LONG READ Why leading Harlequins could help Alex Dombrandt find favour with England again

Alex Dombrandt has an unenviable task in trying to unseat Ben Earl to win back the England No 8 jersey.

Unless Steve Borthwick engages full-on wacky professor mode and picks the versatile Saracen at centre, it looks like Earl is in the position for the long haul.

The sense remains that Dombrandt is an international-quality player. He certainly looks the part as a ball-playing, offloading No 8 in Harlequins colours and at 6ft 3in and 18st 7lbs, he packs a considerable punch.

However Borthwick’s current preference is for pace rather than size at the base of his back row and that leaves Dombrandt on the outside looking in for his country. While he toured New Zealand in the summer, he did not feature in either Test.

Dombrandt’s England career isn’t quite working out as he would have hoped, having been overlooked for a place in the World Cup squad last year.

But he has something else weighty to occupy his mind this season after being appointed Harlequins captain.

Chris Robshaw’s take, as a former Harlequins – and England – captain is that the role will be good for him not only in Quins terms, but can also help reboot Dombrandt internationally too.

Ben Earl has been one of England’s top three players over the past three years and very much deserves his place in the back row, but Dommers will want to get back there.

“Captaincy will give him a different focus and I hope that brings the best out in him,” said Robshaw. “He has a positive energy to the way he plays the game and he will bring that as captain too. It can make some players go into their shell and be a bit quiet, but he will really embrace it. He’s very much the right man.

“He’s a very good rugby player. Ben Earl has been one of England’s top three players over the past three years and very much deserves his place in the back row, but Dommers will want to get back there.

“He will have learned massively from his time with England’s coaches and leaders and of course from the setbacks he’s had there.”

It can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for an England squad player, conditioned over a period out of the match-day squad, to believe their ceiling with the national side is as a tackle bag holder.

When they are behind one of the team’s top performers like Earl, the danger of this increases – even for someone like Dombrandt, with 17 caps to his name.

The beauty of his promotion at Quins is that it offers him a demanding alternative attraction to pour himself into.

Club captaincy is a many-headed hydra. There is a lot more to it than dusting off your back catalogue of Churchill speeches and trotting them out in the changing room before kick-off.

He will have his team-mates to look out for. It is a long season and players will be up, down and in between during the course of it. The captain needs to have a handle on that.

Then there is the interface with the coaching staff. What are they getting right? What are they getting wrong? What do the team need more of and less of? The captain is the players’ voice.

On top of that his role will entail events with supporters, the media and sponsors – effectively being the face of the club.

And most importantly there is his own game and his own standards he must hit. He cannot be asking things of team-mates that he is not doing himself. He has to lead from the front.

He’s a good age for it. He’s at the stage now where he will be rounded and more confident in himself

With all that on his plate, England can be left to look after itself.

Robshaw feels the timing, with Dombrandt aged 27, is spot on for him to take all this on.

“I captained young and when you’re a young captain you make mistakes,” said Robshaw, who was three years younger when he was handed the responsibility.

“It can be tough captaining players who are a little bit older too, but the bulk of the Quins squad now are around the same age as Dommers. He’s a good age for it. He’s at the stage now where he will be rounded and more confident in himself.

“You can’t captain on your own and he will need key players like Danny (Care) and Joe (Marler) to lean on as well as Marcus Smith and Chandler Cunningham-South.

“But Alex knows the club and its DNA. He knows what makes Quins Quins.”

The club is in Dombrandt’s blood. He was a childhood fan growing up in London before going away to Cardiff Met University.

Since his return to the capital he has become an integral part of the side, playing 139 games and scoring 70 tries.

He was in the team that beat Exeter at Twickenham to win the Premiership title in 2020.

After a sixth-place finish last season which saw the books balanced with nine wins and nine defeats in the Premiership, Dombrandt will be tasked with taking them into the black.

It will not be easy, having lost their attacking spearhead Andre Esterhuizen and their scrum fulcrum Will Collier, although USA prop Titi Lamositele has been recruited from Montpellier.

The key arrival may well turn out to be Jason Gilmore, the Australian defence coach highly rated by Smith.

Quins’ aim should be to mirror Northampton, another attack-minded side who benefited from a defensive upgrade last season.

If Quins can build up a head of steam under Dombrandt, by extension their talented No 8 will start to be re-examined in a different light.

While they are unlikely to emulate the Saints in lifting the Premiership trophy, the play-offs are a viable target.

The spin-off for a successful club, as Northampton found last season, is that their players benefit internationally. There were six Saints in the England squad for the first Test against New Zealand in Dunedin.

If Quins can build up a head of steam under Dombrandt, then by extension their talented No 8 will start to be re-examined in a different light.

Earl is Earl but even plans set in concrete can be rethought.

For the time being though, as he prepares to lead them out at Sale in their opening game of the new season, it is Quins which will be occupying all of Dombrandt’s thoughts.

And maybe that is for the best.