Collaborative approach has driven success at Harlequins

HARLEQUINS have scrapped their captain’s run on the eve of a match as part of their policy of getting feedback from players which sparked their surge to the title last season.

The players felt that battling London rush-hour traffic to get to The Stoop for a session that barely lasted 20 minutes was counter-productive and the coaches agreed they would be better off having a free day.

“We have a collaborative approach here,” said Charlie Mulchrone, Quins skills and kicking coach. “We ask players what they need and what suits them best and their responsibility then is to deliver.

“A number of them live in Guildford or further away and because of rush hour they were coming in at six or seven in the morning for a short session. It effectively made it a full day and when they asked for the captain’s run to be stopped, we recognised they would be mentally fresher if they stayed at home.

“We did it half way through last season and as it worked we have carried it on. They might say they need to go full contact in training or ask us to lay off the contact. It is up to us to be receptive to what they are saying and act on it. Every rugby player in the country can tell you they have been in meetings saying what they think and coaches nod their heads but nothing happens.”

Quins are marking the debut of players for the club by presenting them with a specially embroidered jersey to mark the occasion and giving them messages from friends and family to be read privately before the match.

“Any player can tell you when they made their first appearance, but in the past we were not good at celebrating that,” said Mulchrone. “You only get one debut and we want to make players feel like they belong here. Jamie Benson, our young outside-half, stood up on Monday and told the lads what making his debut meant to him and his family having been with us since he was 13. Those moments do so much for a team.”

Centre Lennox Anyanwu started that Premiership Cup match at Saracens, relieved to be in a Quins jersey again after the frustrations of the previous season when the pandemic restricted him to one minute on the field.

“That was a very tough time,” said the centre who turns 21 at the end of the month. “The reality dawned that you are not in rugby to work out in the gym but to play matches.

“To be in an environment where we trained but did not play was so hard I told the academy manager that I did not want to play any more because I was not enjoying it. Every week was the same and I was taking rugby home with me, which was not good for relationships.”

Ananywu has been on loan at Richmond this season and his fire has been rekindled. “I spoke to a psychologist who told me to concentrate on enjoyment,” he said. “Don’t destroy everything but relax and build into things. Richmond has been a great experience for me and this is an important time for me because I need to show the coaches what I can do.”