Six Nations: Gregor Townsend to replace Sean Lineen at Glasgow in SRU reshuffle

IN A MOVE that will surprise no-one in particular, Gregor Townsend is set to be dropped from Andy Robinson’s Scotland management team at the end of the Six Nations. But, in a move that will provoke heated debate across the country, he will be handed the reins as head coach of Glasgow Warriors from the start of next season, replacing Sean Lineen.

Townsend’s role as the attack coach with the national squad looked under threat the moment Robinson signed up Scott Johnson as “senior assistant coach” in December 2011, although the former Scotland stand-off denied at the time that he would be making way for the controversial Australian. Those words ring a little hollow now but Townsend has landed on his feet with the plum job of heading up Scotland’s leading pro team.

His lack of experience always counted against him at the highest level, having been plucked from Bill Gammell’s Winning Scotland Foundation by then Scotland coach Frank Hadden back in 2009 and retained on a full-time basis by Robinson. Parallels with the equally inexperienced former England coach Martin Johnson were inevitable but while Johnson remains out in the cold, Townsend has been given a second chance to re-launch his coaching career at Glasgow where he will be assisted by Scotland’s new defence coach Matt Taylor. The current Queensland Reds defence expert knows Townsend from their time together at the Borders and Taylor will divide his time between Glasgow and the national squad. Shade Munro is expected to continue as forwards coach for the pro team.

The decision makers behind this move are the SRU’s performance director Graham Lowe and national coach Robinson, who have never wavered in their belief that Townsend has what it takes to become a first-class coach. However, in offering him the chance to grow into that role at Glasgow, the pair may just have handed Townsend’s critics a stick to beat him with all the harder.

He has little or no room for the errors that traditionally accompany a debut at the sharp end of the coaching business, with a largely hostile media scrutinising his every move on a weekly if not daily basis. Currently lying fourth in RaboDirect Pro12, there is limited scope for a new coach to improve Glasgow’s league performance very significantly, especially when Munster and Leinster are expected to fill two of the four playoff places. So Townsend’s main focus may lie in Europe where Lineen has failed to take his side beyond the pool stages of the Heineken Cup since 2005.

The Kiwi has been head coach at Glasgow for almost seven years, after spending his first two seasons as assistant to Hugh Campbell, making him the longest serving coach in the Pro12, formerly the Magners League. He is understood to be in discussions with Murrayfield about other roles that he could fill, with both sides said to be optimistic that an agreement can be thrashed out.

He is undoubtedly a better coach now than when he started, having made most of the mistakes that are awaiting Townsend, but Lineen has occasionally attracted criticism for his man management over the years. He has failed to get the best from the likes of Johnnie Beattie who is now expected to follow fellow internationals Richie Vernon and Richie Gray out of the club. Lineen recently fell out with one veteran forward who was told his services were no longer required several months after the player thought he had been promised a new contract.

Against that, Lineen has undoubtedly been a good judge of talent, identifying and signing the Evans brothers and the Lamont brothers (twice) and backing current Scotland stars like Stuart Hogg by giving the full-back an early opportunity to show what he could do. After years of appalling under-performance, Lineen has also turned Glasgow into a gritty and determined side that play somewhere close to their potential more often than not and are hellish difficult to beat on their own turf.

With the obvious exception of last season’s horror show, Lineen has dragged Glasgow into mid-table respectability mixed with an occasional ability to muscle in on the big boys at the top of the ladder. His team reached the play-offs two years ago, losing out to eventual winners the Ospreys in the semi-final, and they are well-placed to challenge for another semi-final slot with three of their remaining five league games at home and two of the five against the league’s bottom feeders. Glasgow have lost just four league matches all season, the same number of Pro12 games that Edinburgh have won.

Most significantly, the club is moving to Scotstoun, to play as well as train, and with the new regime in Murrayfield far more supportive of the pro teams, the club has some exciting new arrivals like Tongan No.8 Viliami Ma’afu, Sean Lamont and lock Tom Swinston who will go some way towards filling the sizable hole left by Gray’s departure.

While his critics will carp that Townsend is as good at squeezing another lucrative contract out of the SRU as he once was at squeezing through a gap in the opposition defence, at least, with a very competitive group of players at his disposal, any arguments about his coaching abilities will finally be put to bed one way or another; it is sink or swim for the Gala man now. There can be no hiding behind Robinson’s skirts at Glasgow and next season should answer a lot of questions.

These are undoubtedly exciting times for Glasgow although the club will now face them with a new and inexperienced coach at the helm.