Harlequins out to put club ‘back where it belongs’ as England pair herald ‘refreshing’ impact of ‘exceptional’ coaching staff
Harlequins players celebrating in 2025/26
For a club with as proud a history of success as Harlequins, the 2025/26 season must have stung. Like, really stung.
The departure of head coach Danny Wilson to Wales on the eve of the new PREM season meant they were behind the eight ball before a ball had even been kicked in anger. It didn’t get much better from there, either.
A thumping at the hands of Bristol Bears in their annual Big Game fixture served as a stark reminder of a campaign that was already getting away from them by the festive season; and by June, they found themselves ninth in the PREM table. That finish meant they missed out on the Investec Champions Cup for the first time in 10 years, too.
This year, though, feels somewhat different. There’s excitement in the air once again at the Stoop.
‘I believe things can change pretty quickly’
Jason Gilmore, who was shoehorned into the leadership role at the last minute this time last year, now leads a new-look coaching staff consisting of former Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Hunter and ex-Hurricanes attack guru Brad Cooper. Experienced Test coach Robbie Deans is also on their books as a consultant performance director.
But the biggest change of all comes in the playing squad, with Quins making some smart additions to their ranks. England international and two-time PREM winner with Northampton Saints, George Furbank, is the headline recruit heading to the Stoop this season, but he is joined by Bristol Bears lock James Dun, former Edinburgh and Scotland star James Lang, prop duo Sampie Swiegers and Harry Johnson-Holmes and Zimbabwe international Edward Sigauke.
If blended correctly, this could be an exciting year for the Londoners, and they believe things are already starting to piece together.
“It definitely has felt very different to previous years for me,” says star fly-half Marcus Smith. “Almost felt like we were playing catch-up coming back in from international duty. Gilly, the way he’s led the programme alongside Corey, and then new S&C, Milos, George instilled a different training programme, which is, I think, once in a while it’s always good to have a different stimulus.
“And then from a rugby point of view, I think the experience and the knowledge that we have in the coaching group is exceptional. Obviously, the work that’s gone before this has been amazing for me personally. Nick Evans has been unbelievable in my development and the way he expressed his idea of how Quins should play and the identity really shone through the time he was here.
“But I think the way the group has come in, settled in, driving different sort of messages, allowing us to be a bit more optimistic, probably than previous years, aligned with Gilly. It’s an exciting time to be at Harlequin.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
“I believe things can change pretty quickly,” he continues. “I guess I was lucky; I was part of a time where we were ninth in the league and changed it within a couple of weeks. So things are definitely possible. Look at Exeter in a year, I think they were ninth and then came top four; and another day, they win that final.
“So I think things can change. I think what it’s going to take is a commitment from not only the coaching staff, but us as players, to be accountable to the messages that they’re trying to deliver, everyone in the Stoop, trying to push the team forward to enable us to hopefully perform whenever we get the chance here to 90-95%.
“And if we do that, aligned with the availability of our players, I don’t think there’s a reason why we can’t surprise some people and put this club where we believe it belongs.”
‘Coming into the environment, boys are excited’
“It’s been really refreshing coming back in,” adds winger Cadan Murley, who also spent the summer on England duty. “With the new coaches, I’m having to do a lot more learning because all the calls have changed and they’ve all brought their own spin on things, but that’s just what you want. Hopefully it translates onto the pitch like we saw the weekend just gone; looking at the attack with Brad and the set-piece with Rob, it was a massive step up from what we’ve had.
“Coming into the environment, boys are excited. We’ve built depth over the last year; we had so many debuts, whether that was forced through injury or not, from players who might not have had a shot. Everyone’s competing for that starting 15 and then the 23-man squad, so training’s been good with a competitive edge to it.
“I don’t think it’ll look too different, if I’m honest. We obviously had a really tough year last year, but that’s brought us closer as a group. We’re the ones who now have to go out and deliver, so hopefully you’ll see some more consistent performances from that. All the boys have had experience coming into the PREM; players like Elliot Williams, Lucas Friday’s and Zach Carr’s have played 10-12 PREM games last season, so they know what’s needed of them. We’ll definitely see a more consistent Harlequins this year.
“It creates that bit of edge, because you don’t want to get things wrong. It’s a clean slate. The coaches before would have had players they leant on, but now you have to come in and impress the new coaches. It’s a massive opportunity for both the young players and the senior guys who have a chance to step up and build a relationship with someone like Brad, who won Super Rugby with the Hurricanes last year. You look at how good their attack was last year and seeing him, Marcus and Furbs spending time together, it can only be a good thing.
“We tried to learn a lot from it (last season). We want the new lads to feel what we felt last year, but also put their own stamp on things. You look at James Dun and obviously Furbs winning it (the PREM), we want them to bring something new to the squad, which they’ve done really well.
“There hasn’t been too much dwelling on last year. We had a few meetings at the start where we took our learnings and, as a playing squad, said what we want to take into this year, but we’ve not looked back too much on it.”
The seeds have also seemingly been sown already, with Harlequins enjoying a fast and furious start to the season via the PREM Rugby Cup. The Londoners boast a perfect record of two wins from two in the opening rounds of the competition, scoring 74 points in the process, and sit comfortably at the top of pool B. They are also the only side to have won two games in a row, with Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints losing both of their opening fixtures, while Sale Sharks, Bristol Bears and Gloucester picked up one win and one draw.
Last year would have certainly stung for a club with as proud a history as Harlequins; but from that, they hope to be a club reborn.
READ MORE: PREM Rugby 2026/27: Squads, fixtures, venues and how to watch confirmed