00:00We're here this morning to give you some information around a lot of the
00:07activity that's gone on since we last spoke for the summer. Firstly as you're
00:14aware we're here to announce the extension of Gregor Townsend as the
00:21men's national team head coach and also of Franco Smith extending his contract
00:27as the head coach of Glasgow Warriors. On top of that we're also going to be
00:36speaking around the new high performance heads of department that have been
00:41recruited over the summer months. Those four heads of departments Alex Ross,
00:48James Moore, Richard Chesser and Al Kallick come into key roles to lead up the
00:55different disciplines within the high performance department and if you for
01:01those of you who came to the briefing I gave in June around explaining the
01:06structure of the performance pathway there's also a myriad of other positions
01:12that have been filled over the summer months to support that the new national
01:17talent pathway program and the reformed academies have both been filled with a
01:26number of coaches strength and conditioning coaches physios nutritionists and
01:32performance analysts the majority of which are now in place and those programs
01:40start to go live this month and should all be functioning effectively in the coming
01:47weeks so there's been lots of activity lots of lots of action happening and lots
01:54of people in place and programs in place and we're really excited about having
02:00both those programs and those people up and running and also extremely excited to
02:07have two world-class coaches such as Gregor and Franco locked in for another period of
02:15time. I'll open it up to yourselves for Alex and I to answer any questions you may have.
02:22David, on Gregor first of all, what are you looking for from him in the next two years?
02:34I'm looking for him to continue on the good work that he's done to build on that he's in a
02:40position now where we've got a team that is maturing nicely leading into a World Cup in
02:482027 he's also going to be working in a program now that's fully supported it's not
02:56just Gregor trying to manage the national team but he's now got a high performance
03:03department around him that's got a lot more support a lot more bulk to be able to
03:08help what he's trying to produce at the same time.
03:11Is more of the same good enough?
03:15Well no in high performance you never sit still you can't you always have to be evolving so no one
03:23ever is sitting there going I think I'll just do the same as what I did yesterday because you just
03:28people just race past you in this business so no evolution of what we're doing and how we're doing
03:34it it's not only just as you heard or as you've seen from what we're doing in the business doesn't
03:39stop there this thing permeates through all of our teams so we're looking to evolve everything.
03:46And on Franco, there's been a lot of chat around Franco, Franco may have flown a few kites himself about his own future
03:56were you worried you were going to lose him and how happy are you that you kept him?
04:01I think firstly we're really happy that we've kept both of them you know I think if we're in a position
04:06where no one wanted our coaches you'd be thinking gee that's not great in this
04:13competitive market that you're in with which it is that the coaching market is
04:18extremely competitive for us to be able to secure those two guys going forward there's a vote of
04:25confidence of both of them to Scottish rugby and also obviously from Scottish rugby to the two
04:32coaches so you know you never want to underestimate the power and the value of
04:40continuity and you've got to be able to sit back and judge where teams and
04:46programs and organizations are in their evolution and make a decision on what's
04:50right for them and the right people for them as you go forward.
04:53And finally for me in terms of pathways has it felt like a long road and what has been the most
05:01difficult aspect of putting together this program?
05:04No it hasn't been it certainly hasn't felt like a long road it has been as we've said from the outset
05:11it's been carefully thought out and planned and we've given ourselves timelines to do to build the structure to resource the structure
05:20and we went out and we had applicants from all around the world looking for these roles which is exactly what we wanted we wanted to make sure that we're bringing the best available talent into Scottish rugby
05:35Scottish rugby and you know I've spoken before about the fact that we want to ensure that the people that we've got in our system hold themselves and the people within it the players the staff accountable and that they drive a system that educates and improves both our players and our staff on a day to day basis.
06:02So I think we've managed to do that with the people that we've been fortunate enough to recruit and our timing we said that we have these programs up and running by the start of the season and we've managed to do that and these people are all starting over from next week onwards.
06:23So yeah everything's in place it's been hard work it's been a lot of work I know somebody thought I might have been sitting on the beach but that wasn't the case we've managed to get a lot done and we're ready to go and we're all really excited about it.
06:40Yeah that phrase that's been used about the men's national team the last couple of years is maybe to have a glass ceiling. What makes Gregor the best person over these next two years to try and make sure that?
06:51Because Gregor is a person that is constantly seeking to improve to get better. He's a curious coach. He wants to find ways to evolve both himself personally but also to evolve the team.
07:06I think from the point of view with regards to the number of Scottish lads that were on the Lions tour they're going to come back better players for that experience as well. What they learned they'll add value.
07:22We had John DL on the tour with the Lions as well so he brings back more. All of that helps Gregor as a coach as well and I think all of those things actually lay us in good stead to be able to keep evolving as a team.
07:38I think once you lose that drive and curiosity and search to improve that's when you know that head coaches have probably run their time and Gregor is definitely not in that space. He's as keen or keener than he's ever been.
Be the first to comment