Harlequins CEO pins 'highly disruptive' departure of coaching staff for poor form

Dalrymple went on The Times’ ‘The Ruck’ podcast, following a 114-word statement that was released the day after their record 66-21 defeat at Northampton, detailing the disappointment that all departments of the club has felt in recent months.

Harlequins have won just two out of their nine Premiership fixtures so far this season, including their last three conceding 40 points or more.

Just days before their campaign got underway, head coach Wilson left to take up a permanent role within the WRU, which he held temporarily during their tour of Japan in the summer. This caused a reshuffling of the coaching staff, as well as bringing in Toby Booth from Ospreys, to take on this season.

Dalrymple explained that “no matter what club you are in, whatever sport you are: to lose your head coach a matter of days before you effectively start your season is highly disruptive.”

“Could it have been avoided? I don’t think so. Ultimately, a union came in, externally, and wanted to take our head coach, and that was something that only really materialised towards the end of the summer, and we had two choices: we either looked to create some stability within the coaching room that we had, or you would potentially go externally, and overwhelmingly the opinion and the feedback that we got from players and staff that we canvassed was stability was the best route to go.

“So, giving Jason [Gilmore] some credit and some show of appreciation, he could have easily have said ‘I’m okay thanks, I’m going to stay in my own lane at the moment and I’m going to stick to the task’, and he didn’t. He was given the keys to do something that meant that he would take control of it, but we have to bare in mind that he’s taking control of a program that he’s not effectively built, he’s not composed the team that he’s got, he’s not had full oversight or creation of the pre-season plan.

“So, what we’re giving to him at that moment in time is ‘this is kind of how it is’ and ‘this is what you need to make work, for now.’ So, that clearly provides some challenges for him. Some of the issues that we currently have within our program at the moment: he has inherited.”

This is the fourth coaching reshuffle since Paul Gustard left the club in early 2021, with Tabai Matson, Billy Millard and ultimately Wilson’s exit causing a lack of stability in the coaching team at Harlequins.

Rumours swirled around following the departure of Wilson about the hiring of a Director of Rugby, or a new head coach, which was only heightened following the departure of Steve Diamond from Newcastle Red Bulls.

Dalrymple recalled that they had “said at the start of the season, we didn’t want to make any kneejerk decisions. We’d given the current coaching group the responsibility to take us through the season.

We’re in the process now, and I’ll tell you exactly what I’ve told them, we’re benchmarking the coaches that are in our structure and in our system now, but equally benchmarking that with coaches that are external to the club at the moment, and we’re going to go through a process whereby we’re going to identify who we think is the right individual or individuals who are right to take the club forward. “

He also admitted: “I think the really important point to raise is: this is probably one of our biggest failings, or one of the areas that we’ve got wrong over the last few years that the amount of head coaches that we’ve had come in and not been sustainable is ultimately the biggest reason why we’ve got so many wrinkles now in our program, because it feeds off everything.

“It feeds off our recruitment, our retention plan, it feeds off our game model, it feeds off our training week, it feeds off ultimately the culture and the environment of the group. So everything ultimately stems back from the one decision as to who we have as our head coach.”

He pleaded: “We have to get this one really right. We really have to get this right, and we’re going to take our time to make sure that we get it right.”

Harlequins have lost lots of players over recent years, namely those who regularly featured for their title winning side in 2021. Andre Esterhuizen left to go back to the Sharks in South Africa, whereas homegrown talents Joe Marchant and Louis Lynagh left for opportunities abroad. Most recently Nathan Jibulu departed this summer to go to Sale, where he has impressed so far.

With plenty of academy graduates leaving for other opportunities, people are starting to worry whether their most successful graduate, Marcus Smith, will end up leaving Harlequins for pastures new should the club’s fortunes not turn around soon.

“That would be a pretty disastrous situation if one of our best players opted to leave the club,” said Dalrymple. “There may come a day when [Marcus Smith] may well leave, by the way. Again, and some of those decisions will come down to him, and what his long term career aspirations may look like. For as long as he wants to play in England and wants to pull on an England shirt, we firmly believe this is the right home for him. He contributes significantly into the process, he’s one of our senior leaders in the playing group.”

He assured that: “ensuring we retain players like Marcus is obviously extremely important for us, and that particular issue is not keeping me up at night, in that particular sense, because if we put the right people in place, which we’re committed to doing now and making sure we go through the right process to get the right people in place, in order to take the club forward, and by default him and his peers forward, then I don't envision that being a future problem.”

‘Swing the bat’ has become a pretty popular expression amongst Quins fans so far this decade, referring to Quins’ risky but expansive attacking style they became famed for in that title-winning season.

It derived from England Cricket’s ‘Bazball’ philosophy, which saw the England team adopt a more big-hitting play style to rack up a run total, regardless of the amount of time they had left to see out their innings.

Dalrymple described that “I don’t really want to move away from [the Quins DNA], if anything we need to recentre into that. I think the important bit that sits behind that is having the right individuals in order to do that, and I think it’s fair to say the composition of the squad at the moment, we probably need to make some additional recruits.”