Tommy Seymour extends his Glasgow love affair with new one-year deal

Tommy Seymour is now set to complete at least a full decade as a Glasgow Warriors player, having signed a one-year contract extension. Picture: Ross MacDonald/SNS/SRU

The 31-year-old, who last week announced his retirement from Test rugby after winning 55 Scotland caps, is now set to complete at least a full decade as a Warriors player, having signed a one-year contract extension which will tie him to Scotstoun until the summer of 2021.

While the decisions to stay with Glasgow but end his international involvement were not made in tandem, Seymour is happy that he can now focus all his playing energies on the one team – and, just as importantly, that he will have some more time to devote to his young family.

“I’m obviously very happy to get it across the line,” Seymour, who signed from Ulster in 2011, said of the contract extension, announced yesterday by Glasgow. “There were a lot of decisions to make. The ultimate one was that I’ve been here a long time and I love this club. The opportunity to stay here for what will be my tenth year in a place my wife and I love and our two kids were born – we’re incredibly happy.

“With the international stuff now behind me as well, I feel like I can give back to a club that has given me so much and be available for selection as much as possible.

“I tend to try and keep my personal life quite private. Over the last few years there have been a few things going on, but I have a young family now,” continued Seymour, who has a son aged two and a daughter aged five months.

“I’ve loved every single minute I’ve spent in an international shirt, but my priorities now are to see as much as I possibly can of my two young children and try to be the best father and husband.

“My wife has been an absolute trooper and I’m very lucky to have family in Northern Ireland who have been pretty much at beck and call.”

Some minutes in an international shirt have been less happy than others, of course, and Seymour was one of those Scotland players who were most visibly distraught after the team’s elimination from the World Cup by Japan.

“There was a lot of emotion for me at the end of the Japan game for various reasons,” he explained. “One of them certainly was that, in my own head, I knew that was the last time I’d pull on a Scotland shirt.

“The opportunities I’ve had with the national side are some of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It really has been a dream come true and it’s given me so much.

“To know in the back of your head that you’re never going to experience such a wonderful thing again, it’s obviously very emotional.

“But the decision had long been made. The reasons behind it weren’t all so much to do with the actual rugby. That’s why my mind was never going to be changed.

“With the international stuff, in due course I’ll maybe speak more openly about it all. But for me it was a decision which was made quite a long time ago.

“It wasn’t so much a joint decision, in terms of whether to stay here at Glasgow and whether to retire from Scotland. The retirement decision had already been made in my mind. Then, when the chance presented itself to stay here, I thought the two did work well in the end.”

l Glasgow forward Matt Fagerson faces a disciplinary hearing in London tomorrow as a result of his sending-off against La Rochelle last weekend, and could miss both of this month’s 1872 Cup matches if his red card is upheld.

The Warriors have yet to decide if they will appeal against the No 8’s dismissal.

Referee Wayne Barnes sent Fagerson off for striking French substitute Dany Priso with his arm as he carried the ball into contact.

The list of sanctions for the offence begins with a ‘low-end’ two-week ban.

Fagerson’s dismissal denied Glasgow at least a draw in the Champions Cup match, as Scott Cummings’ ‘try’, which ended the same passage of play and would have taken the score to 12-12 with a conversion to come, was consequently chalked off.