GLASGOW Warriors assistant Mike Blair has been called up to join Gregor Townsend’s Scotland coaching team next season - but the former international scrum-half will still be involved at Scotstoun outside of the international windows.

Thirty-six-year-old Blair, who only retired from playing at the end of last season, will join other Warriors coaches Matt Taylor and Dan McFarland in making the move to Murrayfield along with Townsend. His title will be skills coach, and his new job will begin after tomorrow’s 1872 Cup match between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

“I’m delighted to take on this role with Scotland at an exciting time in the team's development,” Blair said yesterday..”I'm fortunate that I am able to maintain my involvement with Glasgow Warriors, where I have been coaching a talented group of players in a hugely positive environment. Being a young coach, I feel very lucky to work with coaches of the calibre of Gregor and Dave [Rennie, the Warriors’ new head coach for next season] and hope I can contribute to further successes for both Scotland and Glasgow on the pitch.”

Blair began coaching while he was still a Newcastle Falcons player, taking charge of local club Ponteland. When he came to Scotstoun at the start of last season it was as a player/coach, and according to Townsend he has developed quickly since giving up playing almost exactly a year ago.

“Mike has thrived as a coach since his retirement from playing at the end of last season,” Townsend said. “He’s proven to be an excellent addition to the Warriors’ backroom staff and I’m delighted to bring that expertise into the Scotland set-up. He will perform a similar role with the national team, which will be focused on three areas: assisting with our attack, improving our skills, and also working closely with our group of scrum-halves.”

Meanwhile, the Warriors have continued their overhaul of the playing squad for next season by announcing the release of six more players. By far the best known and longest-serving is full-back Peter Murchie, who has played 116 times for the team over the past eight years. The others whose departures have been announced are: winger Junior Bulumakau (eight appearances), scrum-half Nemia Kenatale (three),

centre Fraser Lyle (eight), stand-off Hagen Schulte (one) and lock Tjiuee Uanivi (five).

“We’d like to wish all our leavers the very best in the next stage of their careers,” Townsend added. “They’ve all made a tremendous contribution to the club and I’m sure our supporters will show their gratitude after our game against Edinburgh on Saturday.”

The team for that match will be announced today, with hooker Fraser Brown, for one, hoping to ensure the Warriors can end the season on a high after last week’s narrow loss to Leinster finally ended their hopes of a PRO12 play-off place. “It was like our season was captured in that game,” Brown said. “We had really poor spells, but were then completely untouchable at other points in the game.

“That’s just how we seem to have gone this year – we’ve played some brilliant rugby but we’ve let ourselves down at key moments. It just fuels the desire to go out this weekend and put in the best performance we can – not just because of last weekend, but how Europe went for us at the end, and how the season went for us as a whole.”