Dunbar: I’m happy to stay at Warriors
Scotland centre Alex Dunbar admitted there was interest from elsewhere but that it was an easy decision to sign a twoyear contract extension with Glasgow Warriors that will keep him at the club until May 2019.
The 26-year-old is currently in camp with the national squad ahead of the Six Nations, which begins on Saturday with the visit of Ireland to BT Murrayfield, but he has moved to settle his future and is looking forward to pushing on with Glasgow under new Kiwi coach Dave Rennie over the next two seasons.
“There was interest but I am happy with my decision to stay,” said the Dumfriesshire man at Scotland’s Oriam training base in Edinburgh yesterday.
“I am looking forward to getting through the Six Nations and getting back into it. We have the European quarter-final to look forward to in April. I am looking forward to doing something special with Glasgow.
“We are playing well just now. We have a very settled squad and a lot of young boys coming through so for me it was an easy decision in the end.”
A product of Annan RFC, Dunbar has come up through the Glasgow system from under-14 level, with a spell at Selkirk before he made his
Warriors debut in 2009. The centre is fully focused on winning selection for Saturday and adding to his 19 caps in what is one of the most competitive areas of the team, but looked ahead to what he views as a bright future at Scotstoun, with New Zealander Rennie taking over in the summer as Gregor Townsend moves on to the Scotland job.
“It will be good with Dave coming in with [backs coach] Jason [O’halloran] and Humphs [forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys] coming across.
“They’ll push us on. And the way the squad is playing just now is a massive factor in it.
“I think it’s a great place to be and a great squad that can keep developing.
“It’s great to have everything sorted for the next two years and I’m looking forward to getting into the Six Nations now.”
Dunbar, who is back as a regular for club and country after some lengthy injury
problems which saw him miss the World Cup, said he’d never really harboured any thoughts about trying new pastures.
“For me I was just focused on playing rugby,” he said. “It was disappointing to miss so much of last year and a bit through injury.
“I just wanted to enjoy my rugby, get back to playing regularly again.
“I think we’ve got a very ambitious squad, with areas for us to improve even more.
“For us as a squad how much we are enjoying it is a big factor. We can take it to the next level.”
Dunbar is now relishing the battle with Ireland, having got a taste for what is to come with some fearsome clashes with Munster in Europe this term. The centre is hoping for a better outcome than those defeats, though.
“It was a couple of gruelling games we played against [Munster],” he said. “We are going to have to go even higher than that. They have a lot of great players who are playing well. We have to impose themselves on them.
“Ireland are a great side. We need to get our preparation right and focus on that first half of the game. Hopefully we can get a good start and build on it.
“[Having Ireland first this time] means the boys will be a bit fresher after the past week but we know how tough a challenge it’s going to be.
“They are obviously right up there [with the favourites]. A great squad with a lot of experience in there. We just need to focus on our goals, get our set-up right and hopefully get into the game early.”