Townsend eyes return to Borders
January 11, 2002

Scotland's Gregor Townsend has signalled his interest in returning to Scotland to play for the new Borders professional team.

"Any Scottish player who is abroad playing rugby will be interested in playing for the new Border side," Townsend told The Herald.

"I have talked to several people at Murrayfield about coming back to Scotland and although I can't say too much about it I'm looking very carefully at it.

"I enjoy the rugby in France because it is a big challenge each week but there are obvious attractions to coming back."

Townsend's contract with Castres ends this season.

Also, musician Jesse Rae announced yesterday that he is among the many who have applied to run the team.

There is growing concern however over the delay in naming a coach for the new side. Last month Murrayfield officials paraded Tony Gilbert, the former All Blacks forwards coach, and said they were offering him the job but he has yet to accept the role as the NZRFU put up a fight to keep their man.

Until the new coach is appointed, players will not be signed and, indeed, other players themselves are unlikely to take the plunge until they know who will be in charge.

It also seems likely that the SRU will wait for the new coach to be in place before appointing a chief executive.

Among them is that of Rae, the musician known around the world not only for his music, but for his dress sense. Rae has long been involved in a variety of projects aimed at broadening rugby's appeal, to youngsters in particular, and in declaring his interest he made it clear that attracting Border youth to become involved would be his main target, while tapping into the district's traditional rugby culture.

"I have invested money in rugby in the past and I would like to help make the new professional team here the best in the world, which I genuinely believe can be achieved," he told the newspaper.

"What needs to be done is to put a bit of belief into the players here that they can go all the way from primary school to under-21 level in the Borders and then go on to compete with the best."

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