Set up by Bill Shankly when he took over as manager in 1959 it was where the backroom staff met up to bounce ideas off each other over tea and biscuits. After Shankly retired his successors from the boot room included Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran all of whom were promoted from within to the top job at Anfield.
SRU chief executive Alex Williamson has the Scotland men’s rugby equivalent of the Liverpool boot room in place with three experienced coaches in situ but needs to act now if he wants to keep his brains trust together.
For a man who is a handy 10K runner and who helped turn the Goodwood Festival of Speed into such a great success he is slow out of the blocks when it comes to ensuring the coaching continuity he so craves.
Gregor Townsend’s contract as Scotland head coach runs out next April. Franco Smith at Glasgow Warriors and Sean Everitt at Edinburgh are contracted till May. Performance director David Nucifora leaves in October.
The four most important coaches in Scottish rugby out of contract within six months of each other next year. That’s going to be some upheaval and big jobs to fill in 2026 unless Williamson gets them under new contracts soon.
He wants to keep Townsend, Smith and Everitt -Nucifora has made clear he is heading back to Australia- after their contracts end but is naive to think Townsend and Smith will automatically want to stay in their present roles.
Having all three coaches and the performance director -the most powerful man in Scottish rugby who marks the report card of the Scotland head coach- all out of contract the year ahead of the 2027 World Cup is not the best succession planning.
You would want a settled coaching set-up long before the tournament in Australia which is why Williamson needs to ensure contract extensions are in place as soon as possible.
Williamson talked openly and well during his first proper press conference since he officially took over as SRU chief executive five months ago but some of what he said rugby wise has to be challenged.
Being desperate to keep the status quo coaching wise to allow a new pathway system for young players put in place by Nucifora to bed in makes a bit of sense but there are flaws in such a safety first approach.
Coaches need to be challenged, kept on their toes and given the hope they can rise further up the coaching pyramid. I bet even Bob Paisley who became Liverpool’s most successful ever manager would have left the boot room and the Anfield club if he felt his career could only go so far if he stayed there.
Keep all three coaches by all means but leaving everybody in their same roles shows a lack of ambition and won’t sit well with some fans who have lost patience with Townsend after eight years in charge of the national team.
The perfect plan would be to move Townsend upstairs to replace Nucifora as performance director and switch Smith from Glasgow Warriors to Scotland. That would freshen things up.
Everitt would stay put at Edinburgh at least until his contract runs out next year and a new man -I would have Peter Horne who is currently a Scotland assistant head coach - would take over from Smith at Glasgow Warriors.
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What was alarming was that when asked whether he had given any thought of moving Townsend upstairs to be the new performance director or giving the job to Smith he replied : "I haven't actually given that any thought.”
Really? He must be the only one. It makes sense to give the job to one of them. That would be evolution rather than revolution which is what Williamson wants.
Townsend would be the best person to take the job as performance director as he is immersed in Scottish rugby. Such a switch has happened before. Scotland rugby legend Jim Telfer moved upstairs to be Director of Rugby after being Scotland head coach.
Whether Townsend fancies a less hands-on role remains to be seen and he may ask Williamson, who seems open to the idea, for a contract extension to take him through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
If he doesn’t appoint the new performance director from within then he is going to struggle to get an adequate replacement for Nucifora as not many people of repute would want the job based on the restrictions that would be placed on them when it comes to implementing the new pathway system already put in place by Nucifora.
“David (Nucifora) is going in a relatively short time frame, some time towards the end of next year so the key hire is going to be a performance director who is willing to stick to the plan,’’said Williamson. "We cannot afford to bring a performance director in who’s then going to basically say,‘I don’t really like that plan we’ll do another one.’
“We can’t do that. We have to steadfastly stick to that so my preoccupation in many respects is making sure that we are absolutely aligned on sticking to the plan because I think it will make a massive difference in the long term.”
Sounds like Williamson wants someone who will be a glorified yes man who won’t question the pathway system he inherits and won’t rock the boat. Good luck finding someone like that.
Anybody at such a high level of coaching who would want to be the new performance director of Scottish Rugby will want to have his ideas listened to and won’t take too kindly to simply being an administrator of a plan he had nothing to do with in the first place.
The best person to take the job as performance director would be someone who has had input into the new system and believes in it rather than someone who would have it imposed upon him. Townsend fits the bill.
The Scotland head coach holds all the aces and it looks like he could get either a contract extension with the national team or if he shows willingness the performance directors job.
Everitt may not have a long term role to play in any new SRU coaching set-up but Smith -who looked pretty scunnered at times near the end of the season- should but may not want to.
He was in tears after Glasgow Warriors lost their URC semi-final against Leinster which showed how much he cares about the club. Another reason for such emotion is that he may have realised with the budgets for new players being frozen, a reduction in the number of foreign players he can sign and losing the likes of Tom Jordan to Bristol Bears will make it harder for him to achieve future success.
If Smith isn’t offered the Scotland job or the post of performance director he could walk away as he may feel he is treading water at Scotstoun. If he did nobody could blame him.
It was assumed that Scotland assistant head coach Steve Tandy was going to join Wales as their head coach but there has been no official approach to the SRU for his services. Smith had also been in their thoughts to replace Warren Gatland and may still be on the radar of the Welsh.
Glasgow Warriors players and their fans need reassurance from Williamson and the SRU over what is happening to Smith and also over the long-term plans for their home ground at Scotstoun.
Williamson made a big deal of his £6m revamp for Murrayfield- nearly £2m of that going on toilet improvements and more loos for women after lots of complaints that there wasn’t enough.
That is great news and it is good to see Edinburgh settling in well over the last few years at their custom built stadium called The Hive.
It’s ironic that Williamson doesn’t have on his to-do list a plan to at least investigate building Glasgow a stadium of their own.
Scotstoun is owned by Glasgow Council through their sport and leisure wing Glasgow Life. It is currently getting a revamp for the Commonwealth Games next year with stadium improvements and a new world class running track being laid.
That is great news for Glasgow athletes and you would like to think more and more runners will head to Scotstoun after the Commonwealth Games to use the great new facility.
There are suggestions that the track could be relaid after the Games on the grass area at the far end of Scotstoun behind the stadium. That would allow Glasgow Warriors and the athletic community to share Scotstoun in a proper manner in two different areas of the sporting complex.
Finding Glasgow a home that they own should be the long-term aim for Williamson. After all Edinburgh has one so why not Glasgow?
His first priority has to be getting the coaches signed up. Williamson is away with Scotland on their summer tour which is more than performance director Nucifora as he is in Australia as performance manager of the British and Irish Lions.
The SRU chief executive will have a chance to sit down with Townsend to thrash out his future during the tour and you would like to think he has already had talks with Everitt and especially Smith.
Williamson has made clear he wants to keep them all on. His reputation is on the line to make it happen in what is his first test as SRU chief executive.