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Harlequins' frank admission about Nick Evans and England

England's Attack Coach Nick Evans during the Six Nations Rugby match between England and Italy at Twickenham Stadium on February 12, 2023 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Bob Bradford - CameraSport via Getty Images)

Harlequins boss Tabai Matson has admitted the club may not have released attack coach Nick Evans to help England’s Six Nations campaign if their current Premiership slump had happened earlier.

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Quins head to Gloucester tomorrow night after a run of four successive Premiership defeats and Evans will not be back to mastermind their attack until after the Six Nations next month. Quins have lost successive Premiership games to Bristol, Northampton, Sale and London Irish with their last league win at Bath on December 2.

Heineken Champions Cup wins at home over Racing 92 and the Cell C Sharks have been achieved but it is the league form that is worrying Matson, the club’s senior coach. Matson, whose team are sixth on the same points as fifth-placed Gloucester, said: “It is a big hole and I am picking up the attack but Nick is real quality and that is why he is helping out England’s attack. I will be honest – we are missing him. When you make decisions to release someone like Nick we were sitting very nicely. Six weeks off, if they came knocking again, it would probably be a different conversation.

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“When the guys come back from England it is phenomenal and they learn something new and Nick will help push the team forward and that is a real positive. Nick has done a fantastic job with us. We are very proud when any player or coach goes onto to international rugby and it’s a real honour.

“The Six Nations is a double-edged sword and we are delighted when they go away (with England) and you try to forecast who we will lose. It does expose players who wouldn’t have got an opportunity so that is a positive – a silver lining. People have played well even though we have been losing and they are the future of the club.

“We haven’t done well in the last four Premiership games and last time we were at Gloucester was one of our best games. They are super consistent and we have big challenges in parts of our game.

“In those four games it’s not just one thing and we gave London Irish a 14-point head start. There is no real rocket science and stuff has been glaring at us with our disciplinary record not good enough. There are lots of little things to tidy up that will have a big impact on our table standing.

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“Everyone is running out of games now and we are still in the hunt but it is very close. We get to play everyone above us in the table and if we are serious about being in the semi-final again and pushing past that we have to win games like Gloucester away from home. We need to get back into winning ways to be contenders. Every year the challenges are different and this season could be tighter and there is a whole list of us rolling towards that third and fourth spot.”

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Campa Gabriel 2 hours ago
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𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 (𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐬𝐩𝐲𝐦𝐚𝐱 ) 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐢 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐮𝐩𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞.𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢 𝐬𝐚𝐰 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 ( 𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐒𝐏𝐘𝐌𝐀𝐗 @ 𝐠𝐦 𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐜 𝐨𝐦 ) 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐢 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐲. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞. 𝐇𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢'𝐦 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥. 𝐇𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐩𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬, 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐭, 𝐡𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞...

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