RICHIE Gray has played down his chances of becoming Glasgow Warriors captain, despite his status as one of the most experienced and respected members of Danny Wilson’s squad. The 30-year-old lock is confident that he can use his experience to help the younger players in his position, but believes the captaincy should go to a man who has been with the club for some time.
“I am certainly hoping to be part of the leadership group,” said Gray, who rejoined Glasgow at the start of this month after eight years away. “I think that’s very important for me and I want to share as much as I can with the group.
“As regards to captains and co-captains there has been nothing said as yet and no discussions, but from a personal point of view I’m just coming back to the club, while there are other guys that have been here a long time like Ryan Wilson, Pete Horne and Sam Johnson. There’s a good group who’ve been here a long time.”
After leaving Glasgow for a season in England with Sale Sharks, Gray moved on to spend seven years in France, first with Castres then with Toulouse. Especially with the latter club, he believes he made significant improvements to his game, both individually and in terms of the leadership he offered.
“If I can highlight one area, the lineout,” he continued. “My role in the lineout has changed and I feel I’ve improved massively there from a leadership point of view. I went to Toulouse and ended up as part of the group that was running things and leading them throughout the week, so I also feel there’s been a massive improvement there, which I certainly hope to bring to Glasgow.
“My work in the tight has improved as well, which there were big question marks around in my early Glasgow days, as France is one of these places where you have to be good in that tight combat area. But there are still things I’d like to get back, to continue to become more well-rounded.
“I’m obviously coming back with big ambitions and big expectations personally. I still have a lot of drive, and certainly in my last couple of years at Toulouse that was to win games and get far on in competitions, and I enjoyed that. Winning’s pretty nice and I’d certainly like to continue doing that with Glasgow. Part of me coming back to Glasgow was they wanted that experience to help these younger guys.”
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