{"id":390784,"date":"2025-09-02T02:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T02:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/390784\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T02:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T02:34:11","slug":"scott-forrest-on-succeeding-pete-murchie-franco-smiths-future-plans-and-glasgow-injury-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/390784\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Forrest on succeeding Pete Murchie, Franco Smith’s future plans and Glasgow injury update"},"content":{"rendered":"

In have come two new assistant coaches, Roddy Grant<\/strong> and Scott Forrest,<\/strong> with the former coach of the Scotland women\u2019s 7s squad moving up from a role in the Warriors academy last season to replace Murchie as defensive leader.<\/p>\n

Forrest acknowledges those are big shoes to fill given how effective Glasgow\u2019s defence has been in recent seasons but he is keen to get stuck into the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be leading on defence, essentially picking up from where Pete left off,\u201d he confirms. \u201cAnd then with Roddy, not speaking for him, but he\u2019s primarily looking at forwards and the contact area specifically.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite lucky last year that I was in the building so I worked alongside Pete quite a lot. So, one of the big messages we gave to the players was what\u2019s in place works. The evidence shows it. If you look at stats and the main markers around defence, it\u2019s the second best in the league behind Leinster on near enough every metric.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you look across the last two years, it\u2019s been either first or second best in defence. So, there\u2019s not going to be a huge change around the system. Obviously, I\u2019ll put my own slant on it but Murchie did a brilliant job when he was in here so it\u2019s now my job to try and take it forward because ultimately that\u2019s what we\u2019re always looking to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you evolve? How do you keep pushing forward within the game? The big ones for me looking at defence is, you want to stop the other team scoring, but ultimately defending is about getting the ball back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the more dominant you can be in your collisions, then the more turnovers you can win and the more penalties you can win on that side of the ball. We want to keep the system the same. But I think one of the changes is we want to find ways to evolve and move forward. Can we be more aggressive to go and get the ball back within the system that\u2019s already in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Franco<\/p>\n

Franco Smith cut an emotional figure at the end of last season. Image: \u00a9 Craig Watson \u2013 www.craigwatson.co.uk<\/p>\n

For a while it looked as if the most significant change at Scotstoun would be around the head coach. Franco Smith\u2019<\/strong>s emotion in the immediate aftermath of that loss to Leinster suggested he could well be moving on after three years but, for now, the South African is still in the building. So, has Forrest spoken to his new boss about his future plans?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of conversations with him about his situation, I\u2019ve not had that, no. But he\u2019s here. He\u2019s here for the season, that was always the plan. But in terms of after that, that\u2019s very much a question for Franco. I have not asked him that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very emotional man. I think that\u2019s probably his biggest strength as well, he doesn\u2019t hide things. What you see is what you get, and that\u2019s very much, whether it\u2019s in front of the camera, or with us here behind closed doors, it\u2019s definitely the biggest strength he\u2019s got. He does care a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith was out on the training field today as Warriors entered their third week of pre-season preparations ahead of Saturday\u2019s friendly at Bath.<\/p>\n

Those who were part of the Scotland squad that travelled to New Zealand and Fiji are back in action, although those who were with the British and Irish Lions for the duration of their Australia tour \u2013 Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones <\/strong>and Scott Cummings<\/strong> \u2013 have been given an extended break.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t train last week, and prior to that we had two weeks of pretty intense training, so this is us really starting our third week of rugby,\u201d confirms Forrest. \u201cI think the reason that works is the trust between the players and the coaches that when the players come back in after their longer break, they\u2019ve been in the gym, they\u2019ve done their running sessions, so they\u2019re coming in physically in a good place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend for Bath will be mainly the academy, the non-international boys, the guys that have been in since the start of pre-season. They\u2019re the ones that are going to get the first opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The personnel list has changed considerably over the summer with one of the new boys catching the eye in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cDan Lancaster<\/strong> has come in from Racing and trained really well so he\u2019s someone that will get integrated through these pre-season games and hopefully be able to kick on into the season,\u201d adds Forrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn pre-season he has been running a lot at 10. He played a lot there when he was younger, but we also know he\u2019s got that versatility. He played a lot at 12, more as a second receiver, a second ball player when he was at Racing, which is great having someone that\u2019s got that versatility but also played at a really high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Jack Dempsey is back in the Glasgow fold after recovering from a hamstring injury. Image: \u00a9 Craig Watson \u2013 www.craigwatson.co.uk<\/p>\n

Forrest also provided injury updates on Zander Fagerson<\/strong>, who missed the Lions tour with a calf injury, and Jack Dempsey<\/strong> who hasn\u2019t played since the Six Nations due to a hamstring problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cZander\u2019s not fully back into rugby. He\u2019s very much on track in terms of his return but he\u2019s not fully back in. Jack\u2019s been fully involved in rugby and is looking really sharp. He\u2019s been fully involved through pre-season and is probably someone that will be involved at some point in one of these pre-season games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a medic in terms of being fully involved in that but I do know that it was probably the best thing for him as an individual just to get that extra time [to recover].\u201d<\/p>\n

Warriors seemed to struggle at times under the burden of being defending champions last season, something they won\u2019t have to contend with this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve probably not spoken about it as being a relief but it does change the mindset,\u201d agrees Forrest. \u201cLast year you were the hunted because you were the champions, and I suppose every team that comes to play you last year has an extra bit of motivation because they want to beat the champions. I suppose it\u2019s flipped back to where Glasgow would normally be. We\u2019re the hunters again, which is quite a nice place to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut ultimately we know we need to be better because we didn\u2019t win last year. So, the mentality in the building is we want to go and win in the league and we want to go and win in cup competitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In have come two new assistant coaches, Roddy Grant and Scott Forrest, with the former coach of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,91495,85185,9436,918,8979,4884,135442,14771,712,135443,16,15,38154],"class_list":{"0":"post-390784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dan-lancaster","10":"tag-divi","11":"tag-franco-smith","12":"tag-glasgow","13":"tag-glasgow-warriors","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-jack-dempsey","16":"tag-pete-murchie","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-scott-forrest","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-zander-fagerson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115132371219759490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}