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#Post#: 156933--------------------------------------------------
Jason Gilmore's interview - A pre-season update
DIR By: euroquin
Date: August 11, 2026, 12:08 pm
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HTML https://www.quins.co.uk/video/jason-gilmores-interview-a-pre-season-update
#Post#: 156934--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jason Gilmore's interview - A pre-season update
DIR By: Camquin
Date: August 11, 2026, 12:23 pm
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What is that strange green stuff?
#Post#: 156945--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jason Gilmore's interview - A pre-season update
DIR By: Quinaldo
Date: August 12, 2026, 2:20 am
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Telegraph published this today:
Harlequins will unleash different style of play in new-era
overhaul
Fresh ‘game-model’ part of sweeping changes after horror season
as club bolster coaching team, medical department and leadership
group
Jason Gilmore begins his first campaign as permanent head coach
of Harlequins Credit: Patrick Chandler/Harlequins Rugby
Harlequins are entering a new era after a horror season in which
they came second to last in the Prem.
The club have made plenty of changes to avoid it happening
again. Telegraph Sport breaks down what they have done to ensure
they bounce back in the coming campaign.
Playing style reset
When Jason Gilmore reviewed Quins’ campaign last season, he
identified a number of areas of concern that contributed to
their ninth-place finish in the Prem and underscored the need to
rebuild the foundation stones that were prominent when they won
the title in 2012 and 2021.
“It’s not the freewheeling club that everyone thinks,” the head
coach says. “When Harlequins have been at their best, they’ve
had a dominant forward pack, they’ve won collisions, and then
off the back of that it’s allowed your DCs [Danny Cares] and
your [Marcus] Smiths and those boys to be able to do their
thing.
“If you look at the stats of the Prem in the last five years,
every attack metric is increasing, and obviously that’s done on
purpose. They’re wanting more ball in play, more excitement,
more points because we’re competing against other codes for
eyeballs and commercial dollars. That’s an area of our programme
where we have just stagnated a little bit. While the trends are
going up, we’ve probably been just going the other way a touch.”
Gilmore, who was appointed as permanent head coach in March
after serving as an interim, has dedicated the first four weeks
of the pre-season to reset the club’s “game model”.
Harlequins players are put through their paces in pre-season
training Credit: Patrick Chandler
“We have been rebuilding the foundations of our line-out and
attack,” Gilmore explains.
The line-out, kicking strategy and conversion of pressure into
points have been among the key priorities.
“We have got a new style of how we will play. I’d like to see us
take more pride in possession of the ball,” Gilmore says. “Our
line-out completion last year wasn’t anywhere near good enough.
That’s your primary source of possession, particularly in good
field position.
“We turned the ball over too easy. Kicking possession away, we
probably did that a little bit too much last year. I like to
apply a bit more pressure to opposition defence and bring the
referee onto our side of the ball and convert pressure into
points.
“It’s definitely an area within our game model, with our how we
design our forward pack to be able to give us good quality ball,
win collisions, and then what our attack shape looks off the
back of it.”
The bare facts show that while Quins won more matches than Sale
Sharks and Gloucester, they finished behind both in the table
because of a lack of bonus points.
“If you look at from third place down to seventh or eighth in
the last five years it is generally bonus points separating
those teams, and we didn’t collate anywhere near the bonus
points that we needed last year.”
Coaching overhaul
A year ago Gilmore, then the club’s defence coach, was asked at
short notice to step up to be interim head coach following the
departure of Danny Wilson to the Wales management team. It gave
him almost no time to prepare or put his stamp on the coaching
ticket.
Now the Australian feels he has his own team around him. Robbie
Deans, the former Crusaders and Wallabies head coach, who has
been appointed as performance director, has just spent two weeks
at the club before returning to Australia. He will spend a total
of 12 weeks “on the ground” this season, monitors the recording
of training sessions, and Gilmore currently speaks or messages
him three or four times a week.
Robbie Deans and Jordan Turner-Hall
Robbie Deans joins Quins on a deal initially lasting until the
end of the 2027-28 season Credit: Patrick Chandler/Harlequins
Rugby
“He’s been excellent,” Gilmore says. “His demeanour is number
one. He’s such a good man, and how he how he supports the
programme, supports the coaches.
“His first two blocks with us are going to be pretty much in and
around the rugby programme, just making sure that we’re getting
that as good as what we can. He won’t say a lot when he doesn’t
need to. He is more just watching and guiding and supporting and
challenging in the background.
“For me personally, he’s been unbelievable, just because I’ve
got a sounding board. I can catch up with him at the start of
the week or the back end of the week. We’ve got a great
relationship. I’m all ears. I want to be the best coach I can
be. So to have someone like Robbie in our corner, I definitely
don’t want to take that for granted, and I want to make the most
of it. I feel if I can do that, then I’m going to put the best
programme forward for our boys to be able to perform well.”
The other key appointments have been Rob Hunter, the former
Exeter Chiefs head coach, who has joined as forwards coach, and
Brad Cooper from Super Rugby champions the Hurricanes, who has
joined as attack coach. Former Quins and England centre Jordan
Turner-Hall has also been recruited to take charge of defence
and transition, while former Great Britain rugby league
scrum-half Sean Long joins as skills and transition coach.
Sean Long
Sean Long joins the Quins coaching set-up after holding a
part-time consultancy role with the club last season Credit:
Patrick Chandler/Harlequins Rugby
“Number one, I wanted men that were best practice in their
position, because we need to put the best around our boys, and
we need to be aggressive with the staff that we recruit at the
club,” Gilmore adds. “And the second one, which was just as
important, was the personality profile and fit within our
coaching room. I didn’t want everyone to have the same
personality type as myself, because then it’s become bland to
the boys, and it’s kind of the same messaging.
“We spent a lot of time in having a look at personality types,
delivery styles. So when you put the jigsaw together, we all
complement each other really well, and I’ve been really happy
with how that’s settled in the first four weeks.”
Hunter is responsible for improving the Quins line-out. “Rob’s
first class. From the very first meeting I had with him, you can
tell he’s a coach’s coach. He’s passionate. He understands
player development. He coaches hard,” Gilmore says.
“He’s got good feel for the wider programme. He’s had head coach
experience… probably in tough times as well, which I think is
important because if you haven’t felt that, can you pre-empt it?
Can you anticipate what’s on the horizon and handle it when it
happens? Having Rob come on board and strip our line-back is
going to be a real positive for us.”
Exeter Chiefs' former head coach Rob Hunter
Rob Hunter’s 13-year stay at Exeter Chiefs ended in May 2025
after a brief spell as head coach Credit: Bob Bradford/Getty
Images
Cooper arrives with an impressive reputation from New Zealand
after the Hurricanes scored a record-breaking total of points
and Gilmore says there will be more nuance to their attacking
game this season.
“Most attack shapes are probably reasonably the same across all
teams, if I’m honest, but Coops has definitely brought in a
couple of key shapes that we’re pretty excited to see how they
go,” Gilmore adds. “But I think it’s more around our mindset of
our attack. How we use the ball and how we can convert pressure.
How we can develop momentum. If we don’t have momentum, how do
we get it back?
“I’d like to think that when people watch us this year, that
we’ll be more accurate with what we do with the attack.”
High-performance shake-up
Gilmore’s review of last season has also prompted a shake-up of
the strength-and-conditioning and medical departments, with
Australian Corey Bocking appointed as head of athlete health and
development in a newly created position, designed to integrate
the athletic and medical departments.
“We had some great wins last year, and we had some terrible
losses. So we’ve got to even that keel out a little bit more
with our consistency,” Gilmore adds. “In the middle of that we
led the league in the injury rates of your top 30 players.
“We had too much of our salary cap sitting on the sideline, and
in a salary cap competition, you can’t have your best players
for major chunks of the season injured. The competition is just
too tight.
“That’s just not medical or S&C. That’s how coaching aligns with
our strength and conditioning to our medical to our logistics as
well… When you’ve got your key people all around the table
discussing it, designing it, planning it, then executing it,
then everyone’s connected.
“We’re definitely putting a lot more emphasis in building
conditioning within our rugby components. We want to be time
efficient, where the boys have got the ball in their hands and
they’re getting better whilst getting their conditioning… I
don’t want any trendy things or a bit of tinsel on the Christmas
tree that actually doesn’t do anything.”
Gilmore believes Quins’ poor injury record played a role in
their ninth-placed finish last term Credit: Bob Bradford/Getty
Images
Bolstered leadership
In the recruitment of Northampton Saints captain and England
full-back George Furbank, Gilmore knows he will not just broaden
his side’s attacking options but also significantly improve the
leadership depth and communication skills.
“He [Furbank] probably came onto our radar 12 months earlier
than what we thought, so we had to act quick,” he says.
“Leadership‑wise, outstanding – he obviously captained
Northampton to Premiership wins and a European final. In terms
of his skill set… if you look at the way George leads the league
with his try‑assist ability, with his catch‑pass
game… His kicking and his passing game to set up plays on the
outside will be excellent.”
Importantly, Furbank will also offer a dual playmaking alongside
Marcus Smith. “He can cover 10 for us as well. So if Smithy
needs a rest, or if he misses a game, we can push George forward
into the 10 shirt. He probably gives us two positions in one if
we need it.”
Other key signings include sizeable second-row James Dun, who
joins from Bristol, and a pair of props in South African
tighthead Sampie Swiegers and Australian Harry Johnson-Holmes,
who can cover both sides of the scrum.
James Dun made 57 appearances for Bristol after coming through
their academy Credit: Patrick Chandler/Harlequins Rugby
Fin Baxter, is another who is being talked about as a future
England captain. He was sorely missed by England head coach
Steve Borthwick this year after sustaining a foot injury in
January but is running again and expected to be available for
Quins’ opening Prem fixture against Bath.
“He’s a baby-faced assassin,” Gilmore says with a laugh. “Butter
wouldn’t melt in his mouth at times, but you know he’s going to
be one of the best looseheads in the world. There’s no doubt
about that.”
Gilmore name-checks flanker Seb Driscoll and No 8 Lucas Schmid,
son of the former Canadian international Mike, as forwards who
could force their way into the 23 while captain Alex Dombrandt
recovers from his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. He
has high hopes too for centre Ben Waghorn if he can stay injury
free.
In the meantime, it is likely that Cadan Murley will retain the
captaincy in Dombrandt’s absence.
“I’m a big fan of Cadan. He’s such a good man. Our boys respond
to him. He sets a really good standard,” Gilmore adds.
“I want us to earn respect in the competition this year,” he
says. “We can talk as much as we want. We can put up as many
social media posts as we want. At the end of the day, it’s what
we do on Saturday at 3pm that’s going to be crucial.”
#Post#: 156946--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jason Gilmore's interview - A pre-season update
DIR By: Bucksquin
Date: August 12, 2026, 2:52 am
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"We can put up as many social media posts as we want. At the end
of the day, it’s what we do on Saturday at 3pm that’s going to
be crucial.” Sounds like someone reads this board!
#Post#: 156957--------------------------------------------------
Re: Jason Gilmore's interview - A pre-season update
DIR By: AAjnr
Date: August 12, 2026, 8:36 am
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Agreed - encouraging noises.
I feel like the serious humbling of last year has given the
coaches a licence to look at every part of the Men's setup and
call out what wasn't good enough. We'll need more proven quality
to challenge for trophies but we seemed to have, rightly, lost
some of the overconfidence in our 'club DNA' playstyle and are
aware of the need to reset and build a new playstyle that
actually works...
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