SOONER or later, Glasgow Warriors fans are going to see their World Cup players back in action but even though they are all now available, it won't be this weekend.
John Dalziel, the forwards coach, admitted that only DTH van der Merwe, the Canadian cap whose hoped-for final Test was called off after Typhoon Hagabis brought down landslides in Kamaishi, where they were scheduled to face Namibia, and Niko Matawalu, who played in all four of Fiji's games but came off the bench in all of them, are even being considered.
"We’ve got the non-Scottish lads back training with us this week, but Dave [Rennie] the head coach, has been pretty sensible with them," said Dalziel.
"They’ve had a long lead-up to the World Cup and guys like DTH [van der Merwe] have had a lot of minutes. They've trained and a decision will be made after that."
READ MORE: Richard Cockerill pleased to see World Cup faces back at Edinburgh
"The [Scotland players] will be staged. Some have played a lot of minutes. Some of the ones who have played less will start to drip in next week or the week after, while the longer-minutes guys will be the third group to come back. There will be no Scottish guys this week.”
It has been a slightly disrupted week for Glasgow with speculation about the future of Dave Rennie, the head coach, being revived by the announcement in Australia that Michael Cheika had resigned after his team were knocked out in the World Cup quarter finals.
Rennie has been linked with the post ever since Scott Johnson, who was instrumental in getting him to Scotland when he was the SRU director of rugby, arrived in Australia in the spring.
It was, however, after reports that he was the prime target to take over the Wallabies surfaced in April that Rennie signed a one-year extension to his contract with Glasgow and promised he would see it through.
Dalziel is adamant nothing has changed: "“You can understand why there is interest," Dalziel added. "There are a lot of articles, a lot of speculation and a lot of theories, but Dave is committed to Glasgow until at least the end of the season.
"There is never a thought of that changing, he is a man of real good stature and he’s working harder than ever to make sure Glasgow have a fantastic season this year and beyond."
In fact, the way the Test timetable is now structured, Rennie could do both. The Guinness PRO14 final is on June 20 but Australia's next game is not scheduled until a fortnight after that. He could do what he did when he arrived at Glasgow from the Chiefs – leave the pre-match training with his assistants and turn up at the last moment to take charge before the first game.
READ MORE: David Barnes: Scotland's World Cup exit was inevitable
For Dalziel, one reason there is no urgency to rush the Scotland players back into the side is that he reckons the youngsters who have been deputising have been playing well, including the group from the 2016 Under 20s side that he coached to fifth in the Junior World Championships, their highest finishing position.
"Guys who were maybe third or fourth choice last year have been thrown into the forefront. That will give us more depth, which we will need with 20 odd games still to go in the league season," Dalziel pointed out.
“We play a ot of rugby without our international lads. We’re almost straight into European competition. Then after three or four rounds of that we will be beginning to prepare for the Six Nations so, young guys like George Thornton [lone of the Under 20s players] who we signed in the summer, are already getting minutes on the field and will be called upon to do so again."
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