Glasgow Warriors deserve more support from Scottish Rugby, on the pitch and off

When Scotland beat England comprehensively in the Six Nations 10 weeks ago they did so with a team made in Glasgow.

The Warriors supplied six forwards and four backs to the starting XV on a memorable Murrayfield evening as the Scots won the Calcutta Cup for the fifth time in six years.

Scotland’s mastery of this fixture under Gregor Townsend has been a joy but the national coach owes a debt of gratitude to Franco Smith, the man who will likely replace him when he steps away after next year’s Rugby World Cup.

Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith deserves more backing from Murrayfield. | SNS Group

Smith has rejuvenated Glasgow over the past four years and Scotland have been the beneficiaries. Across this season’s Six Nations, Townsend’s starting side comprised, on average, nine Glasgow players, two from Edinburgh and four exiles. Smith’s players make up 60 per cent of the national team.

Glasgow are struggling

Add in the high representation of Warriors on the bench and in the wider squad and it’s not hard to see how important the Scotstoun club is to the national side’s fortunes. But now it’s time for a bit of payback, for Murrayfield to step up.

Glasgow are struggling currently. They have lost three games in a row, a sequence that has seen them eliminated from the European Champions Cup and knocked off top spot in the United Rugby Championship.

They remain very much in contention in the latter but the bigger picture is that there are cracks emerging and it is incumbent on Scottish Rugby to help out.

Injuries are part and parcel of rugby but the loss of Scott Cummings, Gregor Brown and Jamie Dobie to ailments sustained while on Scotland duty has deprived Glasgow of some of their best players. Fatigue also plays a part. With one fewer rest week, the Six Nations is more demanding than ever. Players are being asked to play five of the most intense matches of their careers in a six-week window in mid-season before returning to domestic duties.

Gregor Brown, centre, was injured during Scotland's win over France in the Guinness Six Nations at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on March 7. He has not played since. | SNS Group

“We're in week 22 [of Glasgow’s season] and if you add the nine international games that they've played and if you link the Lions tour and the summer tour with that, it is a massive ask of the players,” Smith said at the weekend.

It is unlikely Glasgow will be able to augment their squad for the URC play-offs but Scottish Rugby can help in the longer term by ensuring the club replaces those due to leave at the end of the season with players of similar quality.

Six international players to leave

As things stand, six of the club’s internationals are going and more could follow. It was the same last season when experienced pros such as Tom Jordan, Sebastián Cancelliere, Jack Mann, JP du Preez and Henco Venter all moved on.

That was a source of frustration for Smith who was unable to replace them with players of the same pedigree. He has been largely forced to look to the club’s academy for replacements and has done so admirably this season, blooding the likes of Kerr Yule, Fergus Watson, Johnny Ventisei and, most recently, Ryan Burke.

This summer, the haemorrhaging of talent will be more acute. Jack Dempsey, Huw Jones, Adam Hastings, Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews and Sione Vailanu are heading to pastures new but how much cash for replacements is there in the Murrayfield coffers?

The union has posted losses three years in a row - a combined total of £25 million - but there are signs that the ship is being steadied under Alex Williamson and John McGuigan, CEO and chair respectively. Nevertheless, there’s little indication that Murrayfield money is being funnelled into a Glasgow rebuilding project.

Edinburgh announced the arrival of three new backs last week, much needed after a grim season. The capture of Hurricanes centre Riley Higgins was particularly eye-catching, a statement signing for Sean Everitt and one that would not have come cheap.

Time for Williamson to loosen the purse strings

Will Glasgow be able to do likewise? So far, the only new arrival made public has been Ruwald van der Merwe, a little known back-row forward who plays for the Pumas in South Africa. The acquisition of Bayley Kuenzle, a versatile Australian back who plays in Super Rugby for the Force, is likely to be announced imminently but more is required.

Time for Williamson to loosen the purse strings, and time for performance director David Nucifora to help out.

Huw Jones and Adam Hastings will both say farewell to Glasgow Warriors at the end of the season as they head to France. | SNS Group / SRU

Glasgow, of course, are victims of their own success. The better they do, the more valuable their players become, leaving the club susceptible to rich predators from France, Japan and England who dangle lucrative contracts in front of the Warriors’ star performers.

There is still much to play for: Glasgow remain on course for a home quarter-final in the URC, and maybe even a semi at Murrayfield should they progress. But the news that there appears no stadium in Scotland capable of hosting the URC final in the event of the Warriors getting there as top seeds reflects poorly on Scottish Rugby.

Murrayfield will be off limits by then, turned into a concert venue for country singers Zach Bryan and Luke Combs. Such gigs have been a source of valuable income for the governing body but the URC final date has been in the diary for long enough

In Scotland’s two-club ecosystem the governing body has to be evenhanded but Glasgow have outperformed Edinburgh in every season since Smith took over in 2022. They deserve better.