Forget all the player comings-and-goings the important thing is the results on the pitch – ignore the old mantra about performance being a good substitute for a win. Deano will say it’s tough at the top and Andy Friend has already admitted he is worried about the strength of the opposition. However, the objective for any Director of Rugby in the GP must be a top 4 finish. No excuses after Bristol have shown the way.

Deano will have sifted through the season’s fixtures to work out his ‘must win’ games and likely finishing position. So can he break with the Quins’ tradition of perennially finishing near the bottom of the league. Over the 10 years of the premiership Quins’ record, starting in 1997/98, is:

10^th, 4^th, 9^th, 11^th, 9^th, 7^th, 6^th, 12^th, Rel. & 7^th

Or put another way, Quins have won more than 10 games in a season only once – and that was back in 98/98 when there were 14 teams in the league and the opposition included the likes of West Hartlepool, Bedford, London Scottish and Richmond.

So what has to be done to finish in the key positions in the GP:

• The basic threshold is 11^th place survival – 40 points (8 wins + 8 bonus points)
• To reach HC qualification means 6^th place – 52 points (11 wins + 8 bonus points)
• To grab a play off slot means 4^th place – 62 points (13 wins + 10 bonus points)
• And for the dreamer, a 1^st place finish – 74 points (16 wins + 10 bonus points)

Winning half the games in a season has proved impossible for Quins in the past over the normal 22 rounds.

So what has to be done? The table below shows where the points should come from (and the games Quins can afford to lose) to finish in either 11^th, 6^th, 4^th or 1^st place on a round by round basis. The probability of winning, and bonus points gained, is based on each team’s finishing positions in the GP last year:

No problem – we start the season with a ‘must win’ game in the Double Header.

Good luck to Deano and the boys – we’ll be living every minute with you.

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