It was announced yesterday that Richie Vernon will be making a return to Glasgow Warriors as he signed a 3 year deal from the end of the season to play at Scotstoun.
The Sale Sharks backrower has spent two years in Manchester since leaving Glasgow. At 25 years old and with 20 international caps, he will be bringing yet more international experience to the well oiled Glasgow machine.
Vernon stated his enthusiasm for coming back to a vibrant Warriors team: "I have learnt a lot from my time at Sale over the last couple of seasons but this is an excellent opportunity for me to return home and play my rugby in Scotland.
"Of course it helps that I know a lot of the guys in the squad already, but I've been watching their progress this season and it's a very exciting time to be getting involved with the club."
Vernon has 20 Scotland caps and has scored 10 tries
in 44 appearances for Sale Sharks
Vernon's commitment to the Warriors is the latest act in Glasgow that sees the team establish themselves further as a power in the RaboDirect Pro12 league and the more dominant of the two Scottish pro teams.
In a legacy set up by Sean Lineen who oversaw 2 top four finishes in 3 years before his departure last summer, the Warriors have built a squad to last a complete season. Long gone are the days when the Scottish teams slide down the table as the autumn internationals and 6 Nations tournaments pillaged the squads of their best talent.
What is more, they have such strength in depth now that they are taking advantage of other teams losing out to the call of international selection. Under new coach Gregor Townsend, the team find themselves in second spot in the league, closing down early pace setters Ulster for the top spot. A top 2 finish would be Glasgow's best season finish before the playoffs and would secure them a home berth for the post season showdowns.
The sustainable growth of the club has to be lauded, along with their Chairman Charles Shaw and Managing Director Nathan Bombrys. Glasgow have taken small but steady steps in the last 5 years to get them to where they are, but have always made progress. The transition from Lineen leaving under slightly acrimonious circumstances to Townsend taking the reins has been smooth. The move to the newly refurbished Scotstoun Stadium has proved successful. Everything is very settled in the west end of Glasgow.
Compare that to the state of Edinburgh Rugby right now. Struggling in and around the bottom of the league table the last few seasons, Edinburgh have failed to attract both the quality and quantity of talent that their bitter rivals have. They still falter during the international tournaments because they simply don't have that strength that Glasgow have acquired recently, and instead use the lack of relegation in the league as an impetus to concentrate on the Heineken Cup which has its fixtures fit around the 6 Nations and autumn internationals. It means they can look to make progress in a competition when they have all their key talent back within their ranks.
It worked last year as Edinburgh made it to the semi-finals of the premier European competition only to lose out to Ulster in Dublin. The achievement was unprecedented for a Scottish club. The sacrifice was their league position, finishing a lowly 11th with 32 points, less than half of the total accumulated by 4th place finishers Glasgow.
The discussion on whether all 12 RaboDirect teams get to qualify for European competition is heated and ongoing, but for me it isn't right that a team can prioritise the cup over the league, knowing they can still qualify for the following year. The Heineken Cup should be the reward for those teams that either finish highest overall in their league or higher relative to their compatriot teams in that league.
That aside, Edinburgh must do better to attract the calibre of player heading to the west coast. There must be a fundamental difference in the attraction of both teams for potential players looking to sign north of the border. Is it the facilities? The management? The existing corps of players? The money?
Whichever one or combination of these it is, Glasgow have clearly struck a better balance than Edinburgh and are only building momentum. Their training facilities at Scotstoun have long been known to be first class. Now that the team has relocated there for match days too means they now have a complete, compact and efficient operation under one roof.
The Warriors moved to Scotstoun Stadium at the start
of the 2012/13 season
Edinburgh, on the other hand, play their games at Murrayfield, attracting a typical crowd of around 3,000 spectators who are drowned by the emptiness of a 67,500 seat stadium. They have touted the idea of investing in Meadowbank stadium which is currently owned and operated by Edinburgh City Council. It has the infrastructure and facilities in place to allow it to potentially flourish as a 6/7,000 seat arena. A smaller stadium encourages a better atmosphere, which attracts punters, money, investment and players.
Glasgow made the step from playing at Hughenden with very little seating to the 9,000 capacity football ground at Firhill before adopting Scotstoun as their home for good. It's manageable, realistic and sustainable. It seems that Edinburgh have some ground to make up.
And so we can conclude that Richie Vernon is heading back to the brighter of the two Scottish rugby stars right now. The only question now would be where and how much he will play with such a wealth of talent on the books at Scotstoun? He will be competing with the likes of John Barclay, James Eddie, Josh Strauss, Ryan Wilson, Rob Harley and Chris Fusaro who all ply their trade in the back row. With his pace, Vernon provides a different option to all of these guys but he'll have to raise his game if he has designs on a consistent starting spot.
Success breeds success, and Vernon will no doubt be up for the challenge.
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