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Jason Gilmore: 'I've got to go back on how I worded that, that was poor'
By Josh Raisey
Harlequins senior coach Jason Gilmore has not ruled out the prospect of the club making the Gallagher PREM play-offs this season, despite recent comments suggesting their hopes had expired.
Following Quins’ 43-17 loss to Sale Sharks in December, Gilmore said “obviously the PREM’s gone for us,” despite over half the season remaining at that point.
Though Quins suffered a humiliating 66-21 loss to Northampton Saints at the weekend, leaving them 23 points adrift of Bristol Bears in fourth, Gilmore recently backtracked on his comments, refusing to rule out the possibility of the club replicating a similar run which saw them become champions of England in 2021.
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“I’ve probably got to go back on how I worded that, that was poor after the Sale game,” he said.
“We’re still fighting, we want to still make as much of the PREM as we can. If we can get on a run, it’s a big ask, but if we can get on and run, can we Jag into that fourth, fifth spot? You never know what might happen. Like the last time they won on the PREM, but we’re certainly wanting to finish as high as we can to get the most out of PREM.”
The defeat to Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens in no way bolstered Quins’ hopes of making the play-offs, and the defeat was followed soon after by a statement from CEO Laurie Dalrymple, in which he stated “results in the men’s team are not at the level we expect” and hinted at short and long-term changes.
The statement left many speculating over Gilmore’s future at the club, but the Australian said he was consulted over the statement, saying it is what the fans deserve.
“I was consulted with it before it went out, and it’s only right. There’s a lot of good people that support this club that deserve to know what’s going on and where we’re taking this football club as well in the future to make sure that we don’t repeat it.”
The challenges do not get any easier for Quins, with a visit from United Rugby Championship leaders the Stormers on Sunday, who are yet to lose a match this season.
The London club have made a positive start to their Investec Champions Cup campaign, though, sitting third in Pool 3, and Gilmore believes fans will start to see the changes that were mentioned in the statement over the coming weeks, with a trip to La Rochelle coming after the Stormers. He did temper some expectations, however, adding that some issues won’t be fixed overnight.
He said: “There are obviously some issues here that we need to fix. Now, some of them we’ve already started. And we’re hoping to get some short-term gain from.
“But some of the issues here aren’t going to be fixed overnight, so that’s probably where the patience peaks. Everyone wants results quickly, don’t get me wrong, we don’t want to wait three years to be putting ourselves back up there. We want to bounce back quickly, but it’s important that we get the right steps in so that we’re just not looking for quick solutions, where we just keep spinning in this cycle at the moment.”
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