GREGOR Townsend has revealed that he turned down the offer of a coaching post with the British and Irish Lions next summer so he could concentrate fully on his new job in charge of Scotland.

The Glasgow Warriors head coach will move from Scotstoun to Murrayfield next June, replacing Vern Cotter. Life with the Lions would have meant not being in charge of Scotland when they tour Australia next summer, and he decided he could not delay the next chapter of his coaching career.

“I was only approached ten days ago,” Townsend said yesterday about the offer from Lions coach Warren Gatland. “Obviously I was flattered by the approach, but my priority now is Glasgow - but by the end of the season Scotland are going on tour and that will be my priority then.

“The offer threw me a little bit, because I didn’t expect an offer. I wanted time to reflect and to make my decision after some thinking time. I had a good think. I didn’t give an immediate answer.

“I really wanted to reflect on what was involved, but quickly realised the Scotland tour to Australia is my No 1 priority at the end of the season. I had to go back to him a couple of days later [and explain] that the timing wasn’t going to work for me.

“I would say my first priority in the Scotland job is to work with the players as soon as I can. We have an exciting tour to Australia that will be three to four weeks of coaching time with the players. It’s probably the equivalent of the build-up to the World Cup.”

Of course, between now and next June the priority is the Warriors - starting tonight, when they welcome Munster to Scotstoun. Glasgow have lost their last two games in the league and are now fifth in the table, but they were without their Scotland players then. Now they are able to welcome back nine members of Cotter’s Autumn Tests squad, plus Tongan international prop Sila Puafisi, for the visit of the league leaders. Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Jonny Gray are rested, but Tommy Seymour and Ryan Wilson are among the first-choice players to return.

“Already at training the level this week has been better than last - the amount of players coming back has helped with that,” Townsend added. “The players have been here since Monday and are fully committed, especially those guys who have come back from international rugby.

“We have a big game this week and some big games coming up over the next few weeks, so we have to take care of the management of players for the games against Racing. Tommy [Seymour] didn’t play the first Test and having spoken to him he’s physically in a good place, so we can see him being available for this game and the next two. We have to manage our resources carefully to ensure we have the best possible team we can put out in the next few weeks.”

Glasgow Warriors (v Munster at Scotstoun, tonight, 7.35pm): P Murchie; R Hughes, N Grigg, M Bennett, T Seymour; P Horne, A Price; G Reid, F Brown, S Puafisi, T Swinson, R Harley, J Strauss, C Fusaro, R Wilson. Substitutes: C Flynn, A Allan, D Rae, R McAlpine, L Haupeakui, N Kenatale, R Clegg, L Jones.