Gregor Townsend is ready for the Scotland head coach’s job, insisted Scottish Rugby CEO Mark Dodson after admitting that the SRU had moved to stop the Glasgow coach from moving abroad.
Speaking to the BBC, Dodson revealed that Townsend had indicated that he would take a job in England or France when his contract extension finished next year, completing five years as head coach of the Warriors.
“His view was that `if it’s not now then I want to move on’,” said Dodson. “Our view was that he was ready (to be Scotland head coach)”.
The SRU announced on Wednesday that Townsend, capped 83 times for his country as a player, would succeed Vern Cotter as head coach of the national team from June next year.
Both Townsend and Cotter were attracting significant interest from England, France and New Zealand ahead of their contracts expiring, said Dodson, forcing the SRU to make a decision on the future now.
“You have to be head of the wave in terms of planning,” he said. “We’ve been aware of the interest in Gregor and Vern for some time. I’ve got two outstanding coaches that in demand.
“Vern’s done an outstanding job but we felt it was the right time that Scotland had a Scot in charge again.”
Townsend has certainly improved Glasgow since succeeding Sean Lineen in 2012, taking them to four successive PRO12 play-offs and the title itself in 2015. However the Warriors have still not succeeded in qualifying for the latter stages of Europe competition during his tenure, and the 43-year-old has not coached outside his own borders – unlike the five other current head coaches of the Six Nations teams.
Dodson believes that Townsend is the “outstanding Scottish coach of his generation”.
“He’s had the experience, he’s been successful and this is the right time for us to make this move,” continued the CEO. “We could have waited until 2019 (after the next Rugby World Cup in Japan) but I think he felt it was in his interests to go and get experience elsewhere rather than stay at Glasgow for what would have been seven years.”
A new coach for Glasgow has already been secured, indicated Dodson.
“We’re very close to announcing Gregor’s successor, we’ve done our due diligence, made our moves in the market and we’re confident we’ll going to announce a highly successful coach, well known to most rugby people.”
Townsend meanwhile said the players at Glasgow were responsible for him ascending to the Scotland job.
“I’m proud and honoured to have been given the opportunity and grateful as I was for the opportunity I had to be the coach here at Glasgow,” said the 43-year-old in an interview with the Warriors internal media outlet.
“But the players are the ones who meant I have the opportunity, they are the ones who do the hard work on the pitch and at training, and the support staff at Glasgow have made my job so much easier.
“I’m very grateful to everyone around the club, and the supporters who have backed the team. It’s been brilliant to see how they have connected with the team and the players.”
Townsend said that the hurt of last year’s finale ensured that there would be full commitment from himself and the squad even though he was moving on at the season’s end.
“We still want to be better, we want to work harder and push the players,” he said.
“We didn’t do ourselves justice at the end of the last season. The players were emotional and down after that semi-final at Connacht. The determination has been in the pre-season work and the real stuff starts at the weekend.”