Inside the Harlequins revamp: From ‘chasing points’ to emulating Toulouse, how the man who made new All Blacks fly-half will get Marcus Smith back in England No10 shirt, supercharging the academy and putting power first
A few days before the start of his pre-season, Marcus Smith booked a table at Positano in Guildford and sat down for dinner with Harlequins’ new attack coach, Brad Cooper.
They were joined by Sean Long, the skills coach, and together they drew up plans for the new season over a few bowls of pasta.
There was plenty to discuss. Cooper recently moved to London from New Zealand, where he coached the Hurricanes and worked closely with the All Blacks’ latest No10, Ruben Love. Love has overtaken Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo’unga in New Zealand’s fly-half battle, impressing with his multi-phase attacking game in the ongoing Test series with the Springboks.
Smith has slipped behind Fin Smith and George Ford in England’s playmaking pecking order and, with a World Cup on the horizon, his own international ambitions were brought to the table.
‘Marcus and Ruben are very similar,’ Cooper told Daily Mail Sport. ‘They both take responsibility for their own development. Ruben is one of the first in the building at 6am and one of the last to leave. I’ve seen exactly the same traits with Marcus.
‘We went to this little Italian joint and talked all things attack. I told him I take his development personally. It’s a two-way street. There’s no reason why he can’t be the No1 fly-half for England and a real force at the World Cup. It’s our job to get him there.
Brad Cooper has been brought in as attack coach from the Hurricanes in New Zealand
Cooper worked closely with Ruben Love to turn him into the new All Blacks fly-half
And now Cooper wants to work the same magic with Marcus Smith and make him England’s first-choice at No10 ahead of next year’s World Cup
‘My goal is to help him achieve that potential and live that out. The way we play will really suit him. At times last year, I don’t think he really got that momentum at Quins to play on top of teams.
‘When they line break, it’s the ability to be patient and confident in your phase play. It looked a little bit hectic to me. They were chasing points. As soon as they line break, they want to finish it then and there, rather than go multi-phase and being confident.
‘It’s a little bit of shape and structure inside the 22. Like Bordeaux, Toulouse, the Hurricanes. Hopefully we can get Marcus playing really consistently and that will lead to an English jersey.’
Veteran Kiwi Robbie Deans has joined Harlequins as performance director – often working remotely from Sydney but spending the bulk of this summer at the Holiday Inn beside the training ground.
In recent years, the Harlequins’ coaching group has splintered and that is one of the reasons why results tumbled on the pitch. Former coach Danny Wilson almost came to blows with a player last year and his replacement, Jason Gilmore – who has been backed to continue leading the club – inherited a rudderless operation at the beginning of the 2025-26 campaign.
It ended in a ninth-place finish and missing out on big-ticket Champions Cup rugby for this season, even after a late charge that saw them win three of their final four matches.
In his departing interview in August, former attack coach Nick Evans admitted: ‘I probably became a bit of a lone wolf – along with probably a few other people in the building – around what we felt the identity was. I had to fight my way a little bit internally around what I was doing.’
Cooper, Jordan Turner-Hall and Rob Hunter have all joined the club’s coaching operation, along with a deeper upheaval of the club’s strength and conditioning programme. In a bid to tighten bonds, one of their first assignments was to spend a weekend together on the south coast.
‘We did a bit of a team building trip to Portsmouth,’ said Turner-Hall, a former centre who made more than 100 appearances for the club and won the Premiership title in 2012. ‘We went for a swim, had a few beers and had some deep and honest chats. There are new coaches and a lot of new people coming in so it was good to steal some time together.
‘We played a game called Chase the Chicken. You chase the chicken through different bars and you’ve got to have a drink in each bar. Ed Spokes (head of recruitment) was the chicken.
‘It was good to meet people. We had medical, strength and conditioning, coaches, management, interns. It got everyone involved and made them feel like they had a place here. People need to feel valued, whether you’re cooking food, doing analysis or whatever.
A rudderless 2025-26 campaign ended in a ninth-place finish and missing out on big-ticket Champions Cup rugby for this season
Jordan Turner-Hall and Jason Gilmore are among the new faces in a backroom shake-up for this season
Turner-Hall (centre) made more than 100 appearances for Quins as a player, winning the Premiership title in 2012
‘It’s good to have diversity of thought and people that see the game differently. You’re always going to have different opinions, which is a good thing. When you draw a line in the sand, everyone buys into it and supports each other. That’s what I’m feeling in and around this coaching space.’
Time will tell if Harlequins have finally discovered the right formula. The prospect of Smith firing on all cylinders alongside George Furbank, the England full-back who has joined from Northampton, will excite even the most jaded of supporters.
Yet questions remain about whether they have added enough muscle to compete with the likes of Bath, Leicester, Exeter and Northampton.
Deans admitted that late changes to the coaching team meant Quins largely ‘missed the recruitment cycle’. The club decided not to bring in injury cover for influential No 8 Alex Dombrandt, who faces a long spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
Asked which youngster has impressed him most over pre-season, Cooper named back-row Seb Driscoll. The Welsh youngster is set to enjoy more game time this season as the club look to upskill and up their power on the pitch.
‘We’ve got an identity around our game model,’ said Turner-Hall, who will be focusing on defence. ‘We need to be powerful, we need to apply pressure and withstand pressure better, and we need possession. We will judge ourselves on that.
‘If we’re talking about power, that’s not just down to the coaches on the pitch. It’s aligning everything. It’s strength and conditioning coaches, our power stance, how powerful we can be in our first three steps off the line. It’s understanding your triggers, watching the ball, getting your chest over your toes and that power output in your first three steps. Then you’ve got collision power and carry power.
‘We’ve got everyone pushing in the right direction. We’re not a huge team, so you’ve got to coach what you’ve got. We’ve got to be true to ourselves and understand what we are. Defensively, we are good around the breakdown. Technique and speed is big for us if we want to create a contest and move better.
‘We probably need to create better pictures at the breakdown so we’re not getting punished with penalties. For me, it’s going to be a long journey but we’ll get after it. I can’t tell you where we’ll be, but we’ll back each other and stay tight.’
George Furbank, the England full-back and former Northampton captain, is the big-ticket addition through the doors at Quins this summer
Asked which youngster has impressed him most over pre-season, Cooper named back-row Seb Driscoll
England internationals Smith, Dombrandt, Cadan Murley, Chandler Cunningham-South and Fin Baxter are already on long-term contracts.
Deans and Cooper will inevitably tap into their southern hemisphere networks as they recruit for next year but there is an equal focus on homegrown stars. Work is being done to improve the talent coming through the academy pathway, having seen their rivals develop more prospects in recent campaigns.
‘When you look at Quins in the academy league, they have good ding-dongs with everyone,’ admitted Turner-Hall. ‘It’s more about the exposure and support when they get in the building.
‘Sometimes they can get caught up with being on loan, not playing and getting left behind. We want to have good support around their development and keep them involved. We’ve got some Under 23s friendlies with guys like Sale and a few Champ teams. The big thing is getting them playing in Quins shirts.’
A new training facility has been commissioned at the club’s Surrey Sports Park base. A high-performance centre should be ready for next season, and an additional pitch will also be laid.
With an expectant supporter base who pay big money for tickets, Quins know there needs to be a return on their investment. If there isn’t, there may well be more changes at the top.