Gregor Townsend insists his contentious decision to take on a new advisory role with Red Bull will not have any negative bearing on his ability to continue leading Scotland.<\/p>\n
After extending his contract with the national team in September until the 2027 World Cup, it emerged earlier this month that the long-serving head coach will be spending 30 days a year working on Red Bull\u2019s global rugby strategy in a non-executive position.<\/p>\n
Townsend was criticised in some quarters for accepting a part-time job while being in charge of his country, but he is adamant there is no need for concern.<\/p>\n
Asked at a press conference on Tuesday for the naming of his squad for the autumn internationals if he understood why there had been a backlash, the 52-year-old said: \u201cYeah, look, everyone\u2019s got their opinions. It\u2019s something that obviously I talked about with Scottish Rugby, and the benefits that we saw in the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my own time, I\u2019d like to learn from other sports and other organisations. This gives me an opportunity to do that, but it\u2019s not going to be something that I\u2019m focusing on the next few weeks, because that\u2019s going to be the Scotland<\/a> job.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m well aware of my role and the time that I\u2019m able to allocate, and I\u2019ve got to make sure I manage that because there will be less holidays, less time off over the next couple of years.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that also can be a real positive in terms of energising me and being involved on a wider level with sport and management, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve felt like over the last couple of months (since starting with Red Bull).<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the experiences I\u2019ve had, it has been energising, but the full focus when I\u2019m with Scotland and also in the planning phases with Scotland, that\u2019s that\u2019s the main role that I have, and it\u2019s the role that gives me a massive purpose in my life and something I\u2019m totally committed to.\u201d<\/p>\n Townsend acknowledged he \u201cabsolutely\u201d has to be wary of how he manages his time going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re with the national team, as a head coach, there\u2019s times when it\u2019s really intense, and you\u2019re in camps, and you\u2019re staying in hotels, but there\u2019s times throughout the year when you can choose what to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people do the media, some people do work away from rugby, and this opportunity I have is to work with another sporting organisation or a company that runs different sports, and I feel that\u2019s going to be helpful for my learning.<\/p>\n \u201cThey obviously want what I can contribute in terms of advice. Scottish Rugby are very well aware of what that means, and I have to be wary if there\u2019s any potential conflicts. I don\u2019t see any, but if there are, then I have to flag that up with my bosses.\u201d<\/p>\n Townsend\u2019s 45-man squad for next month\u2019s Tests against the United States, New Zealand, Argentina<\/a> and Tonga<\/a> includes senior trio Zander Fagerson<\/a>, Jack Dempsey<\/a> and Rory Darge<\/a> despite injury issues restricting their involvement with Glasgow<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n The head coach reported that number eight Dempsey, who has not played a competitive game since March, is now fit and ready to play, while he hopes to have prop Fagerson and flanker Darge in contention for the second match against the All Blacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Edinburgh<\/a> captain Magnus Bradbury<\/a>, 30, has been recalled after winning the the most recent of his 19 caps on the 2022 summer tour, while his clubmates Liam McConnell<\/a> and Harri Morris<\/a> have been called up for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gregor Townsend insists his contentious decision to take on a new advisory role with Red Bull will not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-217132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}