Q: In our first two games we have had big gates so far, has this helped with the finances? 

ME: You’ve got to be a bit careful with what we announce and what it really is, it’s all about managing expectations [laughs]. The two gates have been terrific. They have been higher than expected, maybe we thought that it would be high for the opening game, we had done a lot of promotion for it, we got a lot of press, it was a bit of a story. But we’re not really a story any more, we’re five games in. I am sure you all noticed that for the first two games we were quite a big story, by week three we had a different story: the new stand, Nicky’s statue, but now the press coverage will be very, very limited. So it’s encouraging: I was particularly encouraged by the Doncaster crowd, I thought that was terrific, and signs look quite good for Exeter and the Cornish Pirates.

So it is better than we expected, as much as we’d hoped for, it’s probably even better than we’d hoped for which is very, very encouraging. We were a bit worried, five years ago the crowd here was an average of 2,800 with about 900 season ticket holders, the jump to last year where we had 5,000 season ticket holders, or I think it was 4,800 with 200 corporates, and we were selling out most games – albeit with a reduced capacity. A lot of people were relatively new, it’s not as if they’d been following the club for decades – where their Dad took them when they were kids and they’ve been going since they were seven or eight, there were some like that, of course there were, but not many. So we were a bit nervous whether this new fanbase that we had grown would hold up. At the moment we’re very encouraged, it does help with meeting targets, hitting budgets and all the rest of it.

Q: Assuming we go back up what will have to change from where the club is at the moment? 

ME: I’m sure Dean will talk about the playing side, so I’ll hand over to him in a minute, I like this I usually have to do these things on my own, I’m having a great time, mine’s a lager [laughs].

I think our biggest challenge off the field – Dean’s talked about Leicester, Northampton etc – it’s a bit unromantic, but who’s the best team in England over the years? It’s been Leicester, Wasps may argue but over time I think you have to say it’s been Leicester – they’ve got the biggest ground and they’ve got the biggest crowd. Who’s the best team in France? It’s Toulouse, Stade Français are pushing real hard but it’s Toulouse and they’ve got the biggest ground and they’ve got the biggest crowd. Who’ve been the most successful team in British football over the last twenty years? It’s been Manchester United, they’ve got the biggest ground and they’ve got the biggest crowd. It’s a very unromantic way of looking at sport but that’s just the way it is with the way things are structured in England but don’t get me started on that! [laughs].

So off the field our biggest challenge is to fill the stadium, if we can fill the stadium regularly and that will be a hell of a jump to fill it in one year - if we finish this season with an average crowd of six, six and a half or seven thousand (we sell more tickets than that but actually in the stadium) that will be fantastic – to go from that to 12.7 every week is a huge, huge jump. But that is what we have to aim for. That encompasses a whole load of things, some of them long term, some of them short term, some of them linked to the team, some of them not. When we go back we will be in a different situation to where we were before – if you are operating out of one of the smaller grounds and you are not being bank rolled then you are always going to be at risk, that’s not rugby now that’s any sport, it’s just a fact of life.

Our challenge, now that we are in a much improved facility situation, although it’s not finished yet but we’ve made a bid step forward, we know have the leverage in terms of generating increased revenue, because then you can invest in the team so the team becomes stronger, and you then get into a virtuous circle. 

Dean might want to talk about the playing side… 

DR: With each team at the end of the season there is always a certain amount of turnaround of players and I think it would be reasonable at the end of this season that there will be a turnaround of players, but you then have to sit down and consider what constitutes a side that I would like to be pushing for a European spot next year if not a top four spot and a place in the Premiership playoffs. 

There are different formulae, you can sit down and guys might say you need six or seven present internationals whether they be Samoan, Tongan, English, Welsh, Irish, Scots, French, or whatever. You might need a certain amount of world class athletes in your squad and by that you mean not only players who are world class in their own abilities but also in their leadership abilities. Then you need to look at good quality club players and you look at the Academy boys coming through. Then you’ve got to look at number not just to make up the numbers but guys who are very, very important to the squad because they have other qualities – their attitude, their personality as well as their playing ability who are always there, who play week in week out, and who go very much unnoticed but who are often the most important players within a side.

It’s not just working out what is the formula for Harlequins going into next year, we’re currently in a process of sitting down with the coaches and working out what we need, what we want and how to achieve it. We don’t just look at the playing side but at the physios, the coaches, the conditioning staff and ourselves as well. There’s a review right across the board, you have to be quite critical of yourselves. It’s not easy but providing you have a clear understanding of what you feel is right and required for next season that path becomes a little bit clearer as the season goes on.

Mark will tell that recruitment is one of the most difficult things and I’d be the first to say I’ve made some humongous cock ups at Leicester over the few years – I brought the rugby league player Gareth Rayner from Hull, his idea of a warm up was to turn up the heating in his car just before he went onto the training field [laughs]. 

There will be a certain amount of turnaround of players at the end of this season, there always is, but I’d like to keep it to a minimum because I think there’s a great number of guys here who have the capabilities of going forward.

I have to say that the Academy boys that we have at Harlequins really are the future of the club you look at your Browns, Amesburys, your Turner-Halls, all these sorts of guys who are coming through, your Ingliss, your Robson, they really are the future of the club and I’d like to think that in five or six years time that these guys will still be here at the club and in ten years time I hope we will be offering them all testimonials in the same year which would really ‘get on Mark’s nerves’ [laughs]. These guys really are the future of the club.

Jordan Turner-Hall making his debut at seventeen up at Pertemps Bees, Alex Rogers at eighteen playing against some wily old customers – the first division is the place where you get the boys who aren’t quite as fit as they could be, they’re just a little bit older but they’ve got that experience. They drop down a level and some of the props you meet in this division are better than the ones you find in the premier division. They devote all their time to the mauling and scrimmaging and Alex has done extremely well he really has. And you look at Jordan as well and I have been so impressed by all the Academy boys and they really are the future. 

The structure of the side going into next season is very difficult to determine and we are still learning about the players, their personalities their abilities, but we’re starting to get to get it set in our own minds which way we want to go.

The next report will have Mark Evans explaining he felt about Staunton’s missed kick against Sale amongst other things.

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