Q: Is there anything in particular from the playing side at Leicester that you would like to see applied here at Quins?

DR: Forgetting the playing side of things, I think the fanbase here is getting stronger. It’s very easy at Leicester – until Northampton started to come good there was a huge gap between Coventry being a good side and Moseley in the West Midlands who were good for a number of years and then dropped off, Leicester have really had the pick of not only the East Midlands but the whole Midlands. The supporter base in Leicester grew throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s and with the success in the ‘90s and the early 2000s it cemented a supporter base which has been there for a long time. Here we have competition from Wasps, London Irish, Saracens – all the London clubs – to name the other sides near here: London Scottish, London Welsh and Richmond as well it hasn’t not been that easy for Quins. I actually see it rising, to have over 4000 season ticket holders after dropping down a division is tremendous – full credit to Mark and the boys here. I see it as starting to build and build and I think if we (hopefully) get into the Premiership next year I can see that season ticket number rise significantly. I’d like to think that in about four or five years time we can be competing with Leicester.

And with that goes more chance of success, with more chance that week in week out we’ll have games sold out, and not only sold out, but sold out to our own supporters. Where we have the pick of the tickets and other teams are frightened to come down here. We’ll make this a place where people don’t really want to come and play because of the Harlequin support here. It was like that at Leicester – it’s a horrible place to go and play and I want to make it the same here – so they come here and get kicked on the field as well as off the field [laughs]. When I sat down with Mark before I came and we started to discuss things I realised that the potential within Harlequins is enormous, and that’s one of the things that threw me in respect to the club. I came down and saw the sand being built and I felt that if I didn’t join Harlequins now it would be the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. I think that the culture that’s growing here, although it isn’t quite on a par with Leicester, is building. This season, last season and the season before we have gone a huge way to building it up to that level, I think the culture is something that you will develop over the next few years and it will see us through.

Next we'll find out about whether Quins are being to too cavalier in the way they are playing this season...

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