Though not yet ready to name them, Glasgow Warriors have done most of their recruitment for next season which will see them operate with a streamlined coaching structure, according to their head coach.
While continuing to fend off speculation about his own future, largely because he and his employers have decided against extending his stay beyond the end of next season, so leaving him potentially available for the head coach’s job at Australia, with which he has been linked, Dave Rennie was eager to give the impression of being fully focused on a work-load at Glasgow that is set to increase in the medium to long-term future.
“The wife’s happy, which is key, so we could well stay longer,” he said, after explaining that with his children and grandchildren still in New Zealand, family considerations were the principal reason that he had not sought a longer-term deal.
As to Glasgow and their relative inactivity in the transfer market, he said: “We’ve got a good bunch of men and I think we’re a better side than we were this time last year and I think we’ll be a better team next year.
“People get excited by big names or new names, but we made about 18 changes in the first year, so there was a big shift of players out and players in. I think we brought in about six last year, we’re going to bring in about six next year and I think if we’re making 14 changes we’ve obviously got some things wrong in regard to our contracting.
“Some of those changes are down to guys like Hoggy leaving and so on, so there won’t be massive change and as I said we’ve got a good squad, good depth and there are just a couple of positions that we think can strengthen us. We’re pretty sorted with contracting, so we’re not sitting on our hands waiting for something to pop up.”
So far they have named just three new recruits, Kyle Steyn, who joined them a month ago and has performed well and up and coming Scottish front five forwards Andrew Davidson and George Thornton, but he hinted at the rest coming from the southern hemisphere.
“Obviously some guys could be at a World Cup. Some guys, if they’re coming out of Australasia could be involved in another comp, but we’re going to have enough numbers to do what we need to do prior to the World Cup,” said Rennie.
“For some of the smaller nations those guys will be out for three games. Someone like a Siua (Halanukonuka) will be away with Tonga and round four’s a week off, then round five he’s potentially been back a couple of weeks.”
He meanwhile indicated that they have finalised their new backroom structure, but on the departures of two of his assistants, Jon Humphreys, who is returning to Wales and Mike Blair, who is going to work with the national team full-time, claimed to be relishing the prospect of working with a team of four coaches rather than the five currently in place, while paying tribute to both and indicating that it will not be the last seen of Blair around Scotstoun
“Obviously, we’ve got to plan around this because we’ve known about that for a long time and that Humps is leaving and we’ve known about Mike for a while,” he said. “We spend a big chunk of the year without him, so we’re not actually going to replace him, so we’ll go with four coaches. We’ve got someone to replace Humps who we think’s going to be great. He’s not easy to replace, he’s done a fantastic job with our pack. He’s an excellent forward coach and Wales are lucky to grab him.
“Clearly, when we first started I was doing a lot of the counter-attacking and so on. We have moved a lot of that on to Mike but when he is not here I do it. I enjoy coaching on the grass, that is a big part of my passion. I am happy to do that when Mike is not here and happy to do it next year.
“I imagine we will get Mike in a little bit ,” he added, however. “Because of his Scotland connections he will come in to work with the nines. As I say, we won’t replace him.”
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