The Scottish coach is looking to make his mark on Europe when Glasgow Warriors play the Scarlets in back-to-back European Champions Cup matches over the next two weekends

Locally reared top-level coaches are, increasingly, a breed under threat. Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England each have a southern hemisphere leader at the helm. In this season’s Premiership – with the notable exception of Exeter’s Rob Baxter – non-English coaches such as Mark McCall, Aaron Mauger, Conor O’Shea and Dai Young are showing the way. Over in the Pro12 the top two sides, Scarlets and Connacht, are both being guided by Kiwis: Wayne Pivac and Pat Lam.

All hail Glasgow’s Gregor Townsend, therefore, as he strives to buck the trend, not for the first time in his rugby life. No wonder his decision this week to sign a contract extension, keeping him at Scotstoun until the summer of 2017, was greeted with widespread relief within Scottish rugby. “It was only natural Gregor’s talents would be of interest to other clubs,” acknowledged Mark Dodson, the SRU’s chief executive, making little effort to disguise his delight. And why not? The Warriors’ Pro12 triumph last season was a remarkable achievement for a club with an average attendance of 6,500. Should they also reach the knockout stages of Europe’s showpiece club tournament – for the first time since they were thrashed 90-19 in a quarter-final play-off by Leicester in 1997 – it really will suggest that something is stirring north of the border.

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Admittedly things have not gone to plan latterly, the postponement of the Warriors’ opening pool fixture against Racing 92 following the Paris terrorist attacks being followed by a disappointingly flat home defeat by Northampton and last week’s washout against Leinster. The first two effectively leave Glasgow needing to beat the Scarlets home and away this month if they intend to leave any lasting imprint on an already tough pool.

Watch a Townsend team play, though, and it is easy to see why the Warriors wanted to re-sign him, albeit for just one more season. Since taking over from Sean Lineen in 2012, the thoughtful 42-year-old has helped develop the talents of, among others, Jonny Gray, Stuart Hogg, Mark Bennett, Alex Dunbar, Peter Horne and Finn Russell. A total of 21 Glasgow players appeared in this year’s World Cup, while the Pro12 title, clinched against Munster in Belfast, was the first major piece of silverware hoisted by a Scottish team since the 1999 Five Nations trophy. On both occasions the Galashiels-born Townsend, the former Scotland No10, played a pivotal role.

If it helps to possess a forward as influential as the Fijian lock Leone Nakarawa, the former fly-half clearly has a shrewd recruiting eye. He also has a magpie’s enthusiasm for new ideas, having consulted numerous coaches from Joe Schmidt – Leinster were his initial blueprint – to Wayne Smith, Ian McGeechan and Stuart Lancaster in his search for self-improvement. The coaching bug has bitten deep. “It’s different being a coach to a player. The job is so all-consuming. It’s all you can think about. Good coaches always look at ways to evolve and learn.”

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As a player Townsend was ahead of his time; he had spells at three different clubs in France, as well as stints in Scotland, Australia, England and South Africa. Despite his wanderlust, he won 82 Scotland caps and was part of the successful 1997 Lions tour to South Africa. A fluent French speaker, he is the nearest thing rugby has to a cultured, thinking man’s coach akin to Pep Guardiola. “He had four to five years at Barcelona, then took off and lived in New York,” says Townsend, sounding faintly jealous of the Spaniard’s transatlantic sabbatical.

Veering off the beaten track has always intrigued him. McGeechan once suggested that “some of the most interesting conversations I have ever had in this game” were with his former playmaker. The constant thread has been a desire to play at pace and to dare to be different. No wonder Townsend loved the recent World Cup – “It’s great to see in the modern game that moving the ball and getting quick ball leads to victories” – and the all-round quality shown by the leading sides. “I was attack-minded as a player but I’ve learned that any championship-winning team has to have a strong defence. We conceded four tries in our European away matches last year; three were penalty tries, with only one from open play. They’d be nice figures this year when you consider the opponents we have.”

So what does he think will happen when England kick off this season’s Six Nations championship in Edinburgh? The Warriors may have underachieved against Northampton, one of Townsend’s old clubs, but the World Cup feelgood factor has not entirely evaporated. “It’s a great start to the Six Nations, given the way the World Cup finished. Who would have thought Scotland would have been very close to the semi-finals and England wouldn’t make it out of the pool? There’s certainly a different mindset from the last Calcutta Cup game at Twickenham. There was a mood of depression around Scotland after that result. Now there’s a lot of optimism and part of that is because our next game is against our biggest rivals.”

Townsend, it should be emphasised, is still respectful of the neighbours, regardless of whom they select at Murrayfield. “There’s so much right about English rugby … the World Cup has blinded a lot of people to that reality. They’ll still be one of the clear favourites for the Six Nations.” But he also knows exactly what England will be up against in the coming years, having already handed Gray the captaincy of Glasgow at the age of 21. “We did one-on-ones with the World Cup players and Jonny was one of the last people we spoke to. It was great hearing how highly motivated he is to improve all aspects of his game. He’s a great role model for others to aspire to.”

The livewire Niko Matawalu and the prolific DTH van der Merwe have moved on, to Bath and the Scarlets, respectively, but this weekend would be a good moment to prove that a fierce Warrior spirit still endures. “We’re very proud of how this team has developed and what they’ve achieved over the last three years,” confirms Townsend. “It’s what we enjoy as coaches … there’s always that thrill late on a Monday night when you spot something about the opposition you can’t wait to share with everyone the next day. I also love the game-days when you see players reaching their potential. It makes all the hard work worthwhile.” In a world full of exotic imports, the canny Townsend is a rare native species well worth preserving.

Townsend’s CV

March 1993 Scotland debut against England – he would eventually win a total of 82 caps, scoring 164 points for them

June 1997 Starts in both victories on the successful Lions tour of South Africa

February – April 1999 Scores a try in every match as Scotland win the Five Nations

June 1999 Awarded MBE for services to rugby

2005 – 2007 Leaves Montpellier to take up position as player-coach at Borders

2009 – 2010 Named as Scotland backs coach by the SRU

2010 – 2012 Switches roles to Scotland attack coach

2012 Takes over as Glasgow coach, replacing Sean Lineen

May 2015 Glasgow win Guinness Pro12