TWO years after leaving the club to seek regular game time with Edinburgh, Jamie Bhatti will return for a second spell Glasgow Warriors in the summer.
The 27-year-old loosehead follows in the footsteps of Richie Gray, Leone Nakarawa, Niko Matawalu, DTH van der Merwe and most recently Duncan Weir in returning to their old Scotstoun stomping ground after a few seasons playing elsewhere.
Bhatti has been capped 16 times by Scotland, most recently against France in November, but was not named in Gregor Townsend’s Six Nations training squad earlier this week.
“I’m buzzing to get back to Glasgow and play for a club that I’m hugely passionate about,” said Bhatti. “I left Glasgow with some of my best rugby memories and finished playing in that Guinness PRO14 final at Celtic Park in 2019. I was playing the best rugby I’ve ever played when I left the club and I can’t wait to return and kick on.”
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While Bhatti’s age and profile certainly fits into what Danny Wilson is trying to do at the club now, the wisdom behind packing him off to Edinburgh in 2019 – where he managed only four starts in his first season and two brief bench appearances this season (25 minutes in total) before being released in December to join Bath as emergency injury cover for the remainder the of the campaign – is not clear.
Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing – but it doesn’t reflect well on Scottish Rugby that Bhatti’s club career was allowed to stagnate during a two-year period when he should have been at the peak of his powers.
“I’ve worked with Jamie at Scotland and watched him play a lot,” said Wilson. “He’s a physical rugby player and a good aggressive scrummager. We’ve spoken a lot and he’s really passionate about Glasgow and returning to the club.”
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