In a reversal of his experience of last year when he was briefly recruited to the senior national team’s set-up, Carl Hogg will leave Scottish Rugby this summer once the Under-20 World Cup is over, to join the management team at the Ospreys.
The former international back-row forward was at the centre of a curious sequence of events last summer when he was asked to join the Scotland backroom team for last summer’s tour of the Americas at a time when the Murrayfield hierarchy was insisting that Dan McFarland would be held to his contract as the Scotland team’s forwards coach until the turn of the year, after he had been offered the job of head coach at Ulster.
In spite of his vast experience, having coached in the English Premiership with Leeds, London Welsh and Gloucester before a spell as head coach at Worcester Warriors, Hogg’s appointment was, as a result, generally seen as having been made on a trial basis.
However, it then emerged between the tour opener against Canada and Scotland’s shock defeat by the USA in the second of their matches that former Cardiff Blues head coach Danny Wilson had been recruited to the role in the longer term to replace McFarland, who was subsequently released just ahead of the new season.
Hogg was appointed Scotland under-20s head coach in the autumn and while the opportunity to join the Welsh regional side was clearly too good to turn down, he made it clear that he will see the job through with the group of players he has been working with since then.
“I’m excited by the challenges that lie ahead next season with the Ospreys, but I also understand my responsibility and loyalty to the Scotland U20 players to ensure this World Rugby U20 championship is as successful as possible,” he said.
“There is no doubt we’re in a tough group alongside South Africa, New Zealand and Georgia but sport is all about taking your opportunities and turning the odds in your favour.
“I look forward to leading this great group of young men into the contest.”
His departure leaves another head coach’s vacancy at Murrayfield, following that created by John Dalziel’s switch from leading the national sevens programme to join the Glasgow Warriors coaching team as theur forwards coach, replacing Wales-bound Jonathan Humphreys and Scottish Rugby’s technical director Stevie Gemmell expressed mixed feelings about the loss of Hogg from the domestic scene.
“While it’s disappointing to see any member of staff leave the set-up it’s pleasing to see another Scottish coach operating within the Guinness Pro14,” he said.
“We wish Carl all the best in his new role and with the season coming to an end we’ll now take time to review all of our programmes and to consider how best to move forward for the season ahead.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here