Smith agrees Warriors terms but compensation is yet to be finalised

GLASGOW WARRIORS have agreed personal terms with South African Franco Smith to take over as head coach at Scotstoun — but have yet to agree a compensation package with the Italian Rugby Federation for his services. Smith, 49, who was first linked to the job by Sportsmail, impressed at his interview and has now been earmarked to succeed the sacked Danny Wilson.

The only remaining stumbling block is whether the SRU will stump up the cash to the Italian Rugby Federation to buy out the final year of his contract as head of performance at Italian Rugby. Smith (right) is desperate for a deal to be done after he was moved upstairs following a string of poor results as head coach of the Azzurri, which saw him replaced by Kieran Crowley. A report in the Rugby Paper revealed that no agreement has yet been reached over the level of compensation to be paid. The SRU aren’t known for buying coaches out of their contracts. The governing body installed Scott Johnson as interim head coach of the Scotland team for a year in 2013 rather than spend money bringing in Vern Cotter straight away when he had 12 months left to run on his deal at Clermont. It is not known how much the SRU would have to fork out to get Smith, who is a former coach of Italian club Treviso and the Cheetahs in his native South Africa.