How Richie Gray departure will impact Glasgow Warriors as team-mate reacts

The 35-year-old announced on Friday that he would be leaving the Warriors at the end of next month to pursue a new playing opportunity abroad. He’ll likely have a couple more outings in the Glasgow jersey and perhaps a last hurrah with Scotland in November before embarking on a new chapter in his storied career, with Japan the likely destination.

Cummings and Gray have been the mainstays in the Glasgow park in recent seasons, expert set-piece exponents who have made the club’s lineout one of the most effective attacking weapons in the United Rugby Championship.

Fortunately for the Warriors, both men have been generous in passing on their knowledge to the next generation and Cummings believes the likes of Max Williamson, Alex Samuel and Gregor Brown are ready to to step up.

“Richie has been an amazing player,” said Cummings. “He’s been around for so long, he’s got so much experience and brings so much to the squad.

“But also there’s some really good young guys coming up, like big Max, big Al [Samuel] as well. They’re playing unbelievably now, and I believe that they’re ready to come in and it’s going to be their time coming up as well.

“Obviously he’s going to be missed. You can’t not miss someone of his quality. But I believe we’ve got players who can step up into that role.”

Gray came off the bench to help Glasgow see out a roller-coaster of a game with Cardiff at the Arms Park on Friday. The visitors eventually won 52-36 but not before Cardiff had twice trimmed their lead to four points during an impressive second-half fightback.

Cummings, who started alongside Samuel, played the whole game and will soon inherit the mantle of being the club’s senior second row.

“But I’m only 27!” he protests jokingly but, in truth, Cummings and Gray have been running the Glasgow lineout for a number of seasons.

“Me and Richie have led on that stuff for a couple of years,” he said. “He’s obviously leaving but, as I said, there are young guys who are willing to step up. These young guys coming up are such good quality and they’re starting to bring their own ideas and challenging us on areas in which we can still improve as well.”

Glasgow scored eight tries during Friday’s game in Cardiff, some of which were outstanding. Tom Jordan, Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones were all on the scoresheet as the 10-12-13 axis shone but Cummings felt their was room for improvement, particularly at the set-piece.

“We’re a team who believe in ourselves and in our system,” he added. “I think somebody said that the match was probably more brilliant individual stuff than us doing our systems really well. That’s all good and well, you’ve got amazing players who can do amazing things, but at the end of the day it’s not long-term success that way.

“We’ve got to be better at our fundamentals. We didn’t do well at some of our lineouts, scrums, stuff like that. Some of that set piece, it’s within our control, we can definitely do a bit better in.”