Gregor Townsend has been given a vote of confidence by Scottish Rugby chief Alex Williamson who intends to begin contract talks with the national coach during next month’s tour to New Zealand and Fiji. Williamson also wants Franco Smith and Sean Everitt to remain in charge of Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh respectively, stressing the need for “continuity” as the sport undergoes an overhaul of its pathway system in Scotland. “We really like the three guys we've got and we'd really like to keep them,” said Williamson, who succeeded Mark Dodson as chief executive and has been in post for around five months. Townsend has been Scotland’s head coach for eight years and led them to a fourth place finish in this season’s Six Nations, winning two and losing three games, for the second year in a row. His contract expires in April and Williamson indicated he would like Townsend to remain beyond that. “I'm touring with Scotland and I'm going to have plenty of time with Gregor, and his manager is in New Zealand as well so that's all helpful,” said Williamson. “And we're talking to Franco and Sean as well.” Scotland have failed to qualify from the pool stage of two Rugby World Cups under Townsend, albeit after a very difficult draw in 2023. If he were to sign a new contract he would almost certainly take charge for the 2027 tournament. Williamson believes Townsend is the right man to “produce our best outcomes going forward” and thinks he will benefit from the revamp currently underway in Scottish rugby which is being led by David Nucifora, the performance director credited with helping transform Ireland’s fortunes. Explaining his thinking, Williamson said Scotland had played some “exceptional rugby” over the past year and had been unlucky to lose to South Africa, England and France. “So there's two parts,” said Williamson. “One: I think that the change we're making now, he will be a beneficiary immediately of that clarity with his senior team. Two: I think that we'd all accept that there were a number of games last season whether it be South Africa, England or France, where Scotland were one very small twist away from some great outcomes off the back of some exceptional rugby. “And also the feedback from the players through the review that Gregor does was very good. I genuinely believe that he has the potential to produce our best outcomes going forward so that's why we're excited to have Gregor in the team. And we also really think that Franco and Sean will continue to develop the quality of our player groups through the clubs.” Smith’s and Everitt’s contracts run until the end of the 2025-26 season. Smith, who led Glasgow to the United Rugby Championship in 2024, has been linked with other jobs, most notably Leicester Tigers and Wales, and has indicated a desire to return to international rugby. He is former head coach of Italy and assistant coach of South Africa, and appeared to cast doubt on his Glasgow future earlier this month when he said he would “sit down and reflect a little bit”. Smith, who has also been touted in some quarters for the Scotland job, was speaking in the immediate aftermath of Glasgow’s loss to Leinster in the semi-finals of the URC. He pointedly referred to “budget restraints” and the loss of influential overseas players, such as Henco Venter and Sebastian Cancelliere. “Our squad's been reduced,” an emotional Smith said. “We've lost some of the foreigners. I'll be as honest as possible: that's going to put a lot of pressure on every aspect of our environment.” Scottish Rugby is in the throes of revamping its pathway system in an attempt to improve the supply of players into the national set-up. Nucifora was appointed last August on a two-year deal and the search has already begun for a new performance director to continue the Australian’s work when he steps down in 2026. Stressing again his desire to retain the services of Townsend, Smith and Everitt, Williamson would not be drawn on a timescale. “I haven't got into that, I'm just opening up conversations and saying we want continuity,” he said. “I need to have those conversations with guys, I just haven't got into any detail.” Pressed if he wanted them to stay beyond their current contracts, Williamson added: “Yeah …. when we identify a new performance director we would really like to have continuity in the coaching already nailed down so that the first thing they're doing is not hiring new coaches.” Williamson sees Nucifora’s pathway revamp as an overarching project, the benefits of which will be felt not at the next men’s and women’s Rugby World Cups but at the tournament beyond that. “We're doing this once and we're doing it with a view to ’29 and ’33 [World Cups] for the women and ’31 and ’35 for the men,” he said. “That's a non-negotiable from my point of view. It's the most important thing we'll do. “I've reviewed those plans hundreds of times to make sure that I'm comfortable that plan is solid. From that, the next thought process is we know that David [Nucifora] is going in a relatively short time frame from now, some time towards the end of next year, so the key hire is going to be a performance director who is willing to stick to the plan. We cannot afford to bring a performance director in who's then going to basically say ‘I don't really like that plan we'll do another one’. We can't do that. “We have to stick steadfast to that, so my preoccupation in many respects is making sure that we're absolutely aligned on sticking to the plan because I think it will make a massive difference in the long term. “Off the back of that [we] absolutely want continuity with the coaches. So we really like the three guys we've got and we'd really like to keep them. “So when we're talking about Franco we absolutely want him in. In fact I fully respect his emotional frustrations. You kind of want your coaches to be loaded and charged and emotional and frustrated, particularly in moments like those, but I don't actually think there is a huge gap between what Franco wants and what we're talking about. “The challenge is probably that the structures aren't bedded in and as a consequence we've not really had the opportunity to test and stress test the thinking. We all believe that there is a place for foreign players, they just have to be the right ones in the right moments.” Smith noted earlier that in the season the budgets weren’t down but had remained the same while the value of players had gone up but Williamson remains confident the pro teams can remain competitive, helped by the new pathway plan which should produce more young Scottish players. “What we're trying to do is we're trying to intensify the investment in a slightly smaller group of players who propel more quickly and there is a question absolutely as to whether that has a short-term impact on performance but, when you really look at the the number of high quality young players that are sitting in and around both those squads, I think that we should feel confident that whilst they may need some sort of blooding in to first team rugby, we've got a ton of quality. “We're essentially saying if there's a Scottish player who's good enough they'll play and I think we need to encourage that because if we don't do that I don't see how we can propagate enough players into the senior first 15 to make us more competitive than we currently are in 2031.”