Danny Wilson stresses his long-term commitment to Glasgow Warriors amid Harlequins link

Danny Wilson has refused to be drawn on speculation linking him with the vacancy at Harlequins and insists he is committed long term to Glasgow Warriors.

Glasgow Warriors head coach Danny Wilson has been linked with Harlequins. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS

The Gallagher Premiership club terminated the contract of Paul Gustard in January and were initially credited with an interest in South Africa’s World Cup-winning coach Rassie Erasmus.

However, reports from England claim that has cooled and that Wilson is on a four-man short-list for the job at the Twickenham Stoop.

“All I can say is that I am under contract with Glasgow and concentrating on the job in front of me – the long-term project that we’re all working towards and committed to,” Wilson said when asked about the Harlequins link.

Ross Thompson has impressed at stand-off in his breakthrough season for Glasgow Warriors. Picture: Craig Williamson/SNS

The former Cardiff coach is in his first season in charge of Warriors and steered them to a fourth-place finish in Conference A of the Guinness Pro14 which looks like securing them a place in next season’s Heineken Champions Cup.

It has been a tough campaign, with Wilson deprived of his international players for most of it. Covid-related absences also hit the squad hard but Wilson was able to blood some promising young players, notably stand-off Ross Thompson and winger Rufus McLean.

However, last month’s 46-19 defeat by Benetton in the Rainbow Cup opener in Italy was a chastening experience and prompted a degree of soul-searching amongst players and management.

Glasgow will look to get back on track when they host Edinburgh on Friday in a match that doubles up as 1872 Cup decider and Rainbow Cup clash. Wilson will make changes, a consequence of the result in Treviso and the desire to bring in more experience.

“It is a derby so you want to pick a team that you think is capable of winning the match, you have to respond to a bad performance and result against Treviso, so some players have to understand that they have a responsibility and if they don’t deliver then we have to look at other solutions which will deliver,” said the coach.

“We hopefully have qualified for Europe so winning the 1872 Cup would give us some reasonable achievements out of a very difficult season.”

Wilson will consider removing some of his more callow players from the front line against what is expected to be an experienced Edinburgh line-up.

“One or two will be taken out of it because of injury,” he said. “From our point of view, you have the ups and downs of the younger players learning from their experiences, so you have to be patient but that doesn’t mean picking them every single week. It means they are getting opportunities at the right time, and they have the opportunity to learn from the positives and the negatives.

“Ross has probably played the majority of games at 10 for us this season and he’s an academy player, so it’s great for us for the future, and brilliant for Ross who will learn from the good and the bad.

“I’ve been mightily impressed with Ross, and others such as Rufus. When you think about where they have come from to get the experiences they’ve had this year, and some of the man-of-the-match performances they’ve produced have been outstanding, so they’ll get more opportunities along with others.”

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