Glasgow Warriors won’t add any more signings to their squad this season barring exceptional circumstances, Scott Forrest has confirmed.
The Warriors have made three senior signings this summer in Jamie Ritchie, Ruwald van der Merwe and Bayley Kuenzle.
They have also added nine players to full-time contracts from the academy, but six international stars departed Scotstoun at the end of last season.
That has led to many Glasgow supporters hoping for a few more new faces to arrive at Scotstoun to bolster Franco Smith’s squad, but their business has been completed.
Kuenzle provides cover across the back-line with the Australian able to fill every position except scrum-half. Meanwhile, Van der Merwe won’t move to Scotland until late September/early October due to his participation in the Currie Cup with the Pumas, while Ritchie is the high-profile addition.
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The former Scotland captain is still recovering from an injury sustained with Perpignan but Forrest confirmed Ritchie’s signing concluded Glasgow’s business this summer.
Asked whether there would be any new additions, Warriors assistant coach Forrest replied: “No. I think, in terms of bringing players in, the way the squad is just now is probably how it's going to look.
“Obviously, the things that might change are if we pick up long-term injuries in certain positions that put us under stress.But the guys that have come in, like Bayley, have been excellent.
“It's a good time for a new player like that to come in because the group's a little bit smaller, the internationals aren't here. He's been excellent on the pitch and off the pitch.
“He's obviously played at a high level in Super Rugby. Jamie Ritchie has been in, unfortunately he's still coming off the back of an ankle injury. So hopefully we'll see him in one of these pre-season games.
“He's not been in training yet, but he's not far away. Everything's on track with him. And then even a couple of the young boys, the boy Guy Rogers, who has come into the academy.
“I know him from the Under-20s a couple of years ago. He's been in Harlequins' Academy. He's someone that's come in and looked really good so far in preseason as well.”
It’s realistically been accepted for some time that the new signings at Scotstoun this summer would be limited to three. There will be increased emphasis on youngsters to step up and play more regularly next season as Smith has alluded to on several occasions.
There is, however, significant doubts amongst supporters over whether Glasgow’s squad depth will be strong enough to compete on two fronts again.
Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Adam Hastings, Huw Jones, Sione Vailanu and Jack Dempsey have all exited. Dempsey’s absence especially is a major blow, while there’s huge responsibility on Dan Lancaster to be the leading fly-half.
Glasgow finished top of the log in the URC table before losing in the semi-finals and made the quarters of the Champions Cup last season.
Many have questioned whether Smith’s men will be able to replicate those results but Forrest remains bullish.
He added: “I would say there were probably similar conversations happening last year when the likes of Sebastian Cancelliere left, Henco Venter left and Tom Jordan left.
“There were probably similar things said… those players had left, but we hadn’t really replaced them with the same quality. Although we didn't win a trophy, statistically we won more matches than we've ever done in the past. We finished top of the URC regular season.
"We're looking at the positives. Yes, we've lost some quality internationals, but we're very confident in terms of the younger players that we've got in our group.
“Some of them are young academy players that have been promoted, some of them are actually young international players, and this is their opportunity to go and step up, like we've just seen with the likes of Gregor Hiddleston and Seb Stephen in the summer.
“We feel we've got a lot of young players here that are ready to step up now, while we've still got the core group of senior internationals that I think everyone knows what they can do. I think we're still pretty confident that the blend that we've got in the squad and the competition we've got for places will put us in a pretty good position this year.”
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And the message within Scotstoun has remained positive, Forrest insists.
“There's a bit of reinforcement there for everyone,” he added. “A lot of our big rocks we talk about — that's the language we use in attack, defence and set-piece — is some of the best in the URC and Europe. Actually, some of the stats we're looking at, it's the best in world rugby.
“So the core of what we do, especially attack and defence, we're not going to change. I feel we've got an identity on both sides of the ball. Ultimately, where we fell down was two knockout games, one against Toulon in Europe and then obviously the Bulls, where, whether it's external pressures that have an impact on you, being able to perform at your best when it really counts.
“There's probably been some similarities with Scotland over the last 12 months and they've had a really positive summer. No, our big rocks aren't going to change. Ultimately, we just need to look at those little one-percenters about what gets us over the line in those knockout pressure matches.”
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