'New faces coming in': Harlequins to raid Hurricanes to super-charge attack?

Hurricanes assistant Brad Cooper has emerged as a strong contender to become Harlequins’ new attack coach, as boss Jason Gilmore admits they are closing in on an appointment.

Cooper, the son of Taranaki coaching legend Colin, who was one of Robbie Deans’ assistants when the Crusaders won the Super Rugby title in 2002, has spent the last two seasons coaching at the Hurricanes.

Deans, who was appointed as Quins’ performance director in March, has had a hand in the recruitment process, and Gilmore says that they speak on the phone three or four times a week.

Cooper, who has also worked with Taranaki and the New Zealand Under-20s, is understood to have been interviewed for the job along with former Bath, Leicester Tigers and London Irish fly-half Dan Bowden, who is on Eddie Jones’s Japan coaching staff.

There are also whispers that former winger Jordan Turner-Hall, who was a hugely popular player with Quins fans, is in line for a promotion from the academy to defence coach this summer.

“Our performance team are finalised, our medical team is almost there. We’ve just got one more position to fill in attack. We’re just getting the last position finalised this week.

“There will definitely be new faces coming in, and there’ll be some internal staff promotions of people who have done well here that we want to invest in and give them the opportunity to grow as well.

“He (Deans) spent a week over here early doors, and we’d be on the phone three or four times a week just about the big pillars of the programme, recruitment, game model and how we’re coaching.

“He’ll watch our training and obviously watch our games, and we’ll catch up off the back of those. We’re going through the recruitment of some key stuff, and he’s also been a part of that,” said Gilmore.