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#Post#: 146447--------------------------------------------------
Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: December 26, 2025, 3:28 am
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Prem champions less than five years ago, London club are
languishing in eighth having won just two of their opening seven
league games
Gavin Mairs
26 December 2025 7:01am GMT
We are still in December and yet Harlequins are already facing a
“do or die” moment in their Prem campaign. That is the stark
assessment of their senior head coach Jason Gilmore.
His side head to Sale Sharks on Boxing Day, where they have won
only once in their last eight visits. Then, on January 3,
Harlequins travel to Northampton Saints. With just two wins from
seven rounds, Quins are currently 16 points adrift of Leicester
Tigers and a place in the top four.
Two more defeats, on the back of their humiliating display
against Bristol in their “Big Game” at Allianz Stadium last
Saturday, and Gilmore believes their season will effectively be
over.
“Going to Manchester on Boxing Day to play Sale is going to be
tough,” said Gilmore. “They are in the same boat as us. You will
have two desperate teams there trying to stay in the league
because the next two games for both teams will be do or die,
really. We know we can mix it. But it is going to be that
physical battle. We can’t wait 40 minutes to get into it.”
The last sentence is a pointed reference to his side’s
first-half display against Bristol, when they allowed Bristol to
run up a 19-point lead by half-time in the 40-14 defeat in their
showpiece game that traditionally brings the best out of a club
that is famed for its inconsistency, having put 60 points on an
understrength Bayonne side seven days earlier in the Challenge
Cup.
Such see-sawing form was also evident in October, when Quins
impressively defeated Saracens 20-14 at the Stoop, only to
collapse to a 38-0 defeat at Exeter Chiefs.
“At our best, we are a hard team to beat,” said Gilmore. “But on
the flip side, if we get too comfortable and we think we are a
good football team and we don’t show it, then we can spiral the
other way. We went from Sarries, which was an outstanding
performance, to play Exeter seven days later and it was one of
our worst performances. It is a bit like last week.”
“You know what Harlequins are like. Their ‘very good’ is very
good but the way they play there are going to be
inconsistencies. If you are going to be very aggressive when you
attack, it is not like you will win every game because you live
by the sword, you die by the sword. That is what Harlequins is
known for. We have to stop the difference between our best and
worst being so great.”
Recognising the problem is one thing, fixing it is another. The
challenge for Gilmore, a former head coach at the Waratahs and
Australia A, is that this season there seems to be a sense of
drift, and the swash-buckling moments that culminated in the
club’s last title win, in 2021, are fewer and further between.
While the club continues to thrive off the pitch, Gilmore, who
joined the club last season as defence coach, was suddenly
thrust into the position of head coach just a couple of weeks
before the start of the season when Danny Wilson was hired by
Wales.
The coaching structure has been unorthodox at best since Paul
Gustard left five years ago as head of rugby. Tabai Matson
replaced Gustard in 2021, but the appointment did not work out
and he left the club last year. Billy Millard, previously
director of rugby performance, became director of rugby, with
the club opting to promote from within a coaching group that
includes former players Nick Evans and Adam Jones.
The club reached the Champions Cup semi-final in 2024 under
Wilson, who originally joined as a line-out and contact coach,
but last season the club slumped to a seventh-place finish with
just eight wins. At the end of the campaign Wilson and Adam
Jones went on tour with Wales and Millard left for Connacht, and
sources say it left players wondering who was in charge and
disrupting their pre-season.
The coaching flux coincided with the loss of key players such as
Andre Esterhuizen and Wilco Louw, and the retirement of club
veterans such as Danny Care and Joe Marler.
“I am surprised that people are surprised,” said one former
player. “This is where the club has been for quite a while. When
we won our first title in 2012 it took them nine years to win it
again. So why are we expecting them to be any different at this
point? They won in ‘21 and they’re probably on track to win it
again in four years’ time, five years’ time.
“Why people are so alarmed about Saturday is that this is a game
that Quins normally perform in. Quins’ USP has always been their
high-tempo attacking game, but currently they are probably only
the fourth best side in the league at that.”
Without a commanding director of rugby, the ability to affect
change seems more challenging. Gilmore works with the head of
recruitment, Ed Spokes, and the high-profile signing of George
Furbank is expected to be confirmed for next season.
Yet another former player is concerned that signing a full-back,
even if he is likely to be England’s starting 15, is not where
the club need to spend.
“We’ve lost ball-carriers like Esterhuizen and Louw, what we
need is big powerful front-five forwards, not a back-three
player,” he said. “What the side need are leaders. Proper
warriors to grab a game by the scruff of the neck and not
capitulate like they did on Saturday.”
Gilmore admits that there is no quick fix and that recruiting
characters is key, along with addressing their boom-or-bust
mindset.
“We have upped the chat in terms of the psychology of the club
around mental toughness,” added Gilmore. “They are young men who
are developing. We have young leaders. The more we can talk
about it and come up with strategies they can try. The more we
can talk about it so the boys know it’s OK to feel like that.
“The other thing is our recruitment. We have a lot of boys who
have come through the academy. They are good men and the
majority are good footballers. We need to look at how we bring
quality leaders who have been through this. It is better to
learn from a player than a coach. One, it is the development and
we need to keep pushing that. We also need to look at the
balance of our squad that can actually lead and handle and guide
the young boys. Fin Baxter and Stephan Lewies have been injured.
You are losing two of your most uncompromising leaders.
“We all want to win desperately. If we start to look for the
cheap options and skip steps, it will be another 12 months of
inconsistency. If we get the strategy right, we can set this
club up in six months’ time. If we go for the quick fix, it
won’t achieve anything. We have got to get it right first across
a number of areas within our club. If we do, then it will turn
around quicker than what you think.”
#Post#: 146448--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: December 26, 2025, 3:29 am
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[emoji6]
#Post#: 146449--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: FrostAndFire
Date: December 26, 2025, 3:52 am
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At least Gilmore is promising a 6 month plan rather than a three
year one.
#Post#: 146450--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: Rugbycat
Date: December 26, 2025, 4:03 am
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Sounds like a rationale to still be in charge for next season,
the big question is why it took so long to spot the problems and
the answers seem to be in recruitment which is next season.
Also shifting the problems onto the players with no expression
of any fault on his or the other coaches is interesting.
I still think we need a different head coach for next year, as
this all looks a bit too little too late.
#Post#: 146451--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: Quinto
Date: December 26, 2025, 4:05 am
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More excuses. It’s pathetic.
#Post#: 146452--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: FrostAndFire
Date: December 26, 2025, 4:10 am
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--- Quote from: Rugbycat link ---
>
> Sounds like a rationale to still be in charge for next season,
the big question is why it took so long to spot the problems and
the answers seem to be in recruitment which is next season.
>
> Also shifting the problems onto the players with no expression
of any fault on his or the other coaches is interesting.
>
> I still think we need a different head coach for next year, as
this all looks a bit too little too late.
>
--- End Quote ---
I, too, dislike the blame on the players. Of course players are
responsible for their own performances, but the lack of
structure and clear plan is the fault of the coaches.
In terms of recruitment and problem-identification, that has to
fall mainly on Wilson, who of course is now departed. But we
definitely need a new head coach / director of rugby in place in
time to make strategic decisions for next season.
#Post#: 146453--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: Subterra
Date: December 26, 2025, 4:34 am
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Same old story ...
Same old lame excuses ...
Get a hard nosed DOR in who in the words of Dean Richards will
"Awake the Sleeping Giant" and it was his team under COS that
won the 2012 final.
And our CEO has nothing to say about it.
That is fact. The clear out needs to start from the top.
Millard leaving was blow below the belt and I suspect there was
more to him departing than we know about.
"When you plant the fruit trees the trees grow tall.
Then the branches become entwined and mangled and the rotten
fruit falls to the floor.
That my friends is pruning time........"
Will be tha same old excuses when the season ticket prices are
revealed for nest season.
If the Quins supporters cannot see this clear decline with
responsibility from the top the rose tinted glasses need to be
removed.
#Post#: 146454--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: Rugbycat
Date: December 26, 2025, 5:18 am
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--- Quote from: Subterra link ---
>
> Same old story ...
> Same old lame excuses ...
>
> Get a hard nosed DOR in who in the words of Dean Richards will
"Awake the Sleeping Giant" and it was his team under COS that
won the 2012 final.
> And our CEO has nothing to say about it.
> That is fact. The clear out needs to start from the top.
> Millard leaving was blow below the belt and I suspect there
was more to him departing than we know about.
>
> "When you plant the fruit trees the trees grow tall.
> Then the branches become entwined and mangled and the rotten
fruit falls to the floor.
> That my friends is pruning time........"
>
> Will be tha same old excuses when the season ticket prices are
revealed for nest season.
>
> If the Quins supporters cannot see this clear decline with
responsibility from the top the rose tinted glasses need to be
removed.
>
--- End Quote ---
While the club continues to thrive off the pitch
Is what the article says, we have not had a high quality Head
coach or DOR, for a decade, but we really don't know who selects
them.
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's
opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Oscar Wilde
#Post#: 146455--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: MaidstoneQuin
Date: December 26, 2025, 5:38 am
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Re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic comes to mind…
#Post#: 146456--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harlequins’ season is on the line and this is why
DIR By: Brown Bottle
Date: December 26, 2025, 6:58 am
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--- Quote from: MaidstoneQuin link ---
>
> Re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic comes to mind…
>
--- End Quote ---
Probably because people come out with that hackneyed phrase so
frequently.
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