Danny Wilson: Scotland lure prompts U-turn for innovative coach
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Wilson is joining Scotland's coaching set-up after three seasons with Cardiff Blues
When Danny Wilson officially becomes Scotland's new forwards coach - an announcement should come next week - Gregor Townsend will be getting a guy who is held in such esteem at his previous job as head coach of Cardiff Blues that they're still practically mopping up the tears from the streets around the Arms Park after his exit.
Wilson coached Cardiff to victory in the European Challenge Cup final last month, a come-from-behind thriller against Gloucester in Bilbao that finished off his three seasons with the region in style.
The Blues were in crisis when he took them over. He left them with a trophy and a place in the Heineken Champions Cup for the first time in four years.
The coach, from Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, had already indicated that he wouldn't be staying on at Cardiff. Back in December he revealed that he was joining the coaching structure at Wasps from 2018-19, but that's not happening now.
The lure of international rugby has seen him do a U-turn and Wasps have facilitated the move. Scottish Rugby will have to pay compensation to release him from his contract, but that's close to being done. Wilson is set to start in his position in July.
All of this might have an impact elsewhere. He replaces Dan McFarland, who is joining Ulster as head coach once his SRU contract expires in January.
Ulster are desperately keen to have him in place for pre-season, but Mark Dodson, the chief executive at Murrayfield, has been adamant that McFarland wouldn't get released early.
Now that there is a replacement almost in situ that stance may change as long as Ulster agree to a compensation fee. There seems little sense in Scotland having two forwards coaches on the payroll simultaneously. There's some talking to be done there.
Townsend was willing to appoint separate scrum and line-out coaches if he had to, but ideally he was looking for one man and one voice, just as he had with McFarland.
He has that in Wilson, who has proven himself to be an outstanding technical coach, a guy who had a low-key playing career - he was a hooker - which ended at the age of 25 when he suffered a degenerative disc problem in his back.
He studied sports coaching in Wales and played university rugby, as well as a year at Treorchy in the Rhondda valley. He always knew he was never going to become a professional rugby player so from his mid-20s he began to coach.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend with current forwards coach Dan McFarland (left), who is bound for Ulster
He did a stint with the Cardiff Blues academy before heading on to become head coach at London Welsh in 2008.
He was forwards coach with the Dragons from 2010-2012, filled the same role with the Scarlets from 2012-2014 and again with Bristol in 2014-15, where he worked under former Scotland coach Andy Robinson.
He also coached Wales Under-20s at the Junior World Cup in 2012, when they finished third, and in 2013 when they went all the way to the final, beating Scotland and South Africa en route, only to lose 23-15 to England.
Those tournaments marked him out as a coach to watch. In 2015, Wilson took over at a beleaguered Cardiff. The words "poisoned" and "chalice" might as well have been stitched into the club crest because the place was mired in chaos at the time.
Dai Young had left as coach in 2011 and they went through regime after regime in his wake. In the season before Wilson arrived as head coach, Cardiff finished 10th in the Pro12 and were knocked out of the Challenge Cup by the Dragons.
In his final season, and with a tight budget that put a big strain on his resources and on his willingness to stay on in the position any longer, he coached Cardiff to that Challenge Cup win, beating Lyon, Toulouse twice, Sale, Edinburgh, Pau and, eventually, Gloucester. He got the absolute best out of the players he had in his dressing room.
He's known as an innovative coach, just like Townsend, the man he's joining up with now.
Townsend has known Wilson for quite some time, but once he'd heard that he was joining Wasps he discounted him from his wishlist. It was only a fortnight ago that he heard that a deal might be possible after all.