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Harlequins statement: Jerry Flannery will depart in late February

Harlequins' Jerry Flannery (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

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.

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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.

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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”.

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2 Comments
m
mark 498 days ago

A big loss for Quins but you can’t restrict his progress.

N
NR 498 days ago

Looks like South Africa is assembling a dream team, poaching talent from rivals like it's a rugby supermarket sweep! First, it was Felix Jones, and now Jerry Flannery joins the Springboks' coaching lineup. The only defense these coaches are interested in is breaking down opposition strategies. Good luck, rest of the world – you're going to need it!

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f
fl 1 hour ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

I ultimately don’t care who the best club team in the world is, so yeah, lets agree to disagree on that.


I would appreciate clarity on a couple of things though:

Where did I contradict myself?

Saying “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” is entirely compatible with ranking a team as the best - over an extended period - when they have won more games and made more finals than other comparable teams. It would be contradictory for me to say “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” and then completely ignore Leinster record of winning games and making finals.


“You can get frustrated and say I am not reading what you write, but when you quote me, then your first line is to say thats true (what I wrote), but by the end of the paragraph have stated something different, thats where you contradict yourself.”

What you said (that I think trophies matter) is true, in that I said “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.”. Do you understand that Leinster won more games and made more finals than any other (URC-based) team did under the period under consideration?


“Pointless comparison on Blackburn and Tottenham to this discussion as no-one includes them on a list of the best club. I would say that Blackburns title season was better than anything Tottenham have done in the Premier League. My reference to the league was that the team who finished second over two seasons are not better than the two other teams who did win the league each time. One of the best - of course, but not the best, which is relevant to my point here about Leinster, not comparing teams who won 30 years ago against a team that never won.”

I really don’t understand why you would think that this is irrelevant. You seem to be saying that winning trophies is the only thing that matters when assessing who is the best, but doesn’t matter at all when assessing who is 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.


“What I referred to in my Leinster wouldn’t say the were the best is your post earlier where you said Leinster were the best overall. You said that in two separate posts. Seasons dont work like that, they are individual. Unless the same team keeps winning then you can say they were the best over a period of time and group them, but thats not the case here.”

Well then we’ve just been talking at cross purposes. In that my position (that Leinster were the best team overall in 2022-2024) was pretty clear, and you just decided to respond to a different point (whether Leinster were the best team individually in particular years) essentially making the entire discussion completely pointless. I guess if you think that trophies are the only thing that matters then it makes sense to see the season as an individual event that culminates in a trophy (or not), whereas because I believe that trophies matter a lot, but that so does winning matches and making finals, it makes it easier for me to consider quality over an extended period.

24 Go to comments
M
MT 1 hour ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

As I said in one of my first replies to you - we can agree to disagree. If you want to leave it no problem. I completely disagree with your ranking of Leinster as the best team in the world. Now you have said you will change it if Bordeaux win the Top 14. Well as Leinster themselves prioritise the CC over the URC and Bordeaux won the CC, how are they not ranked higher by you? Are Leinster one of the best teams, yeah - never said they weren’t. But not the very best team, as the very best team have trophies to show for their seasons. They matter when you discuss the very best.


You can get frustrated and say I am not reading what you write, but when you quote me, then your first line is to say thats true (what I wrote), but by the end of the paragraph have stated something different, thats where you contradict yourself. Just so we are clear, you said you would too on my statement that I would rather be a fan of a team that won a trophy over the three seasons, but end the paragraph saying you would rather be a fan of the team that won the most matches but didn’t win a trophy. Both cant be true. Thats one example of where you contradict yourself.


Pointless comparison on Blackburn and Tottenham to this discussion as no-one includes them on a list of the best club. I would say that Blackburns title season was better than anything Tottenham have done in the Premier League. My reference to the league was that the team who finished second over two seasons are not better than the two other teams who did win the league each time. One of the best - of course, but not the best, which is relevant to my point here about Leinster, not comparing teams who won 30 years ago against a team that never won.


What I referred to in my Leinster wouldn’t say the were the best is your post earlier where you said Leinster were the best overall. You said that in two separate posts. Seasons dont work like that, they are individual. Unless the same team keeps winning then you can say they were the best over a period of time and group them, but thats not the case here.

24 Go to comments
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