Horne rues not giving Townsend a proper leaving gift
Glasgow centre Peter Horne admits the warriors have failed to give departing head coach gregor Townsend the send-off he deserves.
Horne, whose career only took off at scotstoun when Townsend took over from sean lineen, would have loved for the scotland legend to step down after a guinness Pro12 Final victory, rather than the last match of the regulation season against Edinburgh at scotstoun on saturday night.
But with glasgow’s play-off hopes long since gone following an indifferent league campaign, they will only be playing for bragging rights over their east-coast rivals when the curtain comes down on Townsend’s time in charge.
‘It’s just disappointing that we don’t have a Pro12 semi at least to look forward to and send him off on a high,’ said Horne. ‘That doesn’t mean it’s been a disaster of a season or anything, but it’s not where we want to be.
‘we have done well in Europe and have still had some good wins and things but, overall, we have under-performed.
‘we haven’t done ourselves justice. with the squad we have, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t gutted that we’re not going to a Pro12 semi-final at least.
‘It feels a bit like the end of an era with the coaches all moving on, and there has been a bit of a turnover among the players over the past couple of years.
‘out of respect for the guys moving on, we want to finish with a win over Edinburgh in front of our own fans in our final game.’
It was announced last august — just one month into the new season — that Townsend would be leaving glasgow to take over the scotland job this summer.
Horne denies that the mentality of the squad was negatively affected by the knowledge that the head coach was moving on.
‘To be honest, I don’t really think it has made a difference as we’ve not spoken much about it,’ said the 27-year-old. ‘gregor and all the coaches have played that factor down quite a lot.
‘we have been focused all season and I’m sure that, once we get this Edinburgh game out of the way, there will be an emotional farewell after the match, which is understandable as gregor’s record with glasgow speaks for itself.
‘we’ve gone from having 1,000 people at Firhill, if we’re lucky, to selling out scotstoun every week. The brand of rugby we’re playing means that gregor was always getting tipped for all sorts of jobs, which is testament to his dedication to training and preparing us.
‘we’ve moved from being a bit-part club to one that expects to go out and win every game we play now.’
although he was signed by lineen, it took Townsend’s arrival at scotstoun for Horne’s career to flourish. The warriors head coach saw something of himself in Horne (right), who is an attack-minded, ball-carrying centre who was equally as comfortable at fly-half.
‘Under sean, I did not play all that much, it was more under gregor that I kicked on,’ said the
“I am gutted we’re not in semi-finals”
man who started his career with Howe of Fife. ‘I played nearly all of the 20 games in what was Gregor’s first season.
‘The no 12s who had come before me were Graeme Morrison and Andy Henderson — big, physical ball-carriers. When I came into the team under Sean, I was trying to do their role but was not nearly as good at it.
‘Under Gregor, the game plan changed and we were trying to get a lot more from our outside backs by sticking me in the middle. I was suited to a lot of the game plans he played over the years, especially in attack.
‘He made sure that, although the passing and things that I like to do were fine, I was also working really hard on my defence, as well.
‘Certainly everything changed under him. The first year he came in, we went from running around looking for fitness to everything being game-related.
‘It was about making sure the skill levels in the whole squad were coming up. Tight-head, loose-head, everyone was passing the ball and we were making sure that we could all play, off-load and pass.
‘Under Gregor, we have added a whole lot of different levels to our attack and it is great fun to be a part of it.’ The 23-times capped Scotland international hopes to stay in regular contact with Townsend in his new role as Scotland coach. Although Dave Rennie will be his new boss at Warriors next season, he still expects the man who did so much for his career to remain in regular contact. ‘I still go through my games with Gregor most weeks just to make sure I am on the same wavelength,’ he said. ‘I am trying to learn all the time and he is great at making time for you. even though Gregor is not going to be here every day, I am sure there is going to be a lot of good feedback still from him.’