Harlequins 2018-19 Season

Harlequins

New Head of Rugby in Paul Gustard
Other coaches -
Billy Millard (general manager)
Mark Mapletoft (Head Coach)
Alex Codling (forwards coach)
Nick Easter (?)
Colin Osbourne (skills coach)
Nick Evans (Attacks coach)
Adam Jones (Ass. forwards coach)


Ins: Nick Auterac (Bath), Max Crumpton (Bristol Bears), Alex Dombrandt (Cardiff Met), Nathan Earle (Saracens), Matt Symons (Wasps) and Ben Tapuai (Bath).

Outs: Sam Aspland-Robinson (Leicester Tigers), Cameron Holenstein (Jersey Reds), Adam Jones (retired), Charlie Matthews (Wasps), Jamie Roberts (Bath), Harry Sloan (Ealing Trailfinders) and Winston Stanley (retired). Rowntree (wasps), Joe Grey, Sam Twomey

What's the general feeling about the upcoming season?
New boss coming in that will want to shake things up a bit, but still with a large contingent of the old coaching team in place.  Only Kingston and Rowntree moving on.  
Does anyone know what Easters coaching role will be?

New signatures aren't awe inspiring -
Auterac was billed as an incredibly powerful young prop, but had a lot of problems with injury and struggled to get into the Bath starting line up - I have been told by a Bath supporter that he was picked when fit.
Crumpton I don't know much about, same goes for Dombrandt - feeling is that they may be squad fillers and mostly play A-league (happy to be proved wrong)
Earl looks to be a good talent, and adept at covering 15 and wing - will hopefully work well with Charlie walker, Visser, and young Ibitoye
Symons was massively hyped when he came back to the UK, just not kicked on for Wasps - presumably looking for a fresh start.  Quins really need a decent lump in the engine room to complement Horwell and Merrick.
Tapuai  - A ball playing centre, good hands and feet.  No idea what he is like defensively.  I cant help feeling that in the past Quins have been better with someone in the middle to carry the ball hard (which is why Sloan leaving is a bit of a blow).  Tapuai, Marchant, Saili all feels a little 'lightweight' for me. (especially if Marcus Smith is starting 10)

2018/19 Harlequins Squad
Hookers -
Rob Buchanan  
Max Crumpton  
Elia Elia  
Dave Ward  

Props -
Nick Auterac  
Lewis Boyce  
Will Collier  
Mark Lambert  
Joe Marler  
Josh McNulty  
Kyle Sinckler  
Phil Swainston  

Locks -
Alex Dombrandt  
Ben Glynn  
James Horwill
George Merrick  
Stan South  
Matt Symons  

Flanks -  
Renaldo Bothma  
James Chisholm  
Chris Robshaw  
Luke Wallace  

No.8 -
Jack Clifford  
Mat Luamanu  

No.9 -
Danny Care  
Dave Lewis  
Charlie Mulchrone

Fly-Half -
Demetri Catrakilis  
James Lang  
Marcus Smith  
Tim Swiel

Centre -  
Joe Marchant  
Francis Saili  
Ben Tapuai  

Wings -
Alofa Alofa  
Henry Cheeseman  
Nathan Earle  
Jonas Mikalcius  
Tim Visser  
Charlie Walker  

15 -
Mike Brown  
Ross Chisholm  
Aaron Morris

I don't really know what to expect from next season. Don't want to get my hopes up!!

I'd like us to finish top 7 and be competitive, and make the play offs in Europe.

Better attack and actual defense would be good too.

I would be good if we could keep the majority of the squad fit for a decent amount of time!
We could assess if Catrakilis is worth persevering with!
Ronaldo Bothma looked very good before injury.
Same with Saili (when he was on the pitch)
Sinkler, Robshaw and Brown could do with a decent rest period.

Agree with all that. Imagining a team of

Marker, Ellis, Synkler
Horwill, Merrick?
Robshaw (fully fit), Wallace, Bothma
Care, Smith
Walker, Saili, ?, Visser, Brown

That's pretty damn impressive! Need to find cover for Care though

Some interesting chat from the Quinssa pre-season dinner.

They’ve split the DoR and General Manager roles so that the DoR can have a total focus on getting the best 23 players out on the pitch each week. There was a lot of praise for what Billy Millard is doing in the GM role and how much the tone has changed through him and Gustard in pre-season.

One big focus has been on getting the players to spend time together and have fun away from the pitch so that they build up more trust and willingness to work for each other - it was commented that last year they didn’t seem to have that connection. Which said, someone else pointed out that the senior players who were meant to bring that spent most of the year injured - as an example Archie White (still an academy player) played 20 matches last year, which was not what they had planned for him (or for Marcus Smith).

The rationale around the choice of centres was explained to us by comparison with Sarries. They can have Barritt (a classic defensive / crash ball guy but not a creator in attack) at 12 because Alex Goode brings the creativity and distribution from fullback. Mike Brown isn’t that sort of fullback, so Quins want to have ball-playing ability at 12, which Saili, Tapuai and Lang all bring. That was part of a wider conversation about getting combinations of players across the pitch.

Catrakilis and Bothma both reported as fully fit and ready to go (as are some of the other long term injuries - Horwill, Collier), with Saili in full training but they are taking it cautiously because it’s a concussion.

Gustard is likely to want to reshape the squad over the season by trading quantity for quality. So we should expect to see a few big signings and a number of “club” players leaving, with the burden put on the academy to step up as necessary.

Interesting coaching team
Gustard -- Very highly rated defence coach BUT Never had a Head coach role
Codling -- Head Coach of a very impressive Ealing team BUT has never coached a top tier team before closest being Ulster's Academy/Development coach.
Mapletoft -- Very experianced 8 years at Quins BUT was a top coach in Harlequins "downfall period".
Evans + Easter --- Both massive club legends but new to the coaching side of things.

Gustard's biggest challenge may be getting Robshaw to remember how to tackle.

Haha, I think Robshaw will be fine after a bit of a break. Might be coming towards the end too maybe, some players go out quicker then others and his style relies all on fitness.

I did think Easter had left but am probably wrong. He's been the biggest let down of the coaching team and I'd be surprised if he stayed past this season.

Easter I think is still in place - at least for the season. Presumably to see how things work out.

Robshaw will be back to himself, same with the other England contingent - assuming they get decent rest time.
I would expect Care to hit the ground running for the opening game of the season.

Long term do you thing we will see Robshaw moving into the 2nd Row - Like the Easter experiment?

Just having options in the backrow makes me feel better about next season!
Ward is a great club player and great at the breakdown - but when he is starting in the back row I am usually very concerned.

But if we can have - Wallace, Robshaw, Loumanu, Botha, James Chis all fit for selection + academy kidz I will be a lot happier

propdavid_london wrote:But if we can have - Wallace, Robshaw, Loumanu, Botha, James Chis all fit for selection + academy kidz I will be a lot happier

And Clifford?

Ooops - knew that I forgot someone.
Decent competition will hopefully drive performance.
Clifford, like Botha - just needs a decent run of games.

Colin Osbourne has now also left the coaching set up

Looking at that squad - we are very light on centres.
I know Alofa Alofa can cover - so too with Lang in the middle. But 1 long term injury here and we will struggle.

Prop i definitely wouldn't want Robshaw at lock. To me he's there to play his usual game at 6 and when he finally can't do that anymore then I can't really see too many options for him, unless the rest of the backrow is still a mess, if that is the case then his experience and calm will be key.

Glad Osborne is gone, hopefully Mapletoft and Easter will have this season to improve or else they'll be gone too.

I guess we have Lang, Marchant, Walker and Alofa at a push.

All those options seem incredibly lightweight - I know those lads can get stuck in. But would prefer a more solid option in the squad too. Who is going to be that player coming in on an angle and committing defenders. Making space out wide.
Brown will truck it up like the best and Visser carries well into contact but I feel that we could do with someone running the defensive line in the midfield.
Like Barritt for Sarries or Joseph for Bath.

I guess we'll have to see how Marchant goes, he could do well as an organiser. And we do have that superstar Kiwi centre as well, I can't remember his name though!

You'd think though with the small and young Marcus Smith at 10, they'd want a big 12 for him to ship ball too and to take pressure off him.

Tony Diprose said at the Quinssa pre-season dinner that they want to have creative players at 12, because they feel the need for a second ball player and the other place they could put one is fullback - but Mike Brown is an out-and-out fullback and not a converted 10 like Alex Goode.

We should get used to not having a crash ball centre, but I expect what they are looking to do is to use Smith's distribution to change the point of attack and have someone there who can capitalise.

Cant help feeling that we will get bullied without some hard carrying backs.
The focus will have to be on an extremely mobile back row to pick up the slack - problem there is if we focus on mobility to cover across then we will be lacking back row ball carriers too.
We have the speedy back rowers - Clifford, Wallace and Chisholm
Botha, Chisholm and Loumanu offer carrying from 8 I suppose.

Perhaps I am old fashioned - I cant get away from the fact Rugby is a physical game - and you need a good few Orc's in a side to dish it out as much as the opposition can.

We've seen that England can be a bit toothless without Billy V churning through the hard yards and a guy like Teo to commit the defences.

Thanks for the inside knowledge Poorfour - Lets see how that turns out - plenty of new combinations and patterns will be tried out in pre-season I guess.

Saili and Tapui are both powerful runners and skillful enough to operate as a secondary playmakers. One of those at 12 and then Marchant at 13?

formerly known as Sam wrote:Saili and Tapui are both powerful runners and skillful enough to operate as a secondary playmakers. One of those at 12 and then Marchant at 13?

I think that's the plan. My view of rugby - what I coach my U14s - is that it's about commitment. The aim as an attacker is to force the defence to commit to defending one thing while you have the option to counter that in some way; the aim as a defender is to keep your options open until the attacker is committed to a course of action.

A player like Billy, or a fully fit Manu or JTH, makes this very simple: you know what they are going to do, but their counter is that they are very hard to stop. That said, a smart enough defender can nullify that. I can't ever remember Manu getting the better of George Lowe for instance - though Lowe did get past Manu a couple of times through his ability to pick an unexpected angle and slide through a gap.

But a player with less raw power can be just as effective if they can add skills that enable them force the defence to keep their options open.

BOD and Greenwood were extreme examples of this: because they had so many passing or kicking options available to them, a defence couldn't fully commit to tackling them as early as they could with Billy, and that gave them more chances to find a way over the gainline. Nonu eventually had both strings to his bow, which is what made him so effective.

At the other extreme, Easter at his peak was short of Billy's power, but his game awareness and offloading made him able to put other players through. How many tries did we see from Easter drawing his men and flipping the ball to Care?

I think the hope with Roberts was that he could broaden his game to be more Nonu-like, but it didn't quite work out. Hopefully Saili and Tapuai will add that combination of enough power plus the skills to amke it count for more.

We also have another option we haven't discussed yet: Sinckler has all the handling skills of the back he once was, plus enough venom in his carries to trouble most defences. Many of my favourite moments from last year were when Smith got the opposition defence moving one way only for him to pop it to Kyle coming in on the reverse. It won't always work, but it's a great way to get go forward.

Sinckler will be wanting to prove a point after a poor tour of SA as well get people talking about his Lions form again instead.

Be interesting to see how Quins set up next season. I can't see Gustard playing as expansive a game as Quins have been used to in the last few years.

Yea I do think we went a bit too expensive

Our best seasons kept the ball very tight a lot of the time with lots of little pop passes before and offloads in contact. It almost became attritional, we believed we could keep the attack alive longer then the defense could keep defenders in that space, and when it worked we were almost unstoppable.

Now we sit deep and pass very wide, which just doesnt seem to work so well, we end up running out of space and don't trouble the defense, I don't think the players ever believed in this style.

I hope Gustard will get us playing like we played against Sarries ironically. Looking for a fight, looking to be confrontational, and keeping things straight forward and aggressive, then pouncing on any points that come our way.

That'll suit Marler and Sinks and co.

Nick Easter gone
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/44946522

I felt as if that was going to happen.
Good luck to him wherever he goes - club legend

Club legend and a brilliant player, brought that old school love of the game to the shirt, and no matter what the critics thought he was one of the best 8s in Europe.

He was stupidly rushed into top end coaching way too early by people who either were clueless,or wanted to save money. I hope he carries on and learns from this.

Impressed By Callum Walters in the 7's
Looked very sharp and with an excellent turn of pace - hopefully he will get some opportunities this season.

propdavid_london wrote:Impressed By Callum Walters in the 7's
Looked very sharp and with an excellent turn of pace - hopefully he will get some opportunities this season.

Looks very promising and seems determined to challenge DC this year. I'm looking forward to it.

Mulchrone looked very useful before a serious injury that made him miss most of last season.
Dave Lewis seems like a solid if not spectacular replacement.
We might actually have some options next season as long as the fitness guys don't flog the players too much.

But if Walters can inject that kind of pace by sniping round the fringes the way Care used to do - say in the last 20-30mins then it would make a decent impact.

I know we are a little way off but perhaps a team like this would be great to start the prem with -

Marler, Ward, Collier
Horwel, Merrick
Robshaw, Wallace, Bothma
Care, Smith
Walker, Tapui, Marchant, Visser, Brown

Nic Auterack, Ellia Ellia, Sinks, Symonds, James Chisholm, Callum Walters, Catrakilis, Saili,

That's still leaving out guys like - Loumanu, Clifford, Aaron Morris, Lewis Boyce (looked good in a few appearances last season), Mulchrone, James Lang, Alofa Alofa, Nathan Earl, Lambert, Buchanan


Does anyone know if Nic Auterack is a TH or a LH?

Anyone travelling to Wicker Manville in Perth for the pre-season friendly?

No, not this time for me.

propdavid_london wrote:
Does anyone know if Nic Auterack is a TH or a LH?

Loosehead

Cheers, decent back up for Marler then - Lambert is an excellent club prop - but if Auterac can add impact off the bench then he could be a good option.
I know there is also Lewis Boyce who looked useful in the loose too.

propdavid_london wrote:Cheers, decent back up for Marler then - Lambert is an excellent club prop - but if Auterac can add impact off the bench then he could be a good option.
I know there is also Lewis Boyce who looked useful in the loose too.

Quins have 4-5 props in each position -
Marler - Auterac - Boyce - Lambo
Sinckler - Collier - Swainston - McNulty - Ibuanokpe.

Which feels like sensible injury / call-up cover and depth. Marler and Sinckler are current England incumbents, Collier's been capped, Boyce and Auterac were U20 (Lambo has been playing long enough to have been U21!). Ibuanokpe looks like a serious prospect - I've been on his table at 2 Quinssa dinners and he's huge, but he's also just completed a physics degree while being in the academy full time, so he should be a bit more disciplined than Marler and Sincks.

Lambo I suspect must be getting close to retirement - he's been around forever and his body won't hold out indefinitely. But then we've got more depth on the LH side. I wonder if the longer term plan is for one of them to swap sides (as Lambo did a few years back, and improved immensely as a result).

Actually looks like some good depth there.
Swainston has prem experience too - although I don't think he ever nailed a starting shirt.
Didn't Ibuanokpe play a few games for Quins last season? Seemed to do quite well and then presumable was back with his loan club!
Don't know much about McNulty aside from his wiki page - Worces to Glous to Quins.

Big Josh is showing on offy as being in the elite group of players who have more points than appearances - 5 points in only 3 games.

Ha.....is that good or bad?

propdavid_london wrote:Ha.....is that good or bad?

Good. Definitely good. Especially for a prop. I think Nick Easter was in that club as well.

I am glad we've signed this USA centre.
Gives Gustard another option with a different kind of player.
Certainly shores up my concerns that we were looking a little lightweight in the midfield.

Talk to me about Auterac.

Every season I read about how much of a unit he is and what a good quality player he is. Then I look out for him in the England squads and as I recall, he fails to appear. What's the deal? Is he still quite young for a test prop?

Hi George,
Its the Bath guys you need to be asking about Auterac.
I've heard the same as you - Young, mobile, exceptionally strong etc. From what I gather he's had a bad run of serious injuries so perhaps Quins are taking a risk with him.
He is only 25/26 so still has plenty of time.

The following article suggest that there were some 'attitude' problems too - https://www.therugbypaper.co.uk/latest-news/30682/nick-auterac-hits-back-after-nightmare-stint-at-bath/

Sounds like he was a bit miffed that Ben Obano overtook him in the pegging order too.

George Carlin wrote:Talk to me about Auterac.

Every season I read about how much of a unit he is and what a good quality player he is. Then I look out for him in the England squads and as I recall, he fails to appear. What's the deal? Is he still quite young for a test prop?

All I remember is he has massive biceps. Like. Huge. Too big to allow him to function in polite society.

Looked handy in the loose too.

propdavid_london wrote:Actually looks like some good depth there.
Swainston has prem experience too - although I don't think he ever nailed a starting shirt.
Didn't Ibuanokpe play a few games for Quins last season?  Seemed to do quite well and then presumable was back with his loan club!
Don't know much about McNulty aside from his wiki page - Worces to Glous to Quins.

Yea he played well for the 1st team. He also played lock for the A team iirc. Don't think that'll be too common though! As PF says,he looks a prospect, big unit and hungry to play as you can see when he gets on the pitch.

Gents - is the team up for the Glasgow match in Perth? Thoughts about it?

Quins team's not up yet - but it looks like Glasgow are taking it seriously. I'd expect Quins to still be putting out squad players given the workload on our internationals. So, a decent losing performance is probably the best we can hope for...

What PF said

Glasgow's team is an almost hilarious mix - Academy lads, one semi-pro, some new guys and quite a few cap internationals (from NZ, Australia, Fiji, USA and Scotland). Brand new half back combo. Have absolutely no idea what the result will be but nice to get the season started.

Hmm cannot check the Quins website as it has been deemed unsafe by my virus checker.

LondonTiger wrote:Hmm cannot check the Quins website as it has been deemed unsafe by my virus checker.

Just checked and there's nothing up.