Scottish Rugby hand Gregor Townsend new deal... but what does that mean for Warriors boss Franco Smith?

Gregor Townsend has been handed the chance to lead Scotland into the next Rugby World Cup.

The head coach’s contract was due to expire after next year’s Six Nations, with recent speculation linking him with the director of rugby position at Newcastle Red Bulls.

Instead, Murrayfield bosses have moved to stave off that prospect by handing Townsend a renewed deal that will keep him in post until at least 2027.

Scottish Rugby chief executive Alex Williamson and performance director David Nucifora will confirm the news at a media conference in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning.

Williamson had expressed a desire earlier in the summer to retain Townsend despite a growing clamour among some Scotland supporters for a change.

Now, though, Townsend will mark a decade in charge of the national team by leading them into the next World Cup taking place in Australia in October and November 2027, having been knocked out in the pool stage at both the 2019 and 2023 editions

The move will also cast into doubt the future of Franco Smith. The Glasgow Warriors head coach is also in the final year of his contract and has been touted as a potential successor to Townsend.

That plan now looks unlikely to materialise unless Smith also agrees to extend his time at Scotstoun to coincide with Townsend’s potential exit at the end of 2027.

At their scheduled press conference, Williamson and Nucifora will also announce ‘an update on recruitment across the high performance department’ which is expected to include news on the search for a new performance director to replace Nucifora who is already at the halfway point of his two-year contract.

Williamson also revealed in June that he is keen to see both Smith and his Edinburgh counterpart, Sean Everitt, continue in their respective roles, too.

He said at the time: ‘We know that David is going in a relatively short time frame from now, 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.

‘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.

‘So, off the back of that we absolutely want continuity with the coaches and we really like the three guys we’ve got and we’d really like to keep them.

‘I think that those three men’s coaches, I anticipate them being our coaching team. That’s my preference, in the same roles as now.’