Lindsey Smith and Glasgow Warriors ready to rise to Celtic Challenge

Lindsey Smith is under no illusion about the task at hand as she heads into her first season as Glasgow Warriors Women head coach.

Former Scotland prop Smith was an assistant to Chris Laidlaw, looking after the club’s forwards, as the Warriors endured a difficult debut campaign on the pitch, finishing the 2023/24 Celtic Challenge winless and bottom of the table.

She is now the woman charged with guiding Glasgow to a first competitive victory, while also balancing the development needs of her young squad.

“There will definitely be some challenging times but that’s part of the excitement as well,” Smith tells RugbyPass.

“What are we going to come up against and how do we navigate our way through that?

“I’m really excited and excited just to get started. It’s not very long until our first game, so we’re hitting the ground running.”

Following the departure of Laidlaw, who headed south to join Premiership Women’s Rugby club Harlequins, and a restructuring at Scottish Rugby, Smith signed a three-year contract to become Glasgow’s first full-time women’s head coach in November.

Both Warriors and Edinburgh now have full-time female coaches on long-term contracts, something Smith believes underlines their commitment to the Celtic Challenge and women’s rugby.

“I think that sends out a message that the clubs are serious about this,” she added.

“From a Glasgow perspective, I’m supported really well by the male management team. Franco Smith has been really supportive, as has John Manson, the team manager.

“There’s a lot of support there, which makes my job easier and makes it easier for me to concentrate on what I need to in this next three-month period.

“But long term, I just think it being aligned with the pro teams and being in there on a full-time basis, from my perspective, means I've got a better handle on the role, where the players are, and I can spend much more time on shaping the team as we go forward.”

Although Smith worked with the squad in its first season, only eight players have returned for Glasgow's second campaign.

The new head coach admitted to feeling “a little bit nervous” ahead of her first engagement overseeing the programme. However, her work in development at Scottish Rugby – where she is currently U18 coach – and previously at Glasgow, ensured she had a good understanding of the players coming in.

Smith is confident she has a good mix of youth and experience at her disposal, but she also knows that her performance in the role will not be measured solely by the end-of-season standings.

“I think everyone who’s involved in performance sport and performance rugby is competitive,” she says.

“Results do matter, but it’s about how we build towards getting those results and it might not always be based on what the scoreline says.

“It's about providing some of those pathway players with the opportunity to be exposed to a higher level of training and a higher level of competition, which they are going to get as part of the Celtic Challenge, which is brilliant.

“It does provide an opportunity to experience that level of competition which will help to build towards moving into our national programme or the national team when it's appropriate for them.”

Success, Smith says, would be setting Glasgow up to “put performances together we can be proud of”.

Do that and she believes a pathway towards full Scotland honours will become visible for her players. “What it does is it makes it clearer for them,” Smith explains.

“You’ve obviously got examples from some of the players who stepped up at last year’s Celtic Challenge. She’s not a Glasgow player but Alex Stewart from Edinburgh would be somebody who’s really quite close to some of the girls involved this year and I think that gives them a tangible idea to follow.

“It’s somebody quite close to them who’s made that step up and it’s achievable for them as well. If you put the work in and the performances come as well, it is possible for them and it may come sooner than they're expecting.”

Smith and her players will get an early opportunity to measure themselves against Scotland flanker Stewart, and Edinburgh, when the rivals meet at Hive Stadium on Friday night.

Last season’s Scottish derby ended in a 28-12 defeat for Glasgow in front of almost 2,000 fans at the same venue and they will be hoping for a better launch into the new season 12 months on.

“That’s a big one for all the players that are involved. It’s your opportunity to play against some other home-based players, they’ll be playing against some of their club team-mates as well,” she says.

“But from my perspective, that Glasgow-Edinburgh fixture, it aligns really nicely with the male pro teams as well and it just adds something a bit special to that first round, especially for us anyway.

“We definitely want to improve from last year, and show that we have, so that first round will be pretty exciting.”

Smith adds: “We’re all competitive and we want to do as well as we can.

“A win is always what we're going to go after, but we need to make sure we get the performance right on the field and the scoreboard will take care of itself.”

Watch the 2024/25 Celtic Challenge opener between Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh live and for free via RugbyPass TV.