Speaking exclusively to Come All Within, Mark dismissed suggestions that he should relinquish one of his two jobs, and shrugged off the critics who say that he's taking on too much:

"I recognise the fact that whenever we have a wobble people will always bring that up.  I didn't hear it the first year when I did the job for four months; I didn't hear it the second year when I did it for two months, But there's the knowledge, for every coach, that whenever things don't go well this sort of comment will come out – for me it will always be 'he's doing too much'. I recognise people will say that, I know that.      But it doesn't worry me at all.   I know whether I'm doing too much and the players know.  That's all that matters really"

A few minutes earlier, I'd tracked Mark down in front of the West Stand where he and a couple of other members of the coaching team were chatting easily together, enjoying the last sunshine of a glorious spring evening. There was a definite family atmosphere as on the pitch a young kid - instantly recognisable as a smaller version of Chris Bell - was kicking a ball about and, opposite, a small and cheerful crowd were drifting in to watch the 2nd XV game against London Irish.  I had reflected what a difference a win, and six league points from two games, must make to an under-pressure Coach, and how much he must be looking forward to losing that pressure next season.

But now, with Mark's coaching hat so firmly planted on his head, I took the chance to ask him some questions about our on field performance - what had gone wrong with our defence this season?

"Well, our defence has been disappointing, that's fair to say – I've been disappointed in it.

"But defence is largely a team thing – and one of the reasons that we've defended poorly this year is that we've had too many personnel changes from game to game - too many injuries – more than other clubs - miles more. When you are forced to make a lot of changes your cohesion goes. As a coach I don't like to make changes – for instance I don't rotate, I'm not a rotating coach (as some of the squad players will tell you much to their chagrin).

"But, we've had a ridiculous number of injuries and I think that's what's harmed our defence. I mean: for London Irish we had Ceri Jones playing his first full game, Simon Miall making his debut, Mel Deane and Billy Fulton playing their second games, and Roy Winters playing his first game this season.  That's a third of the team that had played two-and-a-half games between them before, all season. That's frightening."

I observed that at Irish, though, our defence was superb - "Yeah – we actually defended well then. Because that's all we'd done in training for two weeks, that's why.  But you can't do that every game – you can't just work on defence."

I asked if the change in personnel in this instance was actually one of the factors that had improved our defence – in particular dropping Bill Satala, who has come in for a lot of criticism on the message board for his tackling.  But Mark was quick to defend his Fijian signing:

"I 've got to say there's been a lot of uninformed comment about a Bill Satala, he's taken a massive amount of unfair stick completely unfair.  He's missed just two tackles this season – both against Sale;  one away - which, OK, was his fault entirely - and one at home which was not his fault at all: three other blokes had got the defensive pattern wrong and left him with three attackers to mark; that's when you miss a tackle: when you can't commit to the bloke in your zone. So no I don't think Bill's got anything to do with it – we've defended poorly as a team too often"

I asked Mark why we'd had so many injuries – and quite a few of them in training? Did he think we were doing something wrong on the training pitch ? Unusually he was stuck for an explanation :

"Yeah we have had a few in training.  Good question – I don't know . Let's think of the ones we've had: we've had Winters pulled his hamstring in a fitness test not a lot you can do about that, Gomez broke his leg in a tackle drill, Codling snapped his hamstring running into a tackle bag, Starr snapped his calf in a scrummaging practice. I don't know It happens, it's hard.  London Irish copped two in training just last week  before they played us.  I do know there was a recent injury audit comparing all the premiership clubs, and that didn't suggest that we do anything differently from all the rest – in fact if anything we do more preventative stuff than most – so just unlucky I guess"

Tiring of coaching questions, I switched tack took advantage of the ability to also talk to the CEO.  I asked him whether he thought over the three seasons he'd been here, we'd managed to lose our our City-Slickers image, and did it annoy him?

"No actually - I don't think so yet, and it does annoy me a bit".  Did he think we deserved it?  "Oh, it's just a stereotype, a label, isn't it? Built up over decades. What's that definition of a reputation? Easy to acquire hard to lose".   I asked if the overall image and legacy of Quins was helpful to what he was trying to achieve with the club, or a hurdle to overcome. 

"It's a bit of both.  Take the key values of Quins. They're written down:

• Inclusive
• Accessible
• High Quality
• Family Oriented
• Community Based.

The hurdle is  - it can be a barrier to inclusiveness – actually I think Rugby has that problem per se, but Quins probably have it more than most. Despite what we've done, Rugby Union can still perceived as a slightly elitist sport in the sense that it's seen as middle class southern game (which is ironic if you talk to people in Cornwall, or South Wales or in the North).  Now,  Rugby is changing is in this respect but it will take a long time. . Quins is changing is in this respect but it will take a long time as well.  Meantime it can be a barrier to attracting spectators - crowds are built and sustained over long periods of time, We've made big strides but it might take five-ten years to build it up to Northampton sizes"

I asked Mark if the fans and the crowds really made that much difference.

"Yes they can do - but a cumulative difference: over period of time – you can get into a virtuous circle where the crowd grows, the team feel more secure and more confident, etc.  But occasionally it can work the other way as well - sometimes you get days when everyone is flat – I thought for the  Sale game everyone was flat – the team was flat the crowd was flat everything was flat – a whole strange atmosphere"

I wondered whether the atmosphere of the Sale game had been affected by the mind-games we played - the narrowed touchlines and the return of the mocking music, wasn't it about time we got rid of it?

"We don't do the music every game do we? – we didn't for Leicester Tigers. Yeah we did for Sale though - We always play Coronation street for Sale.  No, it's just a bit of fun isn't it?

What about the narrowed pitch?  I wondered if perhaps our team and crowd saw that as an admission of weakness. Would he  do it again?  "Oh yes, I'd do it again, yes, I don't think it wound them up – that was a good press conference quote from Jim Mallinder that's all - No it’s an old trick – Bill Shankly used to do it before European games.  I don't think it backfired, no.  Shankly even used to water the pitch, perhaps I should have tried that as well"

I asked if the Sale game (which we lost 0-45) was the worst game of the season for him.

"No actually – no.  The worst game was Leeds at home, third game of the season. That was the worst  because it's very very rare in the ZP that if you start the season badly you can recover and challenge. Very, very unusual – you have to start well.. This season , we played Gloucester in game one – I thought we could have won it but we lost.  But I could live that that: they were a strong team, pre-season favourites and all that.   Then we went to Wellford Road,  lost it…well it was Leicester away, you're not panicking at that stage.  But then, Leeds at home, and when we lost that - which again we could have won -  well then it was clear we hadn't made the start we needed.   I didn't exactly think 'here we go again' but once we'd lost that we were always on the back foot- whenever you lose two home games in a row, you're on the back foot and that set the scene for a difficult season".

I wondered about next season –  could we expect any changes in the team. As we'd come through into the office, a harassed looking Scotty had been crouched over his lap-top deep in contractual negotiations 'Got an email from his agent, don't think we've got agreement on salary yet' I'd eavesdropped shamelessly but fruitlessly.  So now I asked Mark whether we'd made many signings for next season yet but he  wasn't about to enlighten me: "Yeah, we've made some, but none that I can tell you about, now'.  

I asked which single player Mark would most like to sign, if he could.  "Jonny Wilkinson, without a shadow of a doubt – best player in the world"  

Would we'd at least be likely to see the latest trio, Fulton, Deane & Jones, at the Stoop next season?  "Mel Deane, yes – he's definitely coming back next season.  Billy? Unfortunately, he's contracted to Wellington, so even if we wanted to keep him we couldn't.  Ceri? I don't know – he's contracted also,  actually so it's unlikely but….I wouldn't rule it out."

In the absence of news on signings, I asked about our home grown talent - were there any U21 players we should be looking out for? and Mark was bright as he discussed the team  "Yeah, I think so - our U21's are sixth or seventh I think in their league now and have won three games on the trot.  It's step up from U21 to the ZP but looking at the players, yeah:   Karl Rudzki is certainly ready for the premiership, I expect Ugo Monye to come through strongly and I think Henry Barrett is a very, very good prospect. Andy Reay certainly has a future, and Tom Williams is going to be a premiership player;  Kai Horsmann is going to be a good player as well – and also there's a young back row player called Tom Guest who I think is going to be a super player, So we've a got a lot to look forward to"

I asked Mark if his enthusiasm a bit misplaced what the prospects were really like for an U21 player now? With lowering salary caps , injuries common, and uncertain prospect after 35 - was it an attractive prospect?   "Well, you can look at in a half-empty way like that, if you like, but I don't"    Well, put it another way, if he had an 18 year old son now, who was good enough, would he encourage him to play professional rugby at a club like Quins

Sure enough, Mark's glass was half-full:    "Yes.  Oh yes – definitely. Yeah, no question."

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