Townsend and Cockerill now on Dodson’s radar
CONTRACT EXTENSION PRIORITY FOR TOWNSEND AND COCKERILL
SRU chief executive Mark Dodson is to open contract extension talks with both Gregor Townsend and Richard Cockerill.
The Scotland head coach and his Edinburgh counterpart are coming up to the last 12 months of their current deals, with Dodson keen to keep hold of them despite the current financial crisis the union finds itself in due to the coronavirus lockdown.
‘The guys have contracts until the summer of 2021 and it’s our intention to keep them both inside the Scottish rugby family,’ he said. ‘We’ll have the proper conversation at the appropriate time but they both know how much they are loved and we’ll tell you when we have to.’
Townsend’s standing was at an all-time low when Scotland crashed out of the World Cup at the group stage last October.
But he has redeemed himself since then with good Six Nations wins over France and Italy and narrow losses to England and Ireland. The Scots have one final Six Nations game to play, against Wales in Cardiff, which has been pencilled in for Saturday, August 31.
Cockerill, meanwhile, has taken his Edinburgh side to the top of Conference B in the Pro14 this season and transformed a club that was in the doldrums when he took over three years ago.
The Englishman has been on the radar of other clubs for a while, with a bid by Gloucester to buy him out of the final year of his Edinburgh contract being abandoned at the eleventh hour.
Dodson, whose first priority is to guide the SRU through the coronavirus crisis before contract talks begin, said: ‘We are in constant contact with them both and I speak to them two or three times a week.
‘There was a connection with Richard going to Gloucester in the papers but you could name teams like Montpellier, Clermont, Lyon, Harlequins. We have coaches here that, whenever there is a vacancy, those guys will be mentioned. We’re keen to keep them to build on the success they’ve had.’
On the playing side, Dodson reassured fans of Glasgow Warriors that more new players would be arriving at the club after concern over a lack of new faces since Danny Wilson took over from Dave Rennie.
Second row Richie Gray has returned from Toulouse, while prop Enrique Pieretto has joined from Exeter Chiefs. Edinburgh may have made just two more signings but have a deeper, more experienced squad than Glasgow.
‘Danny Wilson has taken over from Dave Rennie at Glasgow and wants to be involved in signings,’ said Dodson. ‘I think you’ll see some announcements coming in the next wee while.
At Edinburgh, Richard Cockerill is in his third season now and knows what he wants to do so any difference is an accident of timing.’
Dodson made clear earlier in the week that cuts and possible redundancies were on the cards within the governing body after a ‘revenue crisis’ had left them struggling for cash.
‘We’ve had sustained growth for over 10 years but we’ve now had a revenue crisis in the same way that every other business and every other union has had,’ he added.
‘We have to adapt our tactics to make sure we can get through this period safely and keep the whole game in shape.
‘It’s not just the professional game. We’re not only a commercial business where we have to keep our pro-teams and our international team competitive, we’ve got a responsibility as a governing body to the whole domestic scene, clubland and youth sport across Scotland.
‘That’s a pretty difficult balancing act at times but what we’re going to have to do is look at our business, and reset it. We’ve got a four-point plan: respond to the crisis, reset, recover and rebuild.
‘We intend to go back and grow the business again once all this is over, but you can’t have just a growth strategy. There will be periods in any kind of business where you’ll hit recession or some kind of problem in your sector.
‘I’ve worked in businesses that have been massively successful, but there also has been real problems like the press have got at the moment. I’ve been there and understand what it takes to get the organisation back on an even keel and then drive it forward again.
‘It’s happened before, it will happen again, and we will have to change our posture but we won’t change it for long.
‘Once we’re through this, we’re going to start to grow our business again because that’s how we pay for everything.’