Ambitious Rennie eyes title

New Glasgow head coach Dave Rennie believes his side should set themselves the expectation of winning the PRO14 title in his maiden season at the helm.

Rennie has told his players they should set the bar at the highest level and his ambitious nature will be refreshing for Glasgow supporters, who have had to make do with failing to reach the knockout stages last season and a semi-final defeat the year before.

The 53-year-old mentor won back-to-back Super Rugby titles with the Chiefs in his first two seasons in charge. He has a brilliant track record in the beginning of his previous tenures and is able to impart his style and mentality very quickly on a group.

When asked what his expectations were ahead of the upcoming season, he told The Scotsman: “Winning it."

“It’s a lot about growing the club,” continued Rennie.

“Gregor has done a great job and they only struggled last year when they had a lot of international players out.

“We have a job to build more depth so we have brought in a handful of guys who can’t play for Scotland in that period.

“In the end we have huge aspirations. I don’t want these boys thinking fourth is good enough. You work hard, try to get to the play-offs, and once there you are two or three weeks from winning a title.

“It’s a long way off but we won’t be talking about anything other than winning the title.

“We want the squad to be better. We want to develop more Scottish internationals and bring good kids through. But if we do all that and finish sixth you can’t call that successful.

“We have to have high aspirations and work hard to achieve them. We have to set the bar high and then work hard to achieve that.

“We will need to tick some boxes along the way. Whether it is realistic or not doesn’t matter, but you don’t have to be the best team in the competition to win it, you just have to be the best team at the end.”