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Harlequins statement: Jerry Flannery will depart in late February
Defence coach Jerry Flannery will quit Harlequins later this month after the Gallagher Premiership club agreed to release him from his contract to take up an offer to join Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks.
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Flannery’s friend Felix Jones recently stepped away from his role with South Africa following their back-to-back Rugby World Cup triumphs to take up a role coaching defence for Steve Borthwick’s England.
That created the Test-level vacancy that will be filled by Flannery, the former Ireland hooker who previously worked under Erasmus at Munster.
Both Flannery and Jones decided not to take up contract extensions at the Irish province in 2019 and while Jones was quickly snapped up by Erasmus to assist the Springboks for their World Cup campaign in Japan, Flannery took some time out before joining Harlequins in 2020 and helping them to Premiership title glory in his first season involved.
Erasmus went to the 2023 finals in France in a director of rugby role but with head coach Jacques Nienaber exiting after the tournament win to take up a senior coach position with Leinster, a coaching reshuffle became necessary.
This resulted on Tuesday in Erasmus being named as Springboks head coach through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia and Flannery was confirmed as one of four newcomers to the Test team’s staff along with fellow assistant Tony Brown, former referee Jaco Peyper and the recently retired No8 Duane Vermeulen.
A statement on the departure of Flannery from the Premiership read: “Harlequins can confirm that defence coach Jerry Flannery will depart the club in February to take up a coaching role with the South African national team.
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“Flannery will depart for the Springboks following the high-profile friendly match at The Stoop on Friday, February 23, as Harlequins take on his former side Munster.
“Having joined the club in 2020, he has been a key part of the coaching team that won the Gallagher Premiership title in 2021 and now stands second in the Premiership.”
Harlequins director of rugby Billy Millard said: “We will be sorry to see Jerry go as he is a big character and can be very proud of his achievements at Harlequins. We wish him well as he moves into international rugby and continues to develop his career.
“He will always be welcome at The Stoop. For the rest of this season, we have a very strong group of coaches and are very fortunate to have assistant defence coach Jordan Turner-Hall with us, and the resources and structure to achieve our goals.”
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Flannery added: “I have loved my time at Harlequins working alongside a talented young group of coaches and players. The opportunity to move into international rugby and to work alongside Rassie Erasmus again after our time at Munster was very appealing.
“I would like to thank Harlequins for supporting my desire to take up this opportunity to develop my career. I look forward to the next few weeks with Harlequins and a final home match at a sold-out Stoop on February 23.”
In a RugbyPass World Cup column last September, Flannery described Erasmus as “an innovator, a genius”.
"It was 2016 at the Castletroy Park Hotel in Limerick when I first met Rassie Erasmus. He was very, very straight with me…"
– The Jerry Flannery Rugby World Cup column in association with Saxo. #RWC2023 #RSAvIRE #SCOvTON #ENGvCHI #WALvAUS https://t.co/xv1oQIbEk1
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 23, 2023
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t worry Sonny bill Williams leave that awkward situation about the curfew in the pass whoever it was it doesn’t matter its no big deal we back our All Blacks through the storm and the thunder until we see the Sun light again.
41 Go to commentsWho listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
41 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
41 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
39 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
41 Go to comments