It was a challenge to keep up with the fast moving events surrounding Scottish rugby last week.

It was announced Gregor Townsend would succeed Vern Cotter as head coach of Scotland and just 24 hours later Dave Rennie was unveiled as the man who will take charge at of the Warriors at the start of next season.

Speaking in the Herald Gregor said: “It all happened very quickly. I was involved in the [Warriors] strip launch, then, one hour later, I was given the Scotland job. I had barely had time to digest that, when I was speaking to Dave Rennie about the succession at Glasgow.

“However, Glasgow will remain my No 1 priority this season. We have a huge season coming up and I want to leave a positive legacy for Dave to work with.

“I have known Dave for four or five years, over which we have kept in touch. I feel there is a great similarity in our approach to coaching, we both look for the same skills sets in players, the clubs have a similar culture in how we want to play rugby and Dave is a good fit for Glasgow.

“We will work together in player recruitment and so on, I expect he will be over here in November once the Super Rugby season is over and we will be working to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“Once it was announced I was leaving, the players opened a sweepstake as to my successor, and one of them guessed. They seem happy at the choice the SRU have made.”

Robert Harley, stand-in skipper in Saturday’s pre-season match against Harlequins, was happy with the way the week panned out. He told the Herald: “We take Gregor’s new appointment as a reflection on how well we as a squad have played. He has certainly built a Glasgow style, and fostered a great collective team spirit here.

“OK, today was our first outing, but, while we lost, we feel good about this season, and as one of the senior players, I was delighted at how well the new guys played today. Leonardo Sarto, we know, is an international winger, and he scored a great try, but, Lewis Wynne at number eight, who is an Academy player, put in a terrific shift, and the way he, and the other young players played against a very strong Harlequins, showed the depth of squad we now have. I am excited about Dave Rennie coming in and hopeful the squad will learn and continue to improve as it has under Gregor.”

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