LONG READ ‘Quins have under-performed... but with this set-up we can go on and do great things’

If there was a table for under-achievement in English rugby over the past four seasons, Harlequins would arguably top it.

In terms of league finishes Newcastle are the failed state club, having propped up the rest for three of those seasons, but pre-Red Bull, the Falcons were operating on a budget so small it would no longer be allowed under the Prem’s salary floor policy.

Quins have enjoyed sufficient financial clout to spend up to the salary cap yet since the 2021 champions reached the play-offs the following season, they have finished no higher than sixth. The 2025-26 campaign’s last-but-one finish saw them fail to qualify for the Champions Cup for eight years.

While no club has a divine right to dine at the top table, Quins – blessed also by a geography which hands them an enviable supply line of schoolboy talent – should never be as bad as that. Yet they managed to make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse.

Victories over Leicester and Northampton in the Prem Cup to start this campaign off hint at an upturn but no-one will know for sure until the league campaign gets under way in under a fortnight.

The club’s England A flanker Jack Kenningham has lived through the decline, having won the title in his debut season. He is crossing his fingers things have bottomed out.

“I am looking forward to this season. It feels like we’ve got a really well-balanced coaching team and a good squad,” he said.

I really believe that with the stuff we’ve got in place, that we can push on and improve and basically get Quins back to where we should be.

“I like to think we’ll be able to build on the back end of last season, where we started to see some signs of improvement.

“I really believe that with the stuff we’ve got in place, that we can push on and improve  and basically get Quins back to where we should be.

“We have under-performed since we won the league. Being a fan of the club as well as a player, it has been frustrating, but I know with this set-up we’ve got we can go on and do great things.”

The altered set-up he refers to has seen the installation of former Australia head coach Robbie Deans, who is heading up the playing operation, as performance director.

There are parallels with what Northampton did in 2018 in bringing in a wise Kiwi owl after trailing in ninth in the league. Chris Boyd laid the foundations for all the good that has come since for the Saints and Quins are hoping Deans can do the same.

The ex-All Black guided Crusaders to five Super Rugby titles and has led the Saitama Wild Knights to four top-flight triumphs in Japan. He is contracted to be at Quins for 12 weeks of the year, half of which he has already used up ahead of the new season. He will be back around Christmas time and again ahead of the run-in.

The 67-year-old’s remit is to create a high-performance environment out of one where under-performance has become endemic.

Even though it is not a full-time role, it is a far-reaching one. He has been out on the grass in pre-season, observing and acting as a sounding board for head coach Jason Gilmore.

While the game plan belongs to the Australian head coach Jason Gilmore, Deans’ role is to check and challenge, as it is with all aspects of the club’s management and coaching operations.

It’s just great to have someone of his experience at our disposal whenever I have an idea or just need to temperature-check something or catch up and have a beer with him and talk some footy. He’s always got good advice.

It could be that he, rather than George Furbank, represents the club’s most important summer signing.

“He’s just a really good man first and foremost and he fits our environment well and gets on with the players and the staff. He’s been all in straight away,” said Gilmore.

“For me personally it’s just great to have someone of his experience at our disposal whenever I have an idea or just need to temperature-check something or catch up and have a beer with him and talk some footy. He’s always got good advice.

“For the programme he’s been excellent; for me personally he’s going to be a great resource.”

Gilmore was fortunate to survive the last campaign – he certainly cannot afford a repeat – but the movers and shakers at Quins took into account the fact he was handed a hospital pass taking over at short notice after the eve-of-season departure of Danny Wilson.

“When you are an interim coach, you are picking up a programme which is already established, you’re picking up behaviours, standards and a style of play but I feel we have had a really good lead-in to this season,” he said.

Gilmore now has a proper run at it, assisted by forwards coach Rob Hunter, defence coach Jordan Turner-Hall and Brad Cooper from the Hurricanes, who has taken over from the departed Nick Evans as attack coach. Former rugby league international Sean Long, who came in on a consultancy basis last season, is cemented in for this campaign as skills coach.

While the perception of Quins is of a side that is flaky in defence, the fact is that for all the talk of their attacking DNA, only Newcastle scored fewer tries than they did last season.

The numeric lesson of last season was that in these attack-friendly times, the side that scores the most tries wins the league, so Cooper and Long have particularly important roles to play.

“Northampton last year played brilliant, running rugby and they were the deserved winners of the league,” said Kenningham.

“Don’t get me wrong, you need to be able to match up the defensive side – it’s not all about attack – but I actually think we’ve made huge strides in defence in the last couple of years. It’s probably some of the other stuff that has been letting us down.

“Our system has changed for the better and I think that’s going to put us in really good stead going into this season.”

The squad undoubtedly has potential. Maximising that potential, week on week, is the puzzle Quins still have to solve.

The Marcus Smith-Furbank creative hub, with the former Saints full-back taking some of the playmaking burden off Quins’ jack-in-the-box No 10, offers the prospect of a different dynamic.

Beyond Furbank and the tough Bristol second row James Dun, Quins have not gone overboard in terms of recruitment though.

It is a surprise they have not diverted more of their resources to strengthening up front – although a fit Fin Baxter will be the equivalent of a new recruit anyway after missing so much of last season.

The squad undoubtedly has potential. Maximising that potential, week on week, is the puzzle Quins still have to solve.

Quins open up against Bath at The Stoop a week on Friday. It is high time they delivered some bang for their bucks.