Nigel Carolan accepts that Tom Jordan’s departure from Glasgow Warriors will be a ‘massive loss’ but he’s challenged the next generation to replace him. 

It was announced during the recent international break that Jordan will depart Scotstoun next summer to join Bristol Bears on a deal understood to be in the region of £300,000 per season. Jordan signed with Glasgow in 2021 after a successful stint at Ayrshire Bulls and recently gained eligibility for Scotland with his debut arriving against Fiji earlier this month. 

The versatile back’s development across the last 18 months has been incredible and he had interest from several English clubs including Saracens before agreeing to join Bristol. 

“It’s a massive blow and nobody is going to shy away from that fact,” Carolan admitted. “It’s a massive blow to Glasgow but that’s professional rugby. We will move on wishing Tom all the best but he’s been a great servant to us, but Glasgow has been really good for him. It’s why he’s turning heads down south and there were a number of suitors looking at him, it wasn’t just one team. It shows the progress that Tom has made here but there is no player bigger than the club. 

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“The fact that we’ve developed Tom in that space of time…there’s lots of other young lads coming through. It’s our responsibility to bring those players through. There’s been a plethora of forwards coming through getting Scotland recognition but it’s time for the backs to make an impact. It’s not financially sustainable to have so many internationals in the squad, so at some stage you have to take from the top and bring through the green shoots. Tom will be a major loss because he’s so versatile but we need to bring the next Tom Jordan through.” 

The SRU’s annual financial accounts made for grim reading during the international break and Carloan accepts that the reputation of Glasgow’s star players has skyrocketed after their URC title success. 

“You have to work within your means,” Carolan admitted. “There’s a couple of other clubs that like us have so many internationals - Leinster and Benetton. Leinster are fortunate as they have a central contracting model where their key internationals get topped up by the RFU. Money talks and we have to work within our budgets. Everybody’s stock is on the rise at Glasgow after the success of last season and the budget can only be cut in so many ways. You can’t just keep topping up contracts and keep everyone happy because at some stage, some guys will have to move out.” 

In Matthew Urwin and Richie Simpson, Glasgow have two talented young fly-halves and Carolan believes a number of backs can step up.

“We see these guys in training and when they’re up against the likes of Sione and Huw then you get a good measure of where they’re at,” Carolan said. “The lads tend to be later developers because of the Scottish model but we see really good rising talent within Glasgow. There’s Fergus Watson, who has been training with Scotland and there’s some really good centres in Duncan Munn, Ben Salmon, Kerr Johnston and Kerr Yule. Matthew Urwin has a massive future if he keeps following his trajectory and Richie Simpson has been training with us for a while.”