Quins boss expresses harsh truth for aspiring England internationals

Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore hopes Sunday’s 61-10 Champions Cup hammering of previously unbeaten Stormers will prove a turning point for his team after a difficult few weeks.

Stormers had won their 10 games so far this season, two in this competition and eight in the United Rugby Championship, but produced a dismal display at the Twickenham Stoop after leaving their first-choice side in Cape Town.

Quins were able to take full advantage, securing their place in the knockout stages with one group game remaining. They now face a daunting trip to La Rochelle, where they are likely to need a win if they are to clinch a home tie in the next round.

Gilmore, whose side suffered heavy defeats in each of their last three games, said: “Hopefully this result will be a catalyst for us, as it’s a pleasing result after a difficult few weeks.

“We’ve changed the training a bit to try and get some more rhythm into our attack, and we saw the benefit today. In addition, our defence was vastly improved than in recent weeks as we showed real fight to keep our line intact.”

Marcus Smith and Tyrone Green pulled the strings, with Nick David scoring three of the hosts’ nine tries. Jack Kenningham, Cadan Murley, Alex Dombrandt, Chandler Cunningham-South, Zach Carr and Jarrod Evans also touched down, with Smith converting eight.

Imad Khan and Dylan Maart scored consolation tries for Stormers.

“I thought Kenners (Kenningham) was outstanding,” Gilmore added. “He has the ambition to put on an England shirt and it’s difficult when your side is not performing, but he has been at the heart of everything for us this season.”

Quins captain Dombrandt said: “It’s been a tough few weeks for us but we’ve stuck together and had some honest conversations.

“We now have games against La Rochelle and Leicester, and need to put in some good performances against strong opposition to back up this result.”

Stormers head coach John Dobson described the afternoon as “humiliating”.

“I’ve no regrets about the team we selected as I thought we had a side to do the job and at least do enough to compete,” he said.

“It’s not possible to pick the first-choice players every week and we assessed that we needed one win from two games to qualify so we chose to prioritise our home fixture against Leicester next week as that seemed the sensible option.

“It was a disastrous first 20 minutes as everything went wrong, but they totally dominated the collisions and at the breakdown.

“They have one of the quickest breakdowns in Europe and showed why they wanted to target this competition after some disappointing results in the Prem.

“We certainly lost our unbeaten record in style as it was humiliating.”