Glasgow Warriors head coach Dave Rennie is in discussions about his future and is keen to extend his stay in Scotland.
The man who led Waikato Chiefs to Super Rugby titles in 2012 and 2013 was a serious candidate to replace Warren Gatland as Wales head coach, missing out to fellow New Zealander Wayne Pivac who took the Scarlets to last year’s PRO14 title, but he confirmed yesterday that he is in talks with his club’s owners at Scottish Rugby saying: “I'm loving it here. My wife is happy and that's key. I'm keen to stay on.”
Rennie made a spectacular start to his career in Scotland a year ago, taking Glasgow into the first round of European Champions Cup matches as the only club in Europe’s top leagues with a 100 per cent winning record at that stage, only to discover the gulf that exists between the competitions.
While the winning PRO14 run was extended to 10 matches by Christmas, their season had been undermined by four Champions Cup defeats out of four by that stage and they fell away badly in the second half of the season as, in spite of being top seeds, they lost out in the semi-finals of the PRO14, while Edinburgh reclaimed the 1872 Challenge Cup in the last league match of the season.
With that first experience of the long European season under his belt, Rennie reckons Glasgow will be more competitive at the business end of the coming season.
“I believe we will be a lot better than we were last year as we're further down the track,” he said.
“We've had a lot of detail in our pre-season and the coaching group has done a great job. We will have a better side than we had this time last year.”
On the face of it, that team will not be significantly different to last season, but he identified the key element as being the year his players have now had to get to grips with his approach as he seeks to take the club to a higher level by becoming competitive with Europe’s leading teams.
“We had 16 [new] guys the year before. A number of them are on two or three-year deals. There are a lot of Scottish guys we are keen to keep so we can manage them,” he explained.
“Tevita [6ft 5in US international forward David Taimelau] comes in as we wanted another big ball carrier. Hopefully we'll get more out of Adam Ashe this year. We are happy with the squad and the depth.”
Glasgow supporters got a look at the summer’s other major signing, Wallaby scrum-half Nick Frisby, at Perth last weekend and Rennie saw enough to be satisfied that he has brought additional quality into the ranks.
“We were reasonably happy with him. He's a real handful around the edge,” was his assessment.
“We need to adjust better as he can find half a gap and we need players changing lines and making holes to expose that. He has the ability to create opportunities for others. He's a good man and he's working hard.”
With regard to those who were already on the books, Rennie suggested that the summer had been a good one in terms of the maturing process for two of those who will have responsibility for setting the tone when on the field, not least one of Frisby’s rivals for the No.9 jersey, Ali price, who began last season as Scotland’s first choice scrum-half but ended it as third choice at his club.
Rennie let his views be known last week about his surprise at Price’s conditioning when he returned from the Scotland camp at the end of the Six Nations, having spent most of it as understudy to Greig Laidlaw on his return from injury, but he also seems sure that the player has got the message and is responding in the right way.
“It's not uncommon for players who aren't getting the same kind of game time,” he pointed out yesterday.
“During those windows they don't train quite as much as they might in a normal competition. It's not uncommon for someone to slip through the cracks.
“He's had a groin injury but he has worked really hard. He realises that he probably let himself down and suffered the consequences. He's desperate to get back and play footy. I've been really impressed with him. He might be a couple of weeks away yet, but when he comes back he will be in good nick and really sharp.
“We want competition for places in all positions. We want to pick on form and guys need to front up and perform well. We're happy with the depth we have at nine.”
If the competition at scrum-half promises to be fierce, with George Horne having ended last season as first choice in the position, it looks like being a similar situation at stand-off, where Horne’s fellow new cap Adam Hastings looks to have benefitted greatly from his selection for the summer tour as he prepares to do battle with Peter Horne and Brandon Thomson for the position vacated by Finn Russell.
“We decided to wrap him up in cotton wool as he's starting this week,” Rennie said in explaining the briefness of the youngster’s excellent contribution to last Saturday’s rout of Harlequins in Perth.
“We can't play Peter Horne until round one [of the PRO14], but Adam has been excellent in training. I think he has grown in confidence. He's demanding, clear in his role, competitive and fit. He's in really good nick.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here