The former Scotland captain and British & Irish Lion will move to Scotstoun in the summer from Newcastle Falcons, subject to a medical.
With 85 caps to his name, Blair is Scotland’s most capped scrum-half and will be returning to Scotland three years after leaving Edinburgh Rugby for Brive. Following a year in France, he joined Newcastle Falcons and has gone on to play 39 times for the Aviva Premiership side.
Blair captained Scotland on 14 occasions before retiring from international rugby at the start of 2013 and has played in three Rugby World Cups during his career. He was also part of the 2009 British and Irish Lions squad, which toured South Africa although he failed to make much of an impact on that tour.
The 33-year-old was named Scotland’s Player of the Year in 2008 and is the only Scotsman to have ever been nominated for the IRB International Player of the Year, that same season.
Blair enjoyed ten years with Edinburgh Rugby, playing 158 times and scoring 78 points. He was twice named Edinburgh’s Player of the Year and helped them reach the semi-finals of the European Cup in 2012.
Commenting on the move, Mike Blair said: “I’m very excited about moving back to Scotland and joining a very ambitious club.
“One of the reasons I’m moving to Glasgow is the opportunity to work with Gregor (Townsend) again. I played with him when I started out with Scotland and he coached me when he was part of the Scotland set-up and that was definitely a big factor in my decision to join the Warriors. My aim is to move into coaching and I see Gregor as being a great role model.
“I had opportunities to stay in England, but I want to make a further contribution to the game in Scotland and eventually make the transition into coaching.
Townsend himself said: “Mike’s experience and knowledge of the game will be really valuable for our playing and coaching group and I’m certain our other scrum-halves will benefit from his input.” With Matawalu off to Bath and Glasgow looking to play with a little bit less lunacy, it is tailor-made for a guy who was Scotland’s most potent attacking scrum half (often player full stop) during his time in navy to hone the attack around the fringes and bring on two younger talents.
He continued, “We expect Mike to compete hard for a starting place with our other nines next season and in addition bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the club.”
With Blair’s columns on the BBC website during the Six Nations showing a clear rugby brain at work, it seems likely that this is a move intended to boost the coaching brains trust of Scottish rugby and Glasgow in particular while giving Glasgow another option at 9.