennie to bring in players who can make a real difference when the Warriors internationals are away.

He will also have to improve the European record and over the course of his contract he will be expected to qualify for the knock-out stages.

Next year will be a real transitional period and it is maybe too soon to expect a new coach to sweep all before him in his first season. He has to get the players to take his ideas on board, learn his systems and he himself has to get used to a very different style of rugby from that played in New Zealand.

I’ll be very sorry to see Gregor go and I hope he does as well with Scotland as he has at Glasgow. He’s a very exciting coach and if he can hit the ground running in Australia next summer then we could see Scotland playing a very exciting brand of rugby. As he flies South, Rennie will be passing him heading North and if he can get Glasgow playing like the Chiefs, the rest of Europe will soon sit up and take notice.

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