'He’s putting his hand up to grab that starting No.8 jersey for England'

Alex Dombrandt is expected to be recalled by England next week, with Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore insisting his return would be fitting reward for his blockbuster form.

Dombrandt was named man of the match as Quins engineered 34 unanswered points to come from behind in a thrilling 41-24 Gallagher Prem victory over Exeter in front of a 36,925 crowd at Allianz Stadium.

The 29-year-old club captain won the most recent of his 23 caps on the 2025 summer tour to Argentina and the United States but has since been overlooked, with Ben Earl and Henry Pollock above him in the number eight pecking order.

England boss Steve Borthwick on Monday names his first squad ahead of the July Tests against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina, and Dombrandt has played his way into contention.

Gilmore said: “Alex has been amazing and his last three months have been outstanding.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Northampton

16

13

2

1

67

2

Bath

16

12

4

0

63

3

Leicester

15

11

4

0

57

4

Exeter Chiefs

16

9

6

1

55

5

Saracens

16

9

7

0

52

6

Bristol

16

10

6

0

50

7

Sale

15

4

11

0

28

8

Harlequins

16

5

11

0

26

9

Gloucester

16

4

12

0

25

10

Newcastle

16

1

15

0

7

“I don’t think there are too many better number eights in the country at the moment. He’s putting his hand up to grab that starting eight jersey for England as well.

“The growth in his game and in his leadership has been a real bright spot for us that I know we can carry into next season.

“In the first half of the season he had a couple of little niggles that meant he couldn’t build any rhythm with his game.

“He got moved out of the England squad which hurt him because he’s a proud Englishman.

“Captaincy is easy when you’re winning games, but captaincy when you’re under fire isn’t and we’ve been on the back foot a fair bit this season.

“He’s got a big three games to finish with, including this one, so to get man of the match against a physical Exeter pack is excellent, but he must back it up against Saracens and Northampton and I know he will.”

Marcus Smith also did his prospects of being involved with England in the Nations Championship this summer no harm by marshalling Harlequins’ fightback after they fell 24-7 behind.

“Marcus has been working really hard to develop the control side of his game and I thought his kicking game, particularly in that second half, was excellent,” Gilmore said.

“He wanted to change the strategy at half-time and kick a little bit longer and we backed what he wanted. We got our kick chase off the back of it.”

Exeter were hit by an ankle injury to Australia star Len Ikitau and director of rugby Rob Baxter felt the Chiefs’ recent schedule, which included losing to Ulster in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup and beating champions Bath, explained their second-half collapse.

“We looked like a team that has gone back-to-back big games over a number of weeks with quite a few short turnarounds,” Baxter said.

“We looked a bit battered and bruised. Our emotional and physical batteries were drained.

“Even when the game was tight, we started doing some odd things trying to chase it back when we didn’t need to.”