SECOND-ROW forward Lewis Bean will return to Glasgow on a permanent deal next season after impressing while on loan from Northampton earlier in the current campaign.
The 28-year-old has signed a contract for an undisclosed period, and will provide useful cover when the likes of Scott Cummings and Richie Gray are on international duty.
“It’s great to be able to secure Lewis’ services for next season,” Warriors head coach Danny Wilson said. “He’s a big 130kg second-rower who’s abrasive in both attack and defence. Adding a player of Lewis’ size and power in the pack for next season is a boost.”
Bean fitted in well when he was with the squad earlier in the season and is looking forward to coming back. He said: “When I came to the Warriors the lads made me feel really welcome and I liked the way they played. I was delighted when I heard I’d have the chance to return.
“Playing rugby is my No 1 priority and I know at Glasgow I’ll get good game time. I’m buzzing to get back up to Glasgow and make some more memories with the boys.”
Loosehead prop Dylan Evans is also coming back to Scotstoun after a successful loan spell from Scarlets, but in his case immediately, as emergency front-row cover.
Wilson has already signed props Simon Berghan and Jamie Bhatti and stand-off Jamie Bhatti for next season, while another stand-off, Ian Keatley, recently joined mid-season from Benetton. But the head coach still hopes to strengthen his squad further in the coming weeks, both up front and behind the scrum.
“We’ve got a few more to announce,” he said earlier this week. “There’s a couple of really exciting and positive ones that we’ll hopefully be able to announce in the next couple of weeks.
“When I came into the job I had a small amount of budget left from the previous reign, and we’ve made a couple of signings – Richie Gray and people like that – which were important. I still feel we need to bolster our forward pack, and we need to make some back signings too, which you’ll see, hopefully, in the coming weeks.
“So there’s some positive, exciting news to come. We’ll keep adding to that squad. We won’t get it all completed in one recruitment cycle. These things take time. My previous experience [at Cardiff] showed that – it took three years to build that squad. But we’ve certainly taken big steps, I believe, going forward for next season.”
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