Wounded Harlequins view Anthony Joshua as ideal inspiration for hitting back at Ulster
Paul Gustard is urging his Harlequins players to use Anthony Joshua’s world boxing title triumph to inspire them to victory over Ulster next Friday and keep their Heineken Champions Cup campaign alive.
Harlequins have to bounce back just six days after their debilitating late 25-24 loss to Ulster in Belfast and Quins boss Gustard has shown his squad Joshua’s post-fight interview as an example of how to gain revenge for a narrow loss.
Joshua defeated Andy Ruiz Jr last Saturday to regain the heavyweight world title belts he lost to the same fighter and Gustard believes the motivation that underpinned that win is very relevant heading into the return European fixture with Ulster at the Twickenham Stoop.
After a late John Cooney penalty won the game for Ulster, Gustard and his players watched the Joshua fight live on TV in Belfast and he then used the video of the post-fight interview in a team meeting back at their Surrey training base.
“We have taken a lot of inspiration from Joshua-Ruiz, in particular his post-fight interview when he talked about learning from the first fight, staying humble and learning the lessons having failed the first exam,” said Gustard, the former England defence coach, to RugbyPass.
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“He had good preparation, belief in himself, control of his discipline and emotions and he executed what the coaches asked him to do.
“Those four or five key learnings we showed to the squad and this is our second exam against Ulster and we have a great opportunity to get the result that we want and stay alive in the competition.
“As the saying, goes, it’s not over until the fat lady sings and we have three chances to get three wins (in the pool) and give ourselves an opportunity to progress. As a squad, we had a few beers on Saturday night and watched the Joshua-Ruiz fight because we wanted the boys to have a memory of Belfast and it was a great place to visit.
‘I always wanted to try being a head coach and give it a go, but I was never tripping over myself to do it’
– @dan10mcfarland talks to @heagneyl about @UlsterRugby, @JCooney09, @ChampionsCup and the arrival on Saturday of @Harlequins at the Kingspanhttps://t.co/GVa10gOMX9— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 7, 2019
“On Sunday, I saw a video of Joshua’s post-fight interview and that is what I showed the squad. Joshua talked about where his mindset was and how he dusted himself down from the first loss and how he looked at himself rather than the opposition.
“The analogy very simple to see – he fought he same guy twice and we get the chance to play the same opposition six days later and take the learnings from our game which could be opportunities in attack, frailties in defence or set-piece and middle-game management.
“We have identified the critical ones and that is the basis of our game plan that we are working on this week. There is limited time to prepare and we need to focus on the two or three things we can fix.”
Surgery is set to rule Brown out for six to nine months. https://t.co/3dwsPmrFHS
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 2, 2019
Gustard is finding himself having to deal with questions about player contracts at this crucial time of the year, but he insists he is not going to enter into any more public discussions or concentrate on individual players.
England prop Kyle Sinckler is reportedly a target for Bristol while highly-rated flanker Alex Dombrandt is in negotiations for a new Quins contract with Quins.
Gustard said: “Everyone wants to talk about three or four players but I have X-amount of players off contract and to highlight three or four is unfair on the other players and their negotiations. We have decided as a club not to talk about it.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments