Dave Rennie expects Tommy Seymour to be at Glasgow ‘long-term’

Tommy Seymours current Glasgow deal expires at the end of the season but Dave Rennie, expects the former Scotland wing to be at Scotstoun long term. Picture: SNS/SRU

Seymour, who is Scotland’s fourth top try-scorer with 20 in 55 caps, called time on an illustrious Test career last week.

Rennie welcomed the fact that the Nashville-born 31-year-old could play an important part for the club he has been with for eight years during the vital Six Nations period when a big chunk of the Warriors squad will be on Scotland duty.

“It’s great from that perspective, to have someone of his experience around at a time when we’re often missing players,” said the Kiwi coach, who will leave Glasgow himself at the end of the season to become Australia coach.

Seymour continues in the full-back role he has taken over following the departure of Stuart Hogg in this evening’s Heineken Champions Cup Pool 2 clash with La Rochelle.

“He’s really enthusiastic about playing 15,” said Rennie. “It’s a different role for him and has got him out of his comfort zone a little bit, but it’s not too dissimilar to wing. He gets a lot more ball in his hands, so he’s thriving on that.”

Seymour signed a one-year contract extension 12 months ago but Rennie was to the point when asked if this would be the former Ulster player’s last season at the club. “No,” was his simple response.

“We’ve been in discussions with Tommy about his future: he loves the club, he wants to stay and we want him to be here. There’s a couple of things that need sorted, I’d imagine… We expect Tommy to be here long-term.”

Turning attention to this evening’s game, Rennie expects his side to have to work for a back-to-back win over La Rochelle, who they beat away 27-24 last weekend, to breathe life into their bid to reach the quarter-finals.

That left this evening’s visitors with no wins and just one point from their opening three games. That is often the cue for French sides to abandon interest in Europe and focus fully on the Top 14.

Rennie is not relying on that, though. “I had a chat with [La Rochelle director of rugby] Jono Gibbes after last week’s game,” said the Glasgow coach.

“They see the European Cup as really important for their development. They’ve got a tough pool and they will learn a lot from it. I don’t imagine that they will throw in the towel at all.

“This time last year Lyon made massive changes but brought over a young group who were jumping out of their skins to make an impression and they played really well. La Rochelle have a lot of depth, so whoever they bring they will have a good side.

“Our mindset has to be around us and how we perform. Hopefully, we will be a bit better than we were last week.”

Rennie has made five changes from last week, with dynamic loosehead prop Aki Seiuli making his first start for the club since joining from New Zealand Super Rugby outfit Highlanders at the start of the season.

Ali Price returns at scrum-half, with George Horne on the bench, while a new midfield pairing of Stafford McDowall and Huw Jones will play inside Kyle Steyn, who comes in on the left wing.

“There’s good competition for places,” said Rennie. “We’ve made a change at nine, we’ve made a change at 13 – both those positions are very tight. Kyle Steyn was great off the bench last week so he gets a start. Aki has been excellent off the bench in both games he’s played so far – in that first game against Leinster I think he made 21 tackles and 22 carries or vice versa, so his work rate has been excellent.

“Stafford comes in – we’re resting Sam [Johnson]. Peter Horne got a head knock earlier in the week training and we’ve got a lot of time for Stafford. He’s a very good player, he’s a big lad, he’s got a good kicking game and we think this is a good fit for him.”

Glasgow are back in the mix after last week’s win but are still six points adrift of Pool 2 leaders Exeter Chiefs and are yet to score a winning bonus point, something which would be greatly appreciated this evening.

“Obviously getting five points is a key part of our thinking, but we need a quality performance and then hopefully the tries will look after themselves,” said the coach. “We reckon we will have to roll Exeter. We need to win this week, beat Exeter and then do the same with Sale to have a strong chance of getting through.

“I think three of the pools have a couple of teams who are standing out. With Saracens not really participating this year that pool is a lot softer. The focus for us is trying to win the pool.”