MIKE Blair will leave his Glasgow Warriors at the end of this season as a shake-up of the club’s management takes place, while head coach Dave Rennie has warned players that their future at Scotstoun is under threat if they cannot improve on last weekend’s sorry exit from the Champions Cup.
Blair’s departure from his assistant coach’s post, to concentrate fully on what has, to this point, been a part-time role with Scotland’s national team, coincides with that of forwards coach Jonny Humphreys, who is returning to his native Wales to join their new international management team, necessitating an overhaul.
“There’s going to be a little bit of change in our coaching group and we’ll announce it all together,” said Rennie.
“That’ll be in the near future too, but we’re very advanced. It’s not an issue for us.”
Rennie indicated that Blair’s departure will allow him to take a more hands-on approach to various areas of the Warriors’ play.
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“Even when they finish the Scotland stuff I generally encourage Mike to have a week off because they’ve come straight out of our stuff into Scotland. A lot of stuff that we’ve got Mike to drive has been stuff that I’ve been doing, like counter-attack, turnovers and exit. I drive that when Mike’s not here and will no doubt do that when Mike’s not here. Maybe not with the same youth or enthusiasm though,” he joked.
“Mike is an excellent young coach, he has plenty of energy and a really good knowledge of the game. It’s been great having him here, but this is a great opportunity for him. I’ve no doubt he’ll end up in the national scene, but that he may come back to club footy at some stage. His contribution has been really appreciated, but he has a couple of months of focus left yet.”
Ahead of a challenging run-in to the Pro14 season, he expressed satisfaction with the way his backroom team has been performing as a whole, however, saying: “I’m very happy with the coaching group. They’re an outstanding bunch of men who work hard and are doing a good job. They’re a good team.”
However Rennie admitted that those they are sending onto the pitch have work to do to prove that they can be described in the same way after they lived down to their seeding heading into last weekend’s Champions Cup quarter-finals, starting with tonight’s Pro14 meeting with Ulster.
“There were seven teams that had a chance of qualifying with about a minute to go and then there was us,” Rennie acknowledged.
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“When you look back at the game in detail there are lots of important occasions, but when it came down to it we didn’t work hard enough, especially defensively for long enough. You just can’t get away with that.
“We had a number of guys who performed really well, with some guys who were well below par and are probably fortunate to get another opportunity this week. In the end we’ve got to learn from it and we expect a response. If we don’t get a response from those individuals then you may not see much of them from now on.”
In that regard there has been a stark contrast between Glasgow’s relative lack of activity in the transfer market and the way Edinburgh have set about recruitment in the past year and more, but for all that he indicated that Glasgow have more signings to announce, Rennie suggested that there are differences in the philosophies at play.
“We have done contracting that we haven’t released yet. I’m not too interested in what Edinburgh are doing, we’ve signed a lot of local boys, we’re bringing in a lot of good young kids who we think from a future point of view are going to be massive for Scotland and for us and then we’re going to use some overseas, or ineligible players for Scotland to help us get through times like the Six Nations and World Cup and so on,” he said.
“I guess we’ve been working to a plan for a while. We’ve got the nucleus of a really good team and we’re just trying to add a little bit of steel to that.
“We’ll announce it when the time’s right. For most guys it’s going to be post-season I would say. Some of them you’ve got guys that are coming out of different competitions, so it’s more than just our needs.”
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