Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson ensures that everything is under control within his back row, despite the unfortunate injury to club captain Alex Dombrandt. The number eight suffered a small hand brake in Harlequins’ opening round defeat to Sale Sharks, and is expected to miss up to four weeks of action in the famous quarters.
Wilson expressed how despite losing the 17-capped England international to the medical bay, he has plenty of options to chose from for the eight shirt. Harlequins are preparing for their first home match of the 2024/25 Premiership season this Saturday, as they host Newcastle Falcons at a packed out Twickenham Stoop. Wilson explained how the Quins have no shortage of reinforcements to pack down the back of the scrum.
“He has a small break in his hand so he’ll probably be looking at sort of four weaker, in terms of injury update.” Wilson said in this week’s Harlequins media session.
“Oh, we’ve still got Chandler Cunningham-South who can play eight. (James) Chisholm can play eight. (Jack) Kenningham went into eight for that period of time, Tom Lawday can play eight. We have other players, Archie White can play eight, we have other players who can play in that position. It will just depend on getting the right makeup of the back row.”
Reflecting on the opening round of the new season, and Harlequins were unfortunate to not get their campaign of with a win away from home. The Londoners put in an impressive performance against Sale Sharks, yet ultimately fell victim to the educated feet of George Ford, as the England fly half slotted the all-important penalties for a narrow 12-11 win.
Harlequins were the only try scoring side at the Salford Community Stadium, as hooker Jack Walker crossed over for a score eight minutes before the break. Quins thought they had built a solid lead, as flanker Jack Kenningham drove over for a try upon his 50th cap for the club. However, a lengthy TMO discussion followed with no clear sight of the grounding, and referee Adam Leal disallowed the try.
“First of all, it was a tough one that we didn’t get the result.” Wilson added. “There’s a lot of pleasing elements away from home, in difficult conditions against the side that is difficult to play against.
“A top four side from last year as well, I thought we gave ourselves a real good opportunity to win the game. Frustrating thing is, I think we probably scored two tries, but obviously only one was on the scoreboard, and in a tight game, those moments are huge.
“Fair play to Sale, I think we physically showed a defensive edge that maybe stopped them from playing too much. And then they went to a kicking game. With George (Ford) in particular, they’re very, very good at that, and they found enough to get that penalty, to be able to get into the lead and hold on to it.
“So lots of positives. I think we could very easily have come out of there with a win, and it’s a very difficult place to get that win away from home. So hopefully that kind of builds, or provides a foundation for us to build from this weekend for a big home fixture.”
Up next for the Premiership’s resident entertainers are the ultimate underdogs Newcastle, with the Falcons also beginning their new season with a defeat. The Kingston Park faithful were impressed by their side’s first half performance, as they kept Bristol Bears on their toes for the first 40 minutes for just a 5-3 half-time lead. However, the match eventually ran away from Steve Diamond’s side, as the Bristolians headed down south the victors at 24-3.
“I thought for 50 or 60, minutes, they (Newcastle Falcons) really held Bristol.” Wilson said, as he praised this weekend’s opponents. “A team that plays a huge amount of of running rugby and is a dangerous side. I think Steve’s (Diamond) reputation goes before him, doesn’t it.
“He’s done a good job of wherever he’s gone. I think in this example, he’ll put an edge into Newcastle, I think an organisation and a side that will will fight for each other. So it’ll be a tough fixture. We know that, but we’re at the Stoop, and that’s somewhere we’re really passionate about playing well for our supporters and for each other, and hopefully that will give us plenty to build on.
“Like I said from the last game against Sale, it will be a physical affair, I know that. I know he’ll be demanding that of his players, and we’ll be doing the same with ours.”
A key talking point coming out of Harlequins’ first round defeat to Sale, was how the nature of the Quins defence had drastically improved. It’s no secret that the Londoners had worked tirelessly on their defensive structure throughout the preseason, with former New South Wales Waratahs coach Jason Gilmore arriving at the Stoop as the team’s defence coach.
The tackling has certainly tightened up if two preseason matches and opening Premiership weekend are anything to go by. Wilson was happy with his side’s effort to keep Sale from scoring any tries, and hopes for more of the same when his side host Newcastle this Saturday.
“Well, last week, we had no tries against us. We held a Sale team at home to four George Ford penalties. So that standard has been set now, that we don’t want to concede tries. We held London Scottish to nil at home. We’ve kept (Benetton) Treviso to a relatively low score. We probably conceded a little bit too much in the Montpelier game in preseason.
“So our aim will be more like Sale, more like the latter stages of our preseason, where I think we held sides. But also more importantly is the physicality we want to bring in our defence. What I saw on the weekend in the first few minutes of that game, we were really physical defensively, some big hits off the gain line.
“Dominance is really important in this game, and if we can provide that in our defence and as well as be well organised, and well structured and be on the same page, I think we give ourselves a chance to ignite our very exciting attack.”
A focal point of the new defensive system comes in the back-line, with Harlequins now without their titanic centre Andre Esterhuizen. The Springbok departed the Stoop to return home to South Africa at the end of the 2023/24 season, having re-signed with his former club the Sharks.
Lennox Anyanwu was given the nod to start in the stretched 12 jersey that used to belong to Esterhuizen, and Wilson liked what he saw from the 23-year-old’s capabilities.
“He’s one of our best professionals. There’s no doubt about that. There’s no one more committed and works harder for such a young player. He has a really good discipline to his professionalism, and he’s been really keen for a long time to get an opportunity.
“With Andre leaving, it creates an opportunity, not just for Lenny, for a few boys within the squad to play number 12. He’s grabbed that early doors and gone really well, but the challenge for him is to back it up.
“So he played well in that (Sale) game. Can he do that more often? We’re excited about him and others that we have at 12.”