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'It's starting to heat up': Harlequins give director of rugby search update seven weeks after Paul Gustard's exit

(Photo by Bob Bradford - CameraSport via Getty Images)

Harlequins general manager Billy Millard has delivered an update on the Gallagher Premiership club’s search for a new director of rugby seven weeks after Paul Gustard surprisingly exited The Stoop and was quickly snapped up by Benetton, the Italian Guinness PRO14 outfit.

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Appointed in 2018 in succession to John Kingston, Gustard parted ways with Harlequins on January 20 and Millard, who is currently set to oversee Quins through to the end of the season, suggested eight days later there was scope for Gustard’s yet-to-be-identified successor to perhaps come on board before the 2020/21 campaign reaches its conclusion.

“I have been involved in other environments where people become available and maybe with five games to go they come in respectfully and get a lay of the land so they are not coming in cold pre-season,” he said on January 28.

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Six weeks later, Millard has now provided an update as to where exactly Harlequins are in this search for their new man. “The process has started and there are some conversations going on,” he said when asked by RugbyPass at the club’s weekly media conference what the current state of play post-Gustard is.

“Some of that I’m involved in, some I’m not. That is being worked through as we speak and is starting I guess to heat up in the next three weeks. It’s important that we take our time and we make the right decision.”

Millard revealed in January that Owen Eastwood, a performance culture expert, had been working at the club over the winter, conducting a warts-and-all review of Harlequins. It was said at the time this review was more than half done but it still hasn’t been completed. “It’s still ongoing,” said Millard, adding that the review would tie in with the search for Gustard’s successor. “Those discussions are a part of the work we were doing with Owen.”

The outlook at Harlequins is currently much sunnier than it was when Gustard departed. Five of the six Premiership matches played since the exit of their director of rugby have been won, lifting Quins into third place on the table ahead of this Saturday’s trip to second place Exeter, the defending champions.

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Millard claims he isn’t in the least bit surprised by the club’s improved fortunes, stating that he had every faith the coaching staff who had worked under Gustard would step up and show their worth. “They are all very experienced rugby eyes and they have been working together for a long time. Good relationships with the players, so no it wasn’t a surprise.

“Everyone has just stepped into power and done their jobs really well, from medical staff to S&C, the coaching group. There was a disruption but they have been so impressive, their work ethic, their smarts, their composure, and to be honest the playing group as well.

“We put a bit more ownership on them, that they naturally have to step up and help the coaches, and it has been impressive to sit back and watch everyone work together from six weeks ago. There is no magic secret, everyone is just doing their job really well and working well together.”

    

   

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fl 56 minutes ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

“Yes I wrote that, because you had Leinster as the best team in the world. What was that based on - winning the URC this season?”

It was based on Leinster’s performances over the course of this season, and on their trophy. If Bordeaux beat Toulouse then I’ll change my mind and move them to first. But as it is I expect Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Leinster to all finish with one trophy each, and with Leinster having produced the best week-on-week performances of the three.


“One of those teams won the league in each of those years so yes they were worse. If I was a fan of either of those four teams I would rather have been a fan of a team that won a trophy than didn’t.”

That’s true - I would too. With regard to Stormers I think their trophy was very much enabled by the fact that they weren’t playing in europe, so were able to rest their players much more than the non-SA teams were so I’m not sure whether I would or wouldn’t consider them to have had a better season than Leinster in 2022, but clearly Munster and Glasgow (respectively) had better seasons than Leinster in 2023 and 2024. But if I was a fan of one of those 3 teams I would rather be a fan of a team that won 66 URC+CC matches over the course of 3 seasons (Leinster) than a team that won 46 (Munster) or 42 (Glasgow). If you think trophies are literally the only thing that matters, do you think Blackburn Rovers are a more successful Premier League team than Tottenham Hotspur are?


“You contradict yourself alot. Trophies matter in one post and in the same post coming second consistently makes you better.”

Its going to get really frustrating if you’re not willing to read what I write. I said: “Trophies matter. They matter a lot. But so does winning games. So does making finals.” How does that contradict my assessment that Leinster were better than Stormers?


“I doubt Leinster would say they have been the better team in any of the seasons you keep going on about.”

Teams generally downplay talk of them being the best, so that wouldn’t surprise me. But crucially I don’t think Leinster were the best team in 2022, or in 2023, or in 2024, so I’m not sure what you think you’re responding to.


“Lets make it clear though - you are the one who went on and on about previous seasons with your deep dive into la Rochelle and Stormers etc.”

Yeah - I did that because you brought up Leinster’s trophyless record from 2022-2024, so I thought that was worth responding to. If you’d like though I can stop responding to the things you say?

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