Edinburgh must hire heavyweight coach

ALL the stops were pulled out to convince Dave Rennie — one of the world’s most sought-after club coaches — to become the next Glasgow Warriors boss.

Surely someone of similar stature now has to be appointed at Edinburgh Rugby.

Interim head coach Duncan Hodge obviously has great potential but he is not what the club need right now. Edinburgh require a top-class experienced man — someone like South African World Cupwinning coach Jake White — to get them out of the mess they’re in. Not a rookie.

Alan Solomons’ sacking last week was inevitable — and not before time.

That has put the focus firmly on the SRU to find the best possible successor and, because they jointly fund both Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two clubs have to be treated even-handedly.

In other words, you can’t have a situation where Rennie is in charge at Glasgow and Hodge at their rivals.

A look at their respective CVs shows why. Rennie led the New Zealand Under-20s to three World Cup triumphs before winning three Super Rugby titles with the Chiefs. He has worked with the best players in the game and has earned the respect of Sonny Bill Williams during their time working together at club level.

Hodge (below), by comparison, was kicking coach and then attack coach with Scotland and had a few months in temporary charge at Edinburgh alongside Stevie Scott a couple of years ago. He was appointed one of Solomons’ assistants at the start of last season but his introduction didn’t have a great effect, with the club finishing ninth in the league. Edinburgh sit tenth in the Guinness Pro12 table just above Treviso and Zebre. That’s an embarrassment for a team who have men like Willem Nel, John Hardie, Grant Gilchrist, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne and Ross Ford in their ranks.

It’s a given that Hodge will guide them to a home win over Treviso at Murrayfield tomorrow. But even if he manages to take them into the top six by the end of the season, that shouldn’t be enough to earn him the job full-time.

By all means keep him on as an assistant, but the boat has to be pushed out for a heavyweight like White who, conveniently, is leaving Montpellier next summer.

It’s not out of the question that White will come.

After all, who would have thought Rennie would sign a two-year deal with Glasgow?