Scotland hint at one clear candidate to succeed Gregor Townsend

Scottish Rugby performance director David Nucifora has hinted Glasgow boss Franco Smith will be a strong contender to succeed Gregor Townsend when the Scotland head coach’s new deal expires after the 2027 World Cup.

Townsend’s extension to his current deal, which was due to run out in April 2026, means his tenure in charge of the national side will extend beyond a decade, having initially taken charge in the summer of 2017.

Warriors head coach Smith had given strong indications towards the end of last season that he was keen on a return to Test rugby, having previously had two years in charge of Italy, and was linked with the Wales job before Steve Tandy’s appointment.

The South African, who guided Glasgow to the URC title in his second season at the club, also said he needed to reflect on his own future following their semi-final defeat by Leinster in June, having voiced his discontent at being unable to retain some of Warriors’ foreign contingent amid a union policy of recruiting more Scotland-qualified players.

While Nucifora insists there is no clear succession plan, persuading Smith to commit himself to Scottish rugby until at least the summer of 2028 suggests he will be in pole position for the top job if the union maintains its preference for continuity from within.

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“I’ve worked with head coaches a long time in lots of places and I’ve never met a head coach that doesn’t want more,” the Australian said. “That’s just normal practice, there’s nothing unusual about that. We’re building a system and Franco’s endorsement by signing his contract extension says he’s excited about working as part of this system.

“We’re here to support the two professional teams, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The system we’re building is not about making anything harder for them. We’re here to support and actually make it easier and better for them.

“With Franco, his emotion is one of his strengths. It drives the way he coaches, and that’s great. He wears his heart on his sleeve sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with that.

“You don’t get too flustered by things that happen in the moment. In my role, you need to step back and just watch things unfold and don’t get caught up in the emotion. Franco was fine. He was obviously disappointed, but he’s moving forward and we’re really excited that he’s going to be with us for quite a while longer.”

With regard to Townsend’s successor, Nucifora added: “We’ve got no clear plan mapped out. What I will say is that we’re really fortunate to have a coach of the calibre of Franco in the system for a year beyond the World Cup. So that’s a positive.”

Nucifora said he “couldn’t comment” on reports that Newcastle Red Bulls had approached Townsend about becoming their director of rugby, but that he was aware of “lots of interest in our coaches from a range of different places.”

“If you didn’t have quality coaches, then you wouldn’t have people approaching them,” he said, adding the union kept “a really firm grasp on the availability of coaches around the world”.

Former fly-half Townsend has twice led Scotland to their joint-best Six Nations finish of third, in 2018 and 2023, and achieved some notable drought-busting wins in London, Paris and Cardiff as well as four successive Calcutta Cup victories over England until a one-point defeat at Twickenham earlier this year.

But they have finished fourth in the Championship in five of the last six years and were knocked out in the pool stages at both the 2019 and 2023 World Cups, albeit after a devilishly tough draw at the latter.

While reaction to Townsend’s contract extension has been decidedly mixed amongst supporters, Nucifora maintains the 52-year-old remains the best man for the job.

“Sport is great, isn’t it?” he said. “It’s full of emotion. People base their views on emotional things. The glass is either half-full or half-empty. Our view of Gregor is that he’s got the continued level of enthusiasm and growth to be able to take this team forward. We’ve got the greatest confidence that he’s going to be able to do that.

“Whatever I say won’t change people’s opinions of what they think should happen. But we’ve got a lot of confidence in the decisions that have been made. We’ve made the right ones. Continuity and understanding what you’ve got is really important and should never be under-valued. We understand that with both Franco and Gregor and we think that Scottish rugby is going to benefit out of those decisions.

“I think Gregor’s a world-class coach, and he’s doing an excellent job with regards to how he’s running the team. And I think now that he’s in a situation where he’s got a team that is moving in the right direction with their experience, he’s got a high-performance support unit around him to be able to assist in the ongoing development of that team and that it all points in the right direction.”

Nucifora said Townsend’s continual drive for self-improvement, plus the experience gained by the Scotland players – and forwards coach John Dalziel – who toured with the British & Irish Lions to Australia this summer, would help the national side progress.

“Gregor’s a curious coach. He wants to find ways to evolve both himself personally but also to evolve the team. I think once you lose that drive and curiosity and search to improve, that’s when you know that head coaches have probably run their time and Gregor’s definitely not in that space. He’s as keen or keener than he’s ever been.”

As well as tying up Townsend and Smith, Nucifora indicated talks would continue over the coming weeks with Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt, whose current deal expires at the end of the forthcoming season, his third in the capital.

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“We’re not trying to pre-empt anything, so the conversation with Sean will be, ‘does he want to stay on?’ and we’ll assess how that’s going. But yeah, absolutely, those conversations will be happening.”

Nucifora’s own role, in a consultancy capacity, still has a year to run and he is also due to advise on the appointment of a permanent performance director, the job he held for 10 years with Ireland.

While that process has yet to begin, Scottish Rugby chief executive Alex Williamson indicated the union was “in no hurry to push David out of the door”.

“As I think I said at the time, I’m hoping that David will be involved in the longer term anyway even if that’s at a much lighter level, just to keep us on the rails,” he said.

One candidate for the role longer term could be former Scotland captain Al Kellock, who – in one of five new appointments to the union’s high-performance team – is leaving his role as managing director of Glasgow to become Scottish Rugby’s head of performance pathways across both the men’s and women’s game.

“Al and I have had a number of conversations,” Williamson added. “He’s ambitious, he really wants to be involved in high performance. I think if you were to ask him directly, he’d say he’d absolutely love the opportunity to be a performance director. We’re unafraid of that conversation. He’d also understand that he’s got a lot to learn.

“So when the time comes, wouldn’t it be fantastic to have someone who’s come through Scottish Rugby who would be positioned well in that role? But as I say, he’s got a lot to learn. We hope he can be part of that conversation, but we’ll see at the time.”