'We can't spend £400,000 on a decent-level Super Rugby player. To me, that's crazy'
The departure of Jason O’Halloran will not be mourned in Glasgow as long and loud as those of Finn Russell, Stuart Hogg or Jonny Gray, nor will his legacy be debated and scrutinised in the years to come as Dave Rennie’s has been already, yet the attack coach has played a critical role in driving the Scottish game forwards.
Intelligent and affable, O’Halloran is a fascinating rugby man. The former All Black revolutionised Scotland’s attack under Vern Cotter and with Rennie, added extra gears to an already potent Glasgow squad. He helped polish a cohort of tremendous young players, pushed hard for a fairer approach to Scotland’s academy system and famously delivered a frank indictment of how the Scottish setup lagged decades behind New Zealand in sports psychology and mental preparation.
With Rennie’s exit for Australia, he too is leaving, taking up an assistant coach role with Suntory Sungoliath. And in reflecting on four-and-a-half years in Scotland, he sheds light on a predicament facing Glasgow amid their need for new blood, a predicament causing mounting disquiet among the club’s fans.
It is a simple fact that Glasgow cannot cling on to the Hoggs and Russells and Grays forever, but it is the dearth of prime cattle coming the other way that has supporters fretting.
“Everyone bemoans the fact that we lose a lot of quality players like Hoggy, Finn and Jonny,” O’Halloran tells RugbyPass. “A lot of people want us to throw all that money back at two other massive names – you’ve got to reinvest in your squad.
“Young guys that have become more successful can’t be kept for £50,000-60,000 anymore. You have to keep paying them more as they develop and that eats up a lot of cash.
“And are you going to shell out £300,000-400,000 for a slightly-better-than-mediocre Super Rugby player, or are you going to continue to develop young guys? That’s better for Scotland as well.”
If, for instance, Glasgow have a burgeoning Adam Hastings hungry and good enough to make the jersey his own with Russell gone, then that’s great. But it isn’t always the case. This season, Rennie had to make do and mend at full-back, shifting Tommy Seymour across from the wing, using Ruaridh Jackson or Glenn Bryce to fill a gaping Hogg-shaped void.
Glasgow cannot sign another Hogg. And realistically, the Jacksons and Seymours are bridging a gap until the next youngster – very likely Rufus McLean or Ollie Smith – is ready to be bled into the team.
But Warriors have powered themselves to such a height – semi-finals and finals, Champions Cup knock-out appearances, a relentlessly sold-out Scotstoun – that spells in transition lead to anxiety. If the kids aren’t ready, Glasgow need to recruit. But in the pre-coronavirus market, how could they justify forking out vast sums for players who aren’t masses better than what they already have? And if they can’t or won’t pay those wages, how do they get substantially better?
“You’ve got to identify two or three key positions you need to bolster and be prepared to spend some money there and then understand where that money is coming from, so you might to give a little bit in one area to get some in another,” O’Halloran says.
“There was talk that Alex Goode might be available at one stage and I thought a guy like that would be ideal. If you look at anyone back in Super Rugby that’s competent at full-back, they want £300,000-400,000.
“A couple of years ago, we looked at Matt Proctor, who is a good utility back, he got a Test for the All Blacks, and they wanted £350,000-380,000 for him. That’s mad. It’s a criminal amount of money. And he got it and then some at Northampton Saints.
“We can’t spend £400,000 on a decent-level Super Rugby player. To me, that’s crazy. Is he that much better than a Nick Grigg that you’re going to splash out that much money on them? That’s a big conundrum. At what stage do you go, yeah, we’re prepared to spend £400,000 on this guy because he’s that much better than what we have?”
Glasgow could do with a real juggernaut at blind-side or number eight, dependable cover at half-back, and a flourish of quality in the second-row.
Leone Nakarawa might yet deliver that stardust, as he comes to the end of his brief but spectacular second spell at the club. The Fijian colossus is one of the most coveted players in the game and while they can’t pay him top dollar, he feels cherished and happy in the city, especially after his acrimonious exit from Racing 92.
As he left for Australia, Rennie said that Danny Wilson, his successor, would soon be unveiling new signings. What Glasgow and their fans would give for Nakarawa to be among them.
“I’m pretty assured that they are definitely trying to keep him,” O’Halloran says. “In a nutshell, right, when Leone arrived in January, I think we were 11th for off-loads in the Pro14. Five games later, we were first – and first by a mile.
“I know Leone throws the odd loose one, but all of a sudden, guys are thinking about moving the ball in the tackle straight away. The biggest thing about him is he brings confidence to people around him. His first touch for us away to Sale was a try. Our off-load numbers went up, but our off-load accuracy was always above 80%, and that’s a key threshold for us.
“Leone is an unbelievable athlete and you can play him at 6, 8 or lock. He’s a great line-out forward as well. He’s an important cog to try and retain for sure, and he loves being in Glasgow. You’d like to think a quality Fijian international like that might attract other Fijians. If he can stay fit, he can still have a massive impact.”
While he could not deliver a trophy, Rennie’s legacy will endure in the young men he nurtured and developed into exhilarating players, individuals who still have a lot of growing to do but are already among the top operators in the Pro14. Hastings is the most striking example of sustained and excellent improvement, but George Horne, Matt and Zander Fagerson, and Scott Cummings have all made massive strides. O’Halloran is seriously excited about Bruce Flockhart, the hulking number eight, and Tom Gordon, the effervescent open-side who was involved in Scotland’s Six Nations training squad.
Rennie also advocated robustly for change to the national academies that could benefit Glasgow in the years ahead. He felt that Edinburgh’s proliferation of storied, rugby-playing private schools gave the professional team unfair access to a heap of emerging talent.
Glasgow signed Jamie Dobie straight from Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School in the summer, and already, the teenage scrum-half looks to be a mighty prospect.
“Dave was instrumental in trying to change Scottish Rugby’s mindset towards the academies,” O’Halloran says. “Pretty much all of the quality players go down to Merchiston or whichever big Edinburgh school and come under Edinburgh’s umbrella.
“We were trying to promote the fact that it should be a contestable process, so we can approach anybody in the country and offer them an opportunity at Glasgow and in doing that, create competition, so Edinburgh have to show up on their soil and do their job better, and that makes both entities better.
“I don’t think you should be able to sit back and rake in all this talent because it just happens to be going to school near you, especially when some of those kids are from the Glasgow area but have moved to Edinburgh. A lot of things need to go on in that regard.
“The best way to circumvent the lack of cash is to have quality academies. That’s where Leinster are better than anybody else – their academy is friggin’ outstanding, they keep pumping out quality guys time and time and time again. I hope Scotland continues to pursue an academy system that’s contestable.”
O’Halloran worries too that Scottish Rugby is failing to harness a slew of fine young players in the Borders, the legendary old heartland of the game where there has not been a professional team since 2007.
The Borders have bestowed upon Scotland so many titans, from Jim Telfer to Gary Armstrong, and more recently, Darcy Graham, Greig Laidlaw, Ross Ford, Rory Sutherland and Hogg. The region can be hampered by town rivalries and parochialism, but perhaps there is something intangible in the Borders psyche that makes for especially ferocious combatants.
“I feel like the Borders is still an area that is under-utilised,” O’Halloran says. “There are some quality kids down there.
“I know it can be an insular area where they don’t like their kids to leave the Borders, but you look at Hoggy, Greig, Rory Sutherland, there are some real quality competitors that come out of the Borders and I can’t help but think there are a few gold nuggets down there that are just left unvarnished.
“Maybe Scottish Rugby should be doing a better job at identifying and showing those guys a pathway and making them realise that’s it not going to be like moving to Mars to move to Edinburgh or Glasgow from the Borders. Some of the best talent I’ve been involved with in my time in Scotland comes out of the Borders.”
In a few weeks, O’Halloran will fly home to New Zealand where his family are waiting, and ultimately, at some point, whenever coronavirus restrictions allow, on to Japan. There will be no great fanfare for him, but his guile, insight and honesty will be sorely missed.
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments