It may sound like hyperbole at the start of the season, but Sunday’s visit Sale could be the biggest game for Harlequins since they last reached the play-offs four years ago.
They have been on a steady downward spiral since then and Saturday’s embarrassing defeat at Kingsholm, their worst in the league for 26 years, may not prove to be the lowest as it is hard to see where a PREM win is coming from at least until the New Year.
They could level up for the cup final in the London derby or catch Exeter or Leicester on an off day, but their team doesn’t compare well on paper and the game at Newcastle, who have drawn alongside several other teams that didn’t do well last season, on January 2 already looks huge.
Gloucester they finished just a point ahead of Quins in 2025/26 but looked like they were on another planet at the weekend and the responsibility for that must lie with those at the very top of the club.
While the Cherry and Whites struggled at times last campaign, you could see the strategy, the game plan, the investment in youth, then the appointment of Chris Boyd as technical director and Rob Burgess as general manager and the sprinkling of stardust in their recruitment.
In contrast, Harlequins’ only big summer signing was George Furbank in a position they already had more than adequate cover for, and their “exhaustive global search” for a new boss saw them hang on to interim boss Jason Gilmore.
They hired Robbie Deans as performance director, but the 67-year-old who worked there Japan ten years since his stay as Australia coach, has no PREM experience and will actually only spend 12 weeks a year on the ground at Quins.
He was absent at Kingsholm on Saturday, while the camera focused heavily on Boyd in the Gloucester coaching box as his imprint could be seen all over the hosts’ attack, but it wasn’t down to him.
Quins’ head of recruitment, Ed Spokes, has been in the role for a decade and has been with the club since 2003, and Laurie Dalrymple has been CEO since 2019. Ultimately, the buck has to stop with him.
He oversaw a PREM title triumph in 2021, but the past few years have seen the departure of Wilco Louw, Joe Marchant, Andre Esterhuizen, Will Collier, Louis Lynagh, Joe Marler, Danny Care, Joe Launchbury, Stephan Lewies, Nathan Jibulu and others who have not been properly replaced.
Add to that, Will Joseph and Will Trenholm, who joined Gloucester from Harlequins last season and were the two standout players at the weekend and that adds insult to injury for the fans.
Both back-up halves, Jamie Benson and Jarrod Evans, are gone Ulster and Cardiff in the off-season, so 23-year-old Connor Slevin had to make the step up from Chinor and Richmond to the top flight in Marcus Smith’s absence.
The Quins star could pull a few rabbits out of the hat on his return from a broken finger, but he will miss parts of the season and can’t win too many games playing on the back foot.
The men from south-west London conceded 17 penalties on Saturday, five of which were on the clock, and their starting forwards combined for just 20 penalties, with Furbank and Slevin taking 25 between them.
Of course they chased the game from the start but you have to earn the right to play and they look awfully short up front and changing the entire front row just after half time makes no difference.
Fin Baxter is obviously a big loss in that department and it’s a shame that Alex Dombrandt will miss most of the season with an ACL injury, but every team has to deal with injuries, Leicester’s absentee list is already in double figures and they are still claiming victory.
Sport is cyclical, especially in those with a salary cap, but Harlequins have finished sixth, sixth, seventh and ninth in the last four campaigns and won well under half of their league games since they last reached the play-offs.
There were several positive elements against Bath in the opening round, but it’s not just a knee-jerk reaction to a 48-0 loss to say it’s hard to justify them finishing outside the top two again this season.
It’s true that they should have hit the lowest ebb of their cycle a few years ago and it shouldn’t have been that low. Recruiting sometimes takes two or three windows or summers to get right, but there’s no evidence that it’s started yet.
Jason Gilmore wrote off last season as early as Boxing Day after a poor defeat away at Sale, so surely that should have been the point at which they hit the reset button, but it’s hard to see what has been done in the past nine months to really address the core issues.
The head coach has a lot to warm to, as he does, and the players are under pressure after the manner of the defeat at Kingsholm, but Harlequins’ problems run much deeper than that.
It’s impossible to conclude anything other than there was mismanagement or serious failings at the very top, and there may still be pain for Quins fans.
Chief executive Laurie Dalrymple might be the man to answer all the questions, but the players must now stand up and be counted, starting by showing a lot more heart and fight even if they don’t win at Salford on Sunday.
