Franco Smith sheds light on 'good conversations' with RFU over England role

Glasgow head coach Franco Smith has revealed he held talks about a potential role within the England set-up and confirmed he had approaches from Wales, Leicester and the Bulls before deciding to extend his Warriors contract until 2028.

The South African, who won the URC title last year in only his second season with Glasgow, was much in demand with both Wales – before they appointed Steve Tandy to replace Warren Gatland on a permanent basis – and Leicester, who eventually appointed Geoff Parling as Michael Cheika’s successor, sounding him out.

A return to the Bulls, where he spent several years during his player career, to replace the departed Jake White was also an enticing possibility before the Pretoria franchise appointed Johan Ackermann in July.

More intriguingly, as he pondered his future after venting his frustrations at Glasgow towards the end of last season, Smith also spoke to the RFU’s executive director of performance rugby, Conor O’Shea, who he succeeded as Italy head coach before moving into a high performance role with the Azzurri prior to joining Warriors in 2022.

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“There was a number [of approaches],” Smith explained as he outlined his reasons for staying with Glasgow. “You know about Leicester, you know about Wales. I had a brief chat with England and then obviously the Bulls. There’s been conversations and that was more or less it.”

Asked to expand on the nature of his talks with England, Smith refused to be drawn on the specifics of the role under discussion, but insisted it did not involve England head coach Steve Borthwick or a possible performance director-type post.

“In accordance to what we agreed on back then, I’m not going to say much about it. We had some good conversations,” he said.

“It had nothing to do with the head coach at all there. It was a completely different role. That’s why we didn’t make much of it.

“I obviously know Conor [O’Shea] well. I took over from him at Italy. I wouldn’t go down that track now anymore.

“I think the fact that both parties kept it under the radar, I’m really proud of. It’s not relevant anymore, so I’m just going to stop there.”

Despite rebuffing interest from both Wales and England, Smith, 53, admitted he would still be keen to return to international coaching at some point, despite committing his future to Glasgow until the end of the 2027-28 season.

“Of course. I think any club would want somebody with aspiration,” he said. “Sometimes it can be misinterpreted that that’s the only thing left for me to do. Yes, I would love to have another go. I think it stays any coach’s dream, but not to the detriment of sacrificing what I’m currently busy with.

“Maybe there’s more experience to gain from my side and I’m going to keep on working hard. But yes, I think a club should be proud if the coach has that ambition, not to settle for the ordinary and try to push the limits and become the best version of themselves.

“Hopefully, that will be to the benefit of the people he works with from a coaching perspective and from a player perspective if one wants to coach internationally. I’ve done it before and I would love to have another go at it.”

Scottish Rugby’s de facto performance director David Nucifora hinted on Wednesday that Smith would be a strong candidate to succeed Gregor Townsend as Scotland head coach, with Townsend “more than likely” to move on after the 2027 World Cup.

Smith admitted the appeal of such a scenario but insisted he has received “no formal commitment” or assurances about the prospect of that scenario playing out.

“Of course, but it mustn’t be taken out of context,” he said. “The reason I’m staying here [at Glasgow] has nothing to do with that only. It’s not the reason I’m staying here. That can be an outcome for the Scottish Rugby administration if they decide to use me.

“Obviously, I just want to be the best version of myself, but also this team too and use all the challenges and everything to gain more experience. Yes, Scotland is obviously an international team, I know the players well. But that is not the main objective. I’m here to learn and to get better.

“There was no formal commitment from anybody. We’re just talking about the next job here at the Warriors.”

Smith maintained that despite the approaches he received from other quarters, he was always committed to seeing out the final year of his previous deal, until the end of the forthcoming season, even before signing a two-year extension.

His frustration at the end of last term, at having to release some of Warriors’ key foreign players such as Sebastian Cancelliere and Henco Venter amid a Scottish Rugby policy of recruiting more Scotland-qualified players, and work with a smaller squad this season, meant he requested time to reflect before committing himself further.

“The desire to win and still perform at the top end is important,” he added. “We don’t want to make players that can play for Scotland, we want to make winners for Scotland. I think that spilled over a little bit. It was tough because I was never not going to finish my contract in 2026. I think I was already being approached by them to stay longer. I wanted to give it some decent thought. I’ve taken a lot of things into account.”

“It comes to conversations and interest,” he added. “The biggest thing for me about this is I didn’t go looking for something. First of all, I was on contract. I think it was always going to be a question of how the Scottish Rugby Union had to make a decision on it.

“Contract opportunities come for two reasons. One, to understand what’s out there. Two, to remember what you have and to look a little bit at what your current situation is. So that is the influence. The reasons I would have left would not be the right reasons.

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“The reasons to stay were more important. To go and start over at another club, the Bulls, for example, I think is challenging. I’ve got so much belief in the squad here and so much belief in the players and their trust in me means a lot. That outweighed anything else that came my way at this stage.

“I think it’s the 21st pre-season that I’m busy with. You come to a point in your career where, obviously, you want to drive that excellence, but you also want to be on the ship that you’ve built a little bit. I think that’s basically the way I saw it.

“I’m grateful for everybody in this building that works so hard. The players that buy into what we try to do, that led to people being interested. It’s not just my own doing.

“I’m appreciative of that. Therefore, after having made the decision, I felt it was never going to be a case of leaving Scotland early out of my contract. Maybe beyond 2026.

“The challenges that lie ahead are big. Hopefully, we can keep on growing. In all the other approaches, it was obvious that I think there’s more to come from this group, and I’m a fighter. I’m built to fight against the odds. I came here fighting the odds.

“That’s never changed. We’re going to keep on working hard, keep standards high and keep on rolling out the best product. If we don’t win everything, we will fight to win everything.

“We’ll keep on with that approach and hopefully, regardless of results, continue to be significant and to create players that can perform over a longer period for Scotland and influence the way Scottish rugby can develop going forward.”