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#Post#: 2200--------------------------------------------------
Re David Ellis Evening!!!!!
DIR By: Pickled Pelicon
Date: August 1, 2018, 4:17 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
As predicted,
Club has decided not to release video and soundtrack of the
evening, due to it's sensitivity......
Club has given a text "version" to Quinssa......
Anybody with video/sound bites from the evening, please can you
upload to social media.
By the way, Quinssa said that this wouldn't happen. It just did!
:-)
#Post#: 2201--------------------------------------------------
David Ellis Meeting
DIR By: BedfordshireBoy
Date: August 1, 2018, 4:21 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Message from Quinssa concerning the meeting:
On the back of the David Ellis event, Quinssa arranged in
conjunction with the Club on May 1st, we committed to provide a
recording of the evening. We made this commitment in good faith
on the back of agreement with the Club that a recording would be
made, and provided to ourselves for distribution after the
event.
The Club have provided the following written summary of the
event, rather than a recording, because "some of the discussion
touched on commercially sensitive topics that while appropriate
for the event and those present, are not suitable for wider
public sharing".
The Club apologises to Quinssa and its members for not releasing
the recording of the event and for the delay in providing this
summary, the content of which Quinssa have had no input.
We are disappointed that we cannot provide more than this
written summary and apologise to any members feeling similarly.
If anyone would like to contact the Club regarding the update,
they can do so by emailing customerexperience@quins.co.uk.
The Quinssa Committee
#Post#: 2202--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re David Ellis Evening!!!!!
DIR By: Pickled Pelicon
Date: August 1, 2018, 4:26 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The latest updates from Quinssa
View this email in your browser
Dear Pickled P.
On the back of the David Ellis event, Quinssa arranged in
conjunction with the Club on May 1st, we committed to provide a
recording of the evening. We made this commitment in good faith
on the back of agreement with the Club that a recording would
be made, and provided to ourselves for distribution after the
event.
The Club have provided the following written summary of the
event, rather than a recording, because "some of the discussion
touched on commercially sensitive topics that while
appropriate for the event and those present, are not suitable
for wider public sharing".
The Club apologises to Quinssa and its members for not
releasing the recording of the event and for the delay in
providing this summary, the content of which Quinssa have had
no input.
We are disappointed that we cannot provide more than this
written summary and apologise to any members feeling
similarly.
If anyone would like to contact the Club regarding the update,
they can do so by emailing customerexperience@quins.co.uk.
The Quinssa Committee
Written Summary
Quinssa Q&A with David Ellis
Following our recent ‘Evening with David Ellis’ event, the
Club have published a written summary of the key themes that
were raised to share with supporters who were unable to attend
on the night.
Although the event was filmed, due to some of the discussion
touching on commercially sensitive topics, the Club provided
this update rather than share an edited version the
recording.
Why is Harlequins such an attractive club?
We are such an exciting place when you see the opportunity here
and when you see the strength in the squad.
We feel like we’ve got one the strongest squads that we’ve had
in a very long period of time and, when you see the assets we
have like the buildings at Surrey Sports Park, the
relationships that we have with the All Blacks, the experts
who come into work with us and the partners we are able to
leverage to gain greater insight and push the athletes to get
that extra 1%, the heritage, the shirt we have and the people
around the world that love us for our style of play. It is
really one of the most exciting places to be in world rugby.
Where did it all go wrong last season? Why did you give your
Director of Rugby an extended contract at Christmas and then
sack him two months later?
There is a lot of misperception out there right now.
We didn’t award the new contract at Christmas time. The way
that the coaching contracts work is that you are always
looking at a year out, and when we looked at the end of last
season with John Kingston, he had taken us to sixth in the
Premiership which was better than we had achieved for the
previous three years.
In terms of recruitment John had wrestled wonderfully with the
imbalance caused when our wonderful youngsters come through and
up into the national squad.
He brought in a ball-playing number 12 in Francis Saili,
Demetri Catrakilis who is a leader at 10, and also Renaldo
Bothma. We felt we had a new spine to the team, and so when we
sat down at the end of last season, we made a commitment
because we believed in what was going on and we believed in the
momentum.
Why didn’t you tell us in the summer? It looked odd that you
announced at Christmas, and then a few months later John was
gone.
Again, when you go back to what happens in the rugby world, we
were recruiting players at Christmas time, so when John
recruited Nathan Earle from Saracens and Ben Tapuai from Bath,
we needed them to buy into that dream and that vision. With
20/20 hindsight, we may have made a different decision and said
something in the summer, but it became something it shouldn’t
have been.
Why did you feel the need to make the change when you did? What
had happened to force you into that decision?
There are three main issues that we faced collectively on the
field, and the number one was injuries. The rugby department,
in everything that it does, tries to get the best 15 on the
field as often as possible. When we won the Premiership we had
the same guys on the field in think 78% of the time, but this
season at one point we had 31 injuries which, out of a squad of
58 including academy players, that made it difficult to get the
momentum required to do battle together. The number of injuries
was in fact unprecedented and we need to find out why that
was.
Then, there were two other areas which were in our control that
we didn’t perform well-enough at. The first was defence. Our
processes didn’t work the way we wanted to and we got to the
point where we needed to always score more than our opponents,
which made for very exciting games, but often very scary games
to watch.
And the other is discipline. Our record with yellow cards and
red cards often meant that we were playing with 14 against 15.
All of these coming together made it very difficult for us to
compete, especially because of how competitive our league is
now. You cannot get away with such small margins now that the
differences between top and bottom are so minute.
What are the plans to re-develop the stadium
We’ve been on this ground for 54 years and we are blessed enough
with you as our supporters, and the attraction we have as a
club, to be at 98% capacity for our Premiership games. This is
our home and we want to stay here, so first and foremost we are
not moving. However we do have an opportunity - a demand - for
more space and better facilities.
We have started engaging, and we will be engaging in a more
formal public consultation with all of you - our supporters -
and in the local area to find out what The Stoop, our home,
means for the future and how can we improve and build on it.
We’ve started that journey, and we’ve looked at the
infrastructure of the stadium, but we’ve also said that if we
want to be here for another 54 years then it is really
important that we integrate really well and with consideration
to the local community.
We’ve been part of building the free school over the road, and
we know the effectiveness of our Foundation in terms of going
into local schools and talking about mental health,
translating what we know about stamina and resilience into our
local community and helping them along. We’re trying to build
on that premise to take into our development of a new stadium:
leading in the community as a club and taking on opportunities
around us.
Yes, we want a bigger stadium and yes, we want to stay on this
site. It is really important that we keep our heritage, our
identity - all the things we care about - but it is even more
important that we integrate deeper with our local community so
that we can be here in a sustainable fashion for a long time.
And if we build a bigger stadium, that will be better for the
club in terms of our financial reserves which will give us
another 10/15 years of being in a strong position in this
community both on and off the field.
What is a dream size for the stadium? 30,000. If you look at
the footprint, there is the potential to do that.
Are the Club’s recent poor performances due to other off-field
distractions?
I think you all know, but if you don’t, we spend all the way up
to the salary cap, so our investment into the rugby is pretty
much at the maximum it can be.
We then look at the facilities and the coaching infrastructure
we’ve got at Surrey Sports Park and we invest a huge amount
into that.
One of the main reasons that you see a deficit is that the
salary cap and went up by over £2m, and the support costs went
up, and we went with them to make sure we invested in the rugby
first and foremost.
It is easy to say that we have been distracted by other
things, but I would disagree with you because rugby is our
core. We are a rugby club.
It may seem like we are distracted but everything that we do is
focused on the rugby and trying to get the best XV on the field.
We wouldn’t engage in a relationship with the All Blacks if we
weren’t focused on the rugby – that isn’t a commercial deal.
There may be some interesting stuff with adidas that comes
along but that’s about getting the pathways in place, getting
the players, getting the coaches and the experience. We are
driven by the fact that we are a rugby club.
What is the reason for the increase in price of membership
Membership has gone up 2-3%, but small price hikes are
sometimes necessary to help the Club grow.
How did the NZ link-up happen and how will Quins benefit?
We started talking to them about 18 months ago, when we had the
Maori match here during our 150thyear.
As with all these things there are a number of reasons why you
start having conversations. Part of it is because of the
so-called New Zealand “brain drain” - with players being
attracted away from New Zealand for vast sums of money that the
Union can’t support, so they are looking at ways to create
environments for players coming out of New Zealand for them to
go to where they would get an insight into and help with their
player development and their character development. With that
premise in mind, we started talking to them about what
Harlequins could do.
Everything, however, is reciprocal. We thought: what could this
mean for the development of our academy players? And how
placing them in one of the lower competitions in New Zealand
could aid their progression so that when they come back and play
for us, they’re better rugby players.
So that was the premise, helping some of the emerging All
Blacks, or people who may be taking a sabbatical, to come up
here in an environment in which they can thrive (which can
benefit us from a playing perspective) but I think what’s more
exciting are the pathways that have been created for our younger
people and for our women.
The other part of it is the coaching side. How can we share and
understand knowledge that can make us become better, to compete
more, to be world class? Nick Evans has already been out there
and we’re learning how we can grow the coaching learning and
development profiles as we need them.
Also it is important to say that being in London we are in a
good area for a team like the All Blacks, and we do have a
joint mutual, beneficial relationship with adidas because
there’s got to be things that we can do together that excites
more people to play rugby. We’re well-known in the world and
clearly they are the number one team in the world right now.
What about the reports that Quins will be paying off coaches to
the tune of £2m?
More fake news. It’s the same as what came out about Marcus
Smith’s salary. Please, don’t believe that stuff. It’s not
where we’re at.
Summary
While it feels hard right now there are so many amazing things
that are going on at Harlequins. We have a very talented squad,
a wonderful group of players, an amazing talent pool coming
through; we’ve got wonderful relationships around the world
that are excited about what we can achieve and we are at the
forefront of driving rugby.
I say this with humility, but I don’t think that there could
be another club in the world that would attract the All Blacks.
When you see the emergence of the women’s game and how our
Foundation has brought over 1,000 girls to the sport within a
year by going into all the local schools; when you see our
ambition to grow the Club…
We have the best fan base in the whole country; our stadium is
at 98% capacity; irrespective of the fact that we’re in a tough
place. The attraction to this place for potential coaches is
great, and the opportunity for us to galvanise all these things
and shoot up the Premiership and be great again is there for
the taking.
I am very proud of this club. We have had a tough season but we
will come back stronger, and the opportunity to come back
stronger is clear and obvious and we need to take it.
I want to say thank you to all of you. Without you, we are not a
club. Without us being angry and disappointed and passionate,
it would be terrible.
Thank you for sharing your views. We’ve started a debate, and
we need to continue the debate. All I can say is that, like all
of you, we care very deeply about this place and it hurts when
it isn’t going well, but the opportunity to do it right is there
and we’re going to take it and we’re going to lead it forward
going into next season.
Copyright © 2018 Quinssa, All rights reserved.
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Quinssa
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#Post#: 2203--------------------------------------------------
Re: David Ellis Meeting
DIR By: BedfordshireBoy
Date: August 1, 2018, 4:26 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
And the statements from the club:
Why is Harlequins such an attractive club?
We are such an exciting place when you see the opportunity here
and when you see the strength in the squad.
We feel like we’ve got one the strongest squads that we’ve had
in a very long period of time and, when you see the assets we
have like the buildings at Surrey Sports Park, the relationships
that we have with the All Blacks, the experts who come into work
with us and the partners we are able to leverage to gain greater
insight and push the athletes to get that extra 1%, the
heritage, the shirt we have and the people around the world that
love us for our style of play. It is really one of the most
exciting places to be in world rugby.
Where did it all go wrong last season? Why did you give your
Director of Rugby an extended contract at Christmas and then
sack him two months later?
There is a lot of misperception out there right now.
We didn’t award the new contract at Christmas time. The way that
the coaching contracts work is that you are always looking at a
year out, and when we looked at the end of last season with John
Kingston, he had taken us to sixth in the Premiership which was
better than we had achieved for the previous three years.
In terms of recruitment John had wrestled wonderfully with the
imbalance caused when our wonderful youngsters come through and
up into the national squad.
He brought in a ball-playing number 12 in Francis Saili, Demetri
Catrakilis who is a leader at 10, and also Renaldo Bothma. We
felt we had a new spine to the team, and so when we sat down at
the end of last season, we made a commitment because we believed
in what was going on and we believed in the momentum.
Why didn’t you tell us in the summer? It looked odd that you
announced at Christmas, and then a few months later John was
gone.
Again, when you go back to what happens in the rugby world, we
were recruiting players at Christmas time, so when John
recruited Nathan Earle from Saracens and Ben Tapuai from Bath,
we needed them to buy into that dream and that vision. With
20/20 hindsight, we may have made a different decision and said
something in the summer, but it became something it shouldn’t
have been.
Why did you feel the need to make the change when you did? What
had happened to force you into that decision?
There are three main issues that we faced collectively on the
field, and the number one was injuries. The rugby department, in
everything that it does, tries to get the best 15 on the field
as often as possible. When we won the Premiership we had the
same guys on the field in think 78% of the time, but this
season at one point we had 31 injuries which, out of a squad of
58 including academy players, that made it difficult to get the
momentum required to do battle together. The number of injuries
was in fact unprecedented and we need to find out why that was.
Then, there were two other areas which were in our control that
we didn’t perform well-enough at. The first was defence. Our
processes didn’t work the way we wanted to and we got to the
point where we needed to always score more than our opponents,
which made for very exciting games, but often very scary games
to watch.
And the other is discipline. Our record with yellow cards and
red cards often meant that we were playing with 14 against 15.
All of these coming together made it very difficult for us to
compete, especially because of how competitive our league is
now. You cannot get away with such small margins now that the
differences between top and bottom are so minute.
What are the plans to re-develop the stadium
We’ve been on this ground for 54 years and we are blessed enough
with you as our supporters, and the attraction we have as a
club, to be at 98% capacity for our Premiership games. This is
our home and we want to stay here, so first and foremost we are
not moving. However we do have an opportunity - a demand - for
more space and better facilities.
We have started engaging, and we will be engaging in a more
formal public consultation with all of you - our supporters -
and in the local area to find out what The Stoop, our home,
means for the future and how can we improve and build on it.
We’ve started that journey, and we’ve looked at the
infrastructure of the stadium, but we’ve also said that if we
want to be here for another 54 years then it is really important
that we integrate really well and with consideration to the
local community.
We’ve been part of building the free school over the road, and
we know the effectiveness of our Foundation in terms of going
into local schools and talking about mental health, translating
what we know about stamina and resilience into our local
community and helping them along. We’re trying to build on that
premise to take into our development of a new stadium: leading
in the community as a club and taking on opportunities around
us.
Yes, we want a bigger stadium and yes, we want to stay on this
site. It is really important that we keep our heritage, our
identity - all the things we care about - but it is even more
important that we integrate deeper with our local community so
that we can be here in a sustainable fashion for a long time.
And if we build a bigger stadium, that will be better for the
club in terms of our financial reserves which will give us
another 10/15 years of being in a strong position in this
community both on and off the field.
What is a dream size for the stadium? 30,000. If you look at the
footprint, there is the potential to do that.
Are the Club’s recent poor performances due to other off-field
distractions?
I think you all know, but if you don’t, we spend all the way up
to the salary cap, so our investment into the rugby is pretty
much at the maximum it can be.
We then look at the facilities and the coaching infrastructure
we’ve got at Surrey Sports Park and we invest a huge amount into
that.
One of the main reasons that you see a deficit is that the
salary cap and went up by over £2m, and the support costs went
up, and we went with them to make sure we invested in the rugby
first and foremost.
It is easy to say that we have been distracted by other things,
but I would disagree with you because rugby is our core. We are
a rugby club.
It may seem like we are distracted but everything that we do is
focused on the rugby and trying to get the best XV on the field.
We wouldn’t engage in a relationship with the All Blacks if we
weren’t focused on the rugby – that isn’t a commercial deal.
There may be some interesting stuff with adidas that comes along
but that’s about getting the pathways in place, getting the
players, getting the coaches and the experience. We are driven
by the fact that we are a rugby club.
What is the reason for the increase in price of membership
Membership has gone up 2-3%, but small price hikes are sometimes
necessary to help the Club grow.
How did the NZ link-up happen and how will Quins benefit?
We started talking to them about 18 months ago, when we had the
Maori match here during our 150thyear.
As with all these things there are a number of reasons why you
start having conversations. Part of it is because of the
so-called New Zealand “brain drain” - with players being
attracted away from New Zealand for vast sums of money that the
Union can’t support, so they are looking at ways to create
environments for players coming out of New Zealand for them to
go to where they would get an insight into and help with their
player development and their character development. With that
premise in mind, we started talking to them about what
Harlequins could do.
Everything, however, is reciprocal. We thought: what could this
mean for the development of our academy players? And how placing
them in one of the lower competitions in New Zealand could aid
their progression so that when they come back and play for us,
they’re better rugby players.
So that was the premise, helping some of the emerging All
Blacks, or people who may be taking a sabbatical, to come up
here in an environment in which they can thrive (which can
benefit us from a playing perspective) but I think what’s more
exciting are the pathways that have been created for our younger
people and for our women.
The other part of it is the coaching side. How can we share and
understand knowledge that can make us become better, to compete
more, to be world class? Nick Evans has already been out there
and we’re learning how we can grow the coaching learning and
development profiles as we need them.
Also it is important to say that being in London we are in a
good area for a team like the All Blacks, and we do have a joint
mutual, beneficial relationship with adidas because there’s got
to be things that we can do together that excites more people to
play rugby. We’re well-known in the world and clearly they are
the number one team in the world right now.
What about the reports that Quins will be paying off coaches to
the tune of £2m?
More fake news. It’s the same as what came out about Marcus
Smith’s salary. Please, don’t believe that stuff. It’s not where
we’re at.
Summary
While it feels hard right now there are so many amazing things
that are going on at Harlequins. We have a very talented squad,
a wonderful group of players, an amazing talent pool coming
through; we’ve got wonderful relationships around the world that
are excited about what we can achieve and we are at the
forefront of driving rugby.
I say this with humility, but I don’t think that there could be
another club in the world that would attract the All Blacks.
When you see the emergence of the women’s game and how our
Foundation has brought over 1,000 girls to the sport within a
year by going into all the local schools; when you see our
ambition to grow the Club…
We have the best fan base in the whole country; our stadium is
at 98% capacity; irrespective of the fact that we’re in a tough
place. The attraction to this place for potential coaches is
great, and the opportunity for us to galvanise all these things
and shoot up the Premiership and be great again is there for the
taking.
I am very proud of this club. We have had a tough season but we
will come back stronger, and the opportunity to come back
stronger is clear and obvious and we need to take it.
I want to say thank you to all of you. Without you, we are not a
club. Without us being angry and disappointed and passionate, it
would be terrible.
Thank you for sharing your views. We’ve started a debate, and we
need to continue the debate. All I can say is that, like all of
you, we care very deeply about this place and it hurts when it
isn’t going well, but the opportunity to do it right is there
and we’re going to take it and we’re going to lead it forward
going into next season.
#Post#: 2204--------------------------------------------------
Re: David Ellis Meeting
DIR By: Quinten Poulsen
Date: August 1, 2018, 4:39 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The stadium may have been at 98% but it aint any more.
#Post#: 2205--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re David Ellis Evening!!!!!
DIR By: RodneyRegis
Date: August 1, 2018, 4:43 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Quelle surprise.
I seem to remember there was quite a curt response to those
suggesting we wouldn't get this.
#Post#: 2208--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re David Ellis Evening!!!!!
DIR By: N.G.A.
Date: August 1, 2018, 5:33 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
This was a public meeting, where Quins had agreed to publicise
a recording of the event. If "some of the discussion touched on
commercially sensitive topics that while appropriate for the
event and those present, are not suitable for wider public
sharing" it was highly unprofessional of David Ellis.
To now, after three months, back out of the agreement with
Quinssa to provide a copy of the recording is also
unprofessional.
#Post#: 2209--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re David Ellis Evening!!!!!
DIR By: Rocker
Date: August 1, 2018, 6:04 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Again quelle surprise
#Post#: 2210--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re David Ellis Evening!!!!!
DIR By: Samquin
Date: August 1, 2018, 6:40 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
So can we analyse the content and highlight what the club
considers as commercially sensitive. I think it was more to
likely the club was worried that Ellis will have repeating his
promises if there are problems down the road over the next
couple of seasons. Self preservation....
#Post#: 2213--------------------------------------------------
Re: Re David Ellis Evening!!!!!
DIR By: Matt72
Date: August 2, 2018, 1:21 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Couldn't they just cut out the bits they thought were sensitive?
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