State of Play 2026

Listen back in full to Harlequins' annual State of Play event hosted The Stoop as the key members of the senior leadership team, coaches and players connected with supporters to update on several key areas from across the Club.

A financial and commercial review and thorough reflection of the Men's and Women's Performance programmes were covered, as well as a deep dive into the investment the Quarters are making into their player pathways and stars of tomorrow.

Host Joe Byrnes welcomed the following guests to the stage throughout the evening:

• Chief Executive, Laurie Dalrymple
• Men’s Lead Transition Coach, Matt Ferguson
• Head of Women’s Rugby, Pat Metcalfe-Jones
• Women's Head Coach, Ross Chisholm
• Men’s Club Captain, Alex Dombrandt
• Jack Walker
• Aoife Wafer 

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

My welcome to you to the Holocaustator twenty twenty twenty six. My name is Joey Bernstein for that three. I haven't come across me before you know the web of Holocains for commenting on rubbing across many leads from 2030 to the 30 to the university schools to the Hall of Sort of things, and that lucky enough to be able to buy Queen's development, which you need to win to absolutely integral for the water for the club and what they look to represent. It is an opportunity to be transparent on it, open with you, the supporters, the membership they need to do the whole acquaintance of the absolute federal of what the club is about. We've got a host of interesting and well-informed people already that you're going to hear from. We're going to hear from Lori Dalrymple, the CEO, Matt Ferguson, the lead rugby transition coach, Pat McClough Jones, the head of women's rugby Roger Witham as well, the head coach of the women's team, and we're going to hear from some players, Alex Don Brandon, Jack Walker, and Eva Wafer. So we've got a number of you here in the audience. We've got a number of you also tuning in from home for the stream. And in a moment, we're going to get to hear from Laurie, and we're going to hear from a range of the people who I've just mentioned will have a QA. We've got some pre-senting questions as well. We've had loads and loads of questions come in. I will also get to go for the floor, and questions will be open to you on the screen. So without further ado, we will be welcoming out the uh welcome video to send it over the uh good evening everyone.

SPEAKER_08 1:44

Uh welcome to State of Play. Uh I think this is the fifth one we've done. Um and I think maybe you'd be forgiven for thinking that maybe you were looking forward to this a little bit more than me. Um but actually, on the contrary, um look, we've done these events when we've been flying high, um, and these events are just as important when we're having great seasons, and they're just as important when we're maybe having slightly more challenging times. Um but the other big part of the reason why I look forward to doing this event each year is because it's a chance for us to reflect on the broad club as a whole. Um we've obviously got an academy, we've got a men's section, we've got a women's section, and we've got a commercial section. Um and there's so much to be proud about about this club, and there's so much to be proud about about being part of this club. Um and there's gonna be some ups and downs, um, and we're gonna talk about the ups and downs as we go through the presentation, and we'll try and cover a wide range of topics uh across the evening. Um and I'm certain we're gonna get some of the topics I know you're gonna want to talk about. Um as Joe says, there's been a number of questions that's come into the club. Um I'm gonna do my best to try and be proactive and answer those through the presentation. So don't be too stressed if you feel that your question hasn't been verbally asked in the in the room. We're gonna try and answer them through the presentation. And then any questions that we don't answer through the evening directly, um that's fineable. Um we'll we'll publish them online afterwards. So the aim is that we will get to every single question that's asked to us. Um and similarly, I just want to say thanks for everyone for giving up a Wednesday evening, a couple of hours of your evening, um, which again, the volume of people in the room is evident that this club means a huge amount to a lot of people, um, and no more so than than the staff and the players and the coaches who are working hard to try and make sure that we can deliver the best versions of ourselves. Um so without further ado, if the clicker worked. There we go. Um this is kind of the broad agenda of what we're gonna cover tonight. Um again, I make no shame we're gonna talk about uh the broad club. First of all, we're gonna talk about some of our commercial aspects, some of our successes. We employ a huge number of people here at the Stoop that are obviously largely dependent on how we perform in the field, but the work and the effort that they put in to put this club in the best shot window that it can be needs to be celebrated as well. So I'm just gonna have a reflection over the last 12 months. We're gonna have a chat about performance across our men's and women's teams, including our coaching structure. Um, we often use this evening as a means for us to talk about our season ticket membership, um, which, as you would imagine, is going to be imminently launched. So we'll just have a quick cover off on that. Um, and then we're gonna uh have a bit of a chat about the financial landscape uh of the club, how the club's performing, how it's performed over the last 12 months, what the future looks like. Um, and then I'm gonna hand over to Matt Ferguson, who's gonna talk about our Academy and our senior academy transition, and how uh ultimately a big bedrock of this club is how we are trying to bring through some of the best talent that we have across our Academy Heartlands and how that's a major pillar of success that we've always viewed within the club, but we're certainly going to continue to view, and the work that he's doing since he's come in has been exceptional, um, again, which will give huge optimism around the future of the club. And then we're gonna hand over to Pat and Ross, who are gonna have a similar slant to their presentation. Um, as you'd imagine, the investment or the the sort of the process and the structure where the women's pathway is is understandably slightly behind the men's just due to length of time that it's been established. But we've been doing some fantastic work in the women's pathway over the last 12 months, and Pat's gonna explain a little bit about that just to reassure you around the future of the elite women's game as well for the club. So I just wanted to put this up first and foremost, um, because I think it's important that we try and uh have some clarity or at least we refresh our mind as to what the vision of the club is. And of course, we can have a vision for the club, doesn't mean to say we're not going to hit some bumps in the road and how we achieve that vision and when we deliver that vision, but I just wanted to sort of re-establish or re-put this up so everyone's sort of clear on where we're trying to go. Um I've been stopped once or twice lately with people sort of asking around, you know, what's the direction of travel for the club. Again, I understand why the question's being asked, but I thought the best thing to do is just to sort of re reassert this. Um, and these are the markers that we kind of deem success for the club by. So obviously silverware, um which we had five years ago. Uh, the aim was to try and follow that up with further silverware. Um, not something we managed to achieve, unfortunately. Um but I think by virtue of the fact that we've had five different prem winners in the last five years would tell us that it's quite a difficult challenge to win back-to-back Prems in this league at the moment. But nonetheless, we want to be competing at the top end of the table, um, which we did for a few years, and then obviously for the last couple of years, we've not managed to maintain that level of consistency. But what also sits behind it is a team that's built around academy players that this club produces. We've got some of the best Academy heartlands in the country, we've got some of the best schools in the country, we believe we've got some of the best people in the club that can help bring these people through. So bringing through an academy cohort that is the spine of the team, that obviously is then supplemented by players that we bring in externally that can add benefit and value to the team is important, but a Harlequin's identified team is really important to us. And then a cohesive team that's ideally been playing together for a significant amount of time that can then build that trust and cohesion together. But also a club where the tone of our language and the quality of the play that we produce on the field, the identity of who we are, which then transmits itself across other aspects of the club, be that commercially, digitally, socially, are all really important drivers as to how we want to be admired. So I think it's important that many of those aspects we've hit, we continue to hit. There's clearly some fundamental aspects of this vision that we need to put some focus on and we need to work on in the coming months ahead. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in detail as we go. So the last 12 months, um, and look it's very easy to obviously say look, let's focus on some of the sort of challenges we've had, but there has been some good, there has been some good spots within the last 12 months as well. Um both uh both games that we hosted over the road at the Allianz uh were a big and obviously this is last season, I may sort of counter at this moment in time. Um I will come on to the most recent one in a second. Um but again we sort of were really proud of what we achieve in terms of our big game identity and what we deliver over the road at Twickenham. Um and we had two fantastic games there. We had two fantastic games against Saracens. Um we reached the knockout stages again, I think for the fourth row, fourth year in a row in Europe. Um obviously understanding that we come up against a really good team in Leinster in Dublin, um, and fair to say we didn't perform to our best on the day, but reaching the knockout stages of Europe uh is not to be dismissed at all. Similarly, we had some some of our key players move on and leavers over the course of last season. Probably no one more um poignant than Danny, uh, someone who's been at this club for 17 years, uh, nearly 400 appearances, over 100 England caps. Um, he really was Mr. Quinn. Um, and so replacing obviously players like him and the experience and the senior leadership that someone that he brings to the team, um we miss that, obviously, and that takes time to transition out. But that was a really poignant um departure from the playing squad. Elsewhere, slightly off the pitch and more sort of commercially, we launched the app, um, which I mean it's fair to say, obviously, in year one of the app, it's still probably in somewhat of a development phase, um, but it's had over 11,000 registered users, it has an extremely high amount of views, it's become the number one go-to in terms of match day live information and updates. Um, obviously, the big development that we want to sort of incorporate into the app is how we use it for tickets and on and ticket purchasing and uh and stadium access. Um, and I'm very confident that that should be something that should be embedded into the application as we go into next season. We're in the final stages of testing on that. But admittedly, that took a little bit longer than we had planned uh to incorporate in. But that will give us huge amounts of data reach, it will allow us to have a wider understanding of our fan base, our supporter base that go over the road, um, and just give us a far greater ability to communicate with you in a clear and more concise way. Um off the pitch, uh we've invested on the pitch. Um I think it was probably this time last year that the pitch was looking pretty sorry for itself, um, which was probably a result of uh a couple of difficult seasons climate-wise. Um I haven't said that, I thought last Christmas or last winter was wet, and then we've had this one. So um, but the reason why the pitch still looks as fantastic as it does is because the financial investment and the work the grounds team have done uh over the course of the summer in order to get it looking and acting as it is now. It's a hybrid pitch, so it's a pitch that ultimately means it should stay durable throughout the season, gives us far greater opportunities to commercialise should we wish to do so, and it gives both teams the very best playing surface that they can play on. We've similarly replicated this now down at SSP. Um so again, we're training on a similar pitch and we're playing on a fantastic surface here at the Stu. Speaking of SSP, um we've spoken openly about our desire to create the best in-class training facilities for the teams. Um it's fair to say at the moment we don't have the most optimal training environment that we would want. Um it's functional and it certainly does it, it's done as well for the last sort of 12-13 years, but it's something that needs investing in. Um and we've been looking for the last couple of years at how we can create the best training environment for ourselves. We're really, really settled down in Guildford. The players live very locally to SSP, the staff live locally, um, so we didn't want to do anything to uproot them, and we've got a very good relationship with our landlords down there. Um, and I'm really pleased to say that we're continuing to develop the plans to invest in a brand new training facility down there. We had a planning application largely agreed quite recently, um, just to make life slightly more challenging for ourselves. We're submitting a slightly different planning application for a slightly different version of the training round, but all being well, I would expect us to be in a new facility within 15-16 months. Um, it's something that the board signed off, the investment is there. Um and in all honesty, I get asked quite a lot about our stadium and what we're doing to develop the stadium. This is our primary investment piece for the time being. Trying to invest in the squad and give the squad the environment and the training base that they should have in order to for them to reach the maximum of their potential. Commercially and partnerships, again, it's been another it's been another really good year for us. Um I believe we are the envy of the league in terms of the partnership roster that we have. Obviously, DHL, our principal partner, topped that list. Um, but with other long-standing partners, uh London Pride, Comrad Energy, Singapore Airlines have been with us now for a few years, uh, Aquinas, um, we've got a really good roster of partners. We brought on some new ones this year, um one left us last year. Um, and again, if anyone works in the commercial space at the moment, particularly around sort of rights holders and selling sponsorship, um, it's not the easiest. Um, but we have a really excellent stellar team here, and we've quickly sort of looked to replace some of the lost partners, and we brought on three new partners this year in USN, AccountsIQ, and then Titan Wealth Management are the new back of shirt sponsor for the women's team because they've got a really specific ideal around investing in elite women's sport. Uh, I believe it's the only one in the league, um, and we're really proud to have them on board. And then just sort of looking a little bit more around innovation. Um, some of you may or may not be aware, um, we reconfigured one of our lounges over the course of the summer. This is the Huddle Lounge. Um, it's actually, I think, the only one of its kind in the league. We work with uh an analyst that works or worked with TNT. Um, and before each home game, we create a set of uh analytics, which all of the guests in the room uh get presented pre-meal, and we go into specific details around where we think the match is going to be contested, won and lost. Um typically we um we go to a player who's either injured or rehabbing. We've been sport of choice this season. Um and uh on this particular occasion where this was the launch of the lounge, uh the guests were treated somewhat because Marcus was on his rest week um and he came in and talked to everyone through about the Bath game and where the Battle of the Tens was going to be won and lost between Jared and Max. Um but it's unique, it's innovative, and again it gives fans and supporters a really unique insight into how we sort of try and win these games. On to our wider sort of supporter base. Again, it's been another year where we've been really pushing the inclusion and the uh the fact that the club is a club for all. Um I'm still extremely proud about the work that we do as a club. Um I believe we're still the only club that has a dedicated focus on Black History Month. We continue to invest and make a huge amount of communication about our uh Pride and LGBTQ um efforts and again to make the club as, as I say, as inclusive as it can for everyone. We recently held our third access day, which is um, if you're not aware, it's where we make the club as accessible as it can be for people that have um maybe uh hidden disabilities or not so open about explaining about it, and they might not like being in crowded spaces or they might want to have a very different sort of matchday experience. And as I say, we had the biggest take up we've ever had at the most recent event. Uh, and our trading cards, which historically have been for our junior fans, um, are now consumed by all ages. This is our Harlequin's membership product. This is not season ticket membership, this is something completely separate, but this is a this is something we launched for fans that don't get typically get access to the stoop very often, either geographically, they live quite far away, or they live abroad. Um, but this is an opportunity for them to get certain content, um, access or um uh benefits across maybe our merchandise range, um uh and and this has been taken up really well over the course of the last 12 months. I say we launched this last summer, and we've already got over a thousand members signed up, and as I say, it's just an extra way for fans to support the club and follow the club that don't get the chance to come here as often as they'd like. And then touching on the foundation again, it's just been another stellar year for the foundation. The foundation is such a really, really important part of what we are as a club. It's hugely important to our owners. Um it's over ten years old now. It serves six boroughs uh across West London, and it is hugely, hugely important in terms of enriching and developing the young lives of young of lives of young people who are extremely underprivileged across our region and across our boroughs. Um I'll just put some stats on the screen for you. I don't need to read them all out, but the standout ones are obviously the volume of young people that we connect with over the course of a year, which is just under 3,000, um, the amount of girls that we get into rugby, the amount of young people that we educate. Um I heard a stat the other day that 22% of young adults, so anyone under the age of 18 across these six boroughs is officially in poverty. So if any stat blows your mind tonight, that might be one. So the work that the club and the guys in the foundation do is exceptional. And every pound that you spend or you invest into the foundation, we get a value of£5.52 for that pound that you spend. Um, so it's hugely, hugely important and is a really important part of what we do as a club. And then similarly on the community side of things, um, it's been another fantastic year for the community. Um, we've engaged over 42,000 young people across our heartlands. Um, the photo there in particular is Worthing College, which is one of our ACE programs, sort of partner colleges that feeds into our women's pathway. I'm sure Pat will talk about this in a little bit. Um, this was them playing their semi-final at the SDU a few weeks ago. They're now in the final at Twickenham, they're playing Heartbury. Um, and it's just such a fundamental route for us to reach young supporters, be they want to be young, aspiring players or the next generation of fans. Um the community department bring approximately seven to eight thousand of our community club fans into our big games over at Twickenham, so they they deliver stellar work across our area. Uh, and then lastly, on the sort of commercial bits, um we couldn't have this presentation and not reference big game 17. Um put the result to one side on the men's side for two seconds, um, because I'm going to address all of that in two seconds. Um the day itself, uh, in my opinion, was spectacular. Um, everything that and the commercial team and the ops team and the ticketing team that deliver this, and it takes months and months of planning, deserve huge amounts of credit for what they did and what we delivered. Um, probably the closest thing to NFL or some sort of you know high sort of value sports presentation. Um, but the identity of it, the slickness of it was quite spectacular. From the women's game to the pre-match entertainment to the light show, was fantastic. So, again, I think everyone within the commercial department deserve a huge amount of credit and respect for what they delivered. And again, we put the club, I think, in a really, really positive shot window. Obviously, the slight disappointment was we didn't get a sell-out crowd this year. Um we had about 65,000. Uh, the rail disruption, which meant engineering works between Christmas and New Year, meant that we had to bring it before Christmas. Um, and that undoubtedly had an impact in ticket sales, and we lost about 15,000. Um I'd love to stand here and say that we aren't going to face the same challenge in this calendar year. I can't say that, unfortunately, just yet. Um, we are working desperately hard to try and get uh the date that we want. Um the RFU's been incredibly supportive on that, but we will confirm where we're going to be on that in the coming weeks, I'm sure. Okay, so performance. Um look, we we obviously know that we've had a really uh at times challenging season. Um uh probably challenging two seasons, if we're honest. Um, and Anyone who watched or listened to the podcast that I did with the Times will understand some of the challenges we've had and some of the reasons why we've had some instability and some difficulty. We're obviously working incredibly hard behind the scenes to fix some of those those challenges. Some of these, as I said at the time, are going to be slightly shorter fixes, which would be fix-ups within the training program and what we do at the moment. Some of those other fixes, be that around structure or longer-term program investment, are going to be slightly longer to see embedded. The season as itself, you'd probably sort of split into sort of three or four categories. Europe itself has been a real highlight and a high point for us. Another stellar year in European pool stages, great victories against Bayonne, Stormers, anyone who's with us on the road in La Rochelle, I'm sure, had a fantastic weekend. And we've set ourselves up now for another knockout round in Europe. As I say, I think for certainly the third or fourth year on the bounce. We've got Sale at home, which is a fixture that we would give ourselves a real good shot at trying to get through to the next round to play either Leinster away. I think we've played them enough recently. Or Edinburgh at home. So we're going, we're travelling well in Europe. There's no two ways about that. And I suppose just I'll the sale game at home. I know there's probably a little bit of frustration around that, so I'll address a couple of bits around that now. First of all, the kickoff when it is. That's more so just because if we don't get it, it's obviously quite a big delta in our PL. So we don't budget for it. So we don't budget for the revenue, and we certainly don't budget for the costs. And opening the gates to run a game at the stoop is obviously quite expensive. Similarly, and I don't know how much it's well publicised, but when you're in the last 16 and the quarterfinal stages of Europe, you have to have a gate share with the opponent. So we have to give sale a percentage of the gate turnover that we have. And similarly, when we go on the road, potentially in the following round, we'll we'll pick up something on the road as well. So simply just including that in our membership, we're never ever passed muster with the opponent, not least with all the other operating costs that we have on the day to deliver. So it's a real difficult one. There's so many parts emotionally that you'd want to include it, genuinely, but from a from an operating point of view, it would just be suicidal for us financially. We did try and put we did put discount elements into the ticketing in order to try and make it as favourable as we could. We went deeper with discounts than we did on the Glasgow fixture last year to try and, as I say, engender some good spirit. But I appreciate it's a ticket, it's a match that falls outside your membership. And so therefore it's it's a decision that you have to take whether you're wishing to come and support the team on that day. Um at the minute we're probably tracking about 45% of our membership who have taken up a ticket. Um again, I appreciate it's Easter weekend, um, but we'd love as many of you there as possible to get behind the team and hopefully drive them through to the next round. The Prem's been frustrating. There's no two ways about it. Um we've been inconsistent, uh we've had some great highs, we've had some real lows. Um and if I'm honest, that's one of the big things that we're really trying to fix and find a solution to. Um if I had it, um, I'd explain it to you. Um but the level of consistency that we've had has been our biggest problem. Um and that's the big thing that we've been trying to work on as a team. Similarly, as you'll have seen this afternoon, our availability and squad availability has been a real challenge and headache for us this season. We've had too many players that have been off the field for too long a period. So not only are we looking at trying to fix the consistency of the squad, um, we're looking at trying to fix the availability and the durability and the resilience of the group. These are the challenges that we obviously put into our performance team through clear alignment between the coaching team, our SNC, and our medical team. Um, but we're all self-aware enough to realize that it's just not good enough. Um, and we're working extremely hard to find a way that makes that more sustainable. As I said back in the in January when I was doing the Times interview, one of the big things that we think will create the stability around that is obviously when we get the coaching appointment secured. Um that's going to feed into everything that we've got around squad size, composition, how we train, um, how we build the athletes to be durable. So there's a lot of inter sort of twined sort of parts to it all, but the the fact of the matter is um on these two areas over the course of the season, we have to self-reflect and say it's just not been good enough. And these are the things that we're working on extremely hard as we go into the last block of the season. Prem Cup, um, I probably split this into two sections. So the first section when we were sort of pre-Christmas probably wasn't, well, clearly wasn't as productive for us as the second block. Um, the way that we operate it here at this club, and each club's different. Um, we genuinely use it as a competition where we're going to develop our younger players. Um, not in totality, we have got some other senior players that sometimes go in the group, depending on when the fixture falls, depending on where we are with the return to play rehabilitation. But as you'll see from Matt's presentation shortly, overwhelmingly, this is a competition where we want to blood our younger players and our senior academy players to come through and get used to playing in the first team. The second block was definitely more uh productive for that perspective. Um, we changed the coaching team as well, so it's not typically the roster of first team coaches, we bring in our academy coaches. Matt's been leading the group as well. Um, so we give we broaden the experience to the rest of the coaches within the club in order to give them some experience and taste some first team rugby as well. So there's a number of optics that we take positively out of this competition. Um, and I think as you'll see, as I say, coming up in some of the slides that Matt's going to show, the exposure that we're giving to young players in the club through this competition will serve as well in the future. And as I say, a big, big part of the pillar of success for this club has to be developing and bringing the talent through that we've got within our academy. So, linked to that, I think we showed a very similar slide to this last year, uh, which was around the players that we're giving debuts to and using the Prem Cup as that vehicle for exposure. And you'll see there, we don't have to read them all out. Excuse me, the um the caps exposure just across these six young players alone, as they've been developed across Prem Cup and now Prem. Uh I mean, if you take Ben Wirecorn as an example, um 19 first team appearances over the course of the last 12 months, Bear Mindy's been out, injured a fair bit this season, um, just shows the importance of how bringing these players through the system is is going to serve as well in the future. And as I touched on a moment ago, um, this has been one of our, excuse the pun, one of our biggest Achilles heels. Um, it's if you can't get your best team or a high proportion of your best players and best athletes on the field, it's gonna become extremely difficult for us to win games. That's just a factor of a matter of fact. Um and we've had a real tough year. But to be fair, we had a slightly tough end to last season as well, which probably didn't help us as well. So this has got to be one of the biggest fix-ups that we can implement in the coming months ahead. Um, we did publish a list this afternoon, uh, which I'm sure you've all probably had some visibility on. Um there's some positive bits in there. We've got players that are coming back quicker than we expect. We've got some players that are going to be back pretty soon, so the list is shortening. Um, the probably the standout one that I just want to reference is really Steph, um, who is undergoing shoulder surgery at the back end of this week. Um, and really, really obviously disappointingly for him, uh means he's played his last game in a quince shirt. Um he's just been the most wonderful human being you could ever wish to meet. Uh, he's got so many strong qualities as a player, as a leader, as a human. Um, and he's he's been fantastic to have in the club. Um, and often, even though he's been off the field more than he would wish, again, just contextualized what he offers off the field is invaluable, and what he drives in terms of culture and leadership within the squad has been fantastic over the years that we've had him with us. So we're gonna miss him, um, but we'll undoubtedly do something for him before he gets to the end of the season, I'm sure. And then obviously, recruitment and retention is a big is a is a big discussion topic. Um as I said at the start, our our real aim, the primary intention of us as a club is to bring talent through. Um pleased to say that over the last sort of six months of recruiting and retaining, we've pretty much got everyone over the line that we wanted this season. Um, and again, if you look at some of the sort of profiles on the screen there, um I think Albar Chandler and uh Pedro in that particular screen, they've all come through our academy and all through our system. So it remains a really, really key focus there. Added to which we've obviously brought in Guido, Treadwell, um, Isgro's in his second season with his now. So these players are starting to embed themselves really nicely into the squad. Um clearly, the key bit is subment uh is augmenting the squad with quality that we can bring in from outside. Um I think we're gonna have a couple more to announce in due course in some obviously some key positions. I know you'll all be sort of desperate to understand who and where they where they're gonna be fitting in. Um as soon as we've got the ability, or we are able to tell you all, we will, but there is going to be a little bit more squad edition still to come before we get to the end of the season. And then I guess in the spirit of sort of clarity and um not quite announcements, but I just want to sort of cover around the coaching setup and where we are at the moment and what the future looks like for us there. So if I just sort of rewind a little bit, um we go about a year ago. Obviously, Billy told us he was going to be leaving the club and moving over to Ireland. Um, what that set about was a broader review of our coaching team, our performance structure. Um, and what we put in place then was we went back to a structure where we had a head coach and we had a general manager. The head coach is there to manage the team, uh, the coaches, and deliver the rugby program, principally around the first team. Obviously, there's big parts of the club that feed and filter into that. But the general manager's role is to look after the operations that sit outside the coaching area of the club and the rugby, specifically the rugby parts. There is some crossover in certain departments, of course, athletic performance, medical, um, but principally Andy Sanger as the general manager was there to look after the rugby operations. Danny at the time was there to lead the coaching. Um obviously Danny left us at the start of the season, we've talked about that a fair bit. Um, and whilst we would have wished that that would have happened earlier, it didn't. It happened pretty close to the start of the season. Because of the structure that we had around GM and because of the coaches that we had in the room, we were confident and comfortable with going into the season. Clearly not optimal, but that was the preferred option for us to go into the season. And we knew we were going to have a difficult season in some ways, but we were comfortable that the setup that we would have would be suitable to see us through the season. We wanted the dust to settle a little bit on the on the departure of Danny and give the coaching room, the headroom to do what they needed to do and the support to do what they needed to do, coupled with the support from Andy Sanger, who I again I'll go on record and just say he's he is a fantastic, fantastic individual. He's got brilliant relationships with all the staff, brilliant relationships with the players, understands the program, understands the support that they need and has been fantastic over through through the course of this season. At the same time, or certainly once a few months into the season, what I said we were going to do is do a broader external source and review of candidates who thought maybe suitable to come in to drive this club forward. And and that kind of search was kind of underpinned by a few key criteria. One, are they going to be suited to how we think we want to play as a club and the identity of us as a club? Two, um, are they going to be available? Are they going to want to come to us, obviously? Secondly, are they going to buy into our philosophy around developing young players and using our academy and our pathway as a as a vehicle to sort of drive players? And third, uh, and as equally importantly, do they buy into the culture and the ethos of what we are as a club? Um, we're very clear on our values and how we think we should exist. Um we've gone through that process uh and we have screened a number of candidates. We've met a lot of candidates, some of which have probably eked out into the social uh social media, no denying that. Um and I think we've gone through a thorough process. There isn't a big scoop here, by the way. Um we are close. We are super close, I think, um, to be able to agree on the setup that is going to take us forward from here. There is going to be some change, so some change is coming, but we're not quite at the stage where we're going to be able to announce to you what that looks like right now here tonight. I can tell you, it's a head coach. I know there's been a lot of discussion in the in on forums and a little bit in the media around whether we need a DOR or a head coach. It's a head coach, is what we're looking for. And the reason being is because we've got a GM structure that's there to support the coaching department. And I think if we've got the right coaches in the room, and whether we've got the right resource supporting those coaches in the room, and then we've got the right performance team that's going to be supporting those coaches to deliver what we need to do, then I think we're going to be in a good space to kick on. With, I believe, if we've when we've got a full fit squad, we'll be a club that can compete at the right end of the table. So we're looking to sort out a head coach, and I think we're not a million miles away from being able to tell you what that looks like. And our as soon as we can tell you, we will tell you. Elsewhere on the women's, um, it's been a good year. Uh, and again, credit to Ross and the team there that have last year they reached the playoffs, um, fell agonisingly short against Saracens away. Um, and we were we really thought we were gonna have a shot at getting past that game and getting into the final. Obviously, Hartbury have been dominant over the last few years. We've made no secret about this being a program that's been developing and transitioning over the last few years, and we're really starting to see the solidity within that group. We've got some fantastic players that are coming through. Pat's gonna talk about that in a moment, and the programme that we've got to support player development within the women's programme. We've had some other fantastic players come in and join the group, uh, like Liana and obviously Afa, um current Women's Six Nations Player of the Year, is in the club. Uh, she's also in the room tonight, so you're gonna hear from her, I'm sure. But we've got some fantastic talent that we're sort of bringing through. And the really nice thing is the halo effect from the Women's World Cup is really shining on the PWR. So for the first time uh in any season, we've had five consecutive matches where we've had over a thousand um attendees come and support the women. Uh, anyone who is here on Friday, uh sorry, Saturday um will have seen we had almost 4,000 fans here watching the London Clash or the Capitol Clash. Our social growth is is growing significantly. Um the reach that we have, our season ticket, we have a season membership model uh product specifically for the women's, which has doubled year on year. So we're seeing huge growth uh and it's deserved, and it's deserved for the work that the team do. Uh, we've got a uh sort of growth manager that looks after the women's program now singularly as part of his day job. Um, and we're seeing some real optimistic and positive developments in that. It's still a program that takes a huge amount of investment from the club, but we're starting to see the shoots of optimism commercially as it come through, and I say a big part of that I think is driven by the success of the of the Red Roses, particularly in the World Cup. Uh, and a big part of that is delivered by some of our star athletes that we've got within the club. Um, obviously, we've got Ether, um, but we've also got a certain former World Player of the Year runner-up of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, um, and an all-round fantastic player and World Cup winner. Um, and she's also safely now back in London, which is a relief. Um so the the programme itself is is going from strength to strength, and we've got home PR PWR final here at Stoop in June, and we're determined to be a part of that day as we go through and reach the sort of head towards the playoffs. Uh so I think it's penultimate one from me before I hand over. So a big part of these sessions are obviously as we look to sort of try and create the context around our season membership uh for the following year. And for the last few years, um we've obviously been doing some sort of rebalancing and recalibrating of ticket prices in relation to the cost of delivering matches here at the Stu. And and it's fair, we've gone through a bit of pain over the last couple of years. Um we're going to be announcing or launching our membership products next week on Tuesday. Um, there is a freeze on all season ticket membership. So there will be no price increase on your season ticket membership for next year. Um so uh which I think, as I say, is reflective of probably some of the work that we've done over the last couple of years. Um a little bit reflective of where we are, I'm not gonna lie. Um but similarly, the the cost of electricity doesn't fluctuate, whether we're ninth or fourth, unfortunately. But it's it's a reflection of your loyalty to the club and as I say of some of the um some of the changes and amendments that we've made over the last couple of years. So we're gonna be freezing prices on our season ticket membership. So anyone, whatever you paid on your season ticket membership this year will be exactly the same as what you've paid on your membership next year. That takes us into finances. Um and again we're sort of we're continuing to head, we were, we're heading in a better direction. Um, as you might hopefully see from the screen. Um 0.7 loss two years ago, 0.4 loss last year. Um we had a couple of headwinds last year, that 0.4 loss is when the salary cap increased as well, so we accommodated that. And this is on an operating PL, by the way. So again, I think there's maybe a little bit of confusion, and if that was on me, I apologize wholeheartedly. This is all about the club's operating PL. So it doesn't take into consideration any of our other uh capital money that we spend in the club, any of our leases that we may have, any of the Sport England repayments. This is just purely on an operating PL from the club we're talking about. Um, and this doesn't include our women's investment as well. So this is just on the main men, principally the men's club budget. Um so we're nudging up to sort of 31 uh million in turnover. And again, to remind you, we were probably around 22, 23, about five years ago. Um and and the cost line is is slowing, thankfully, in terms of its increase, uh, and is being caught by the revenue line. The slight kicker, just being totally transparent, is um the 15,000 that I referred to earlier in the big game, it's just had quite a material impact on what we think we're going to achieve this year financially. So the delta that we we were forecasting originally to go into the black this year, um so that the the loss of attendance at big game is what's been our single biggest factor in this year's finances. Um and it's fair to say we've got a bit of a headwind still coming with uh a big summer kickoff as well. We obviously we haven't delivered that game yet. Um it's tracking okay. Uh it went off actually a real pace, it slowed a bit, um, which is might be slightly a reflection of where we are at the minute performance wise. I think it's definitely a reflection of Six Nations landscape. We tend to slow up generally through this sort of February, March block anyway. Um we're confident we're still going to get a good number of people through through the door. Um but uh as you can see how we've trended over the last four or five years, we're Trending well, but obviously getting into the black is remains a really really key sort of target for us. And then lastly, this is just really a sort of thank you to the fan base. As I say, I know the inconsistency of some of our results is frustrating. It makes following the club sometimes feel a little bit disappointing. But there's plenty of high points in there as well. And a big part of the highs is being supported by the fans that we have within this club, which is in no small part down to Quinza and our friends over there, who I think are now at two and a half thousand members. And that's clearly demonstrated when we go on the road, it's demonstrated when we're in Europe. And we the club just wouldn't exist without that level of support, without your level of support. It's a Wednesday night, there's over 200 of you in here. So again, it just typifies the support of the club. And to be honest, we're going to need the support in the high points of the club's been fantastic. And it's remained that way. And we're going to need continue to have all of your support as we look to transition back into slightly more sort of positive space, consistent positive space. And all clubs go through this, by the way, generally, in any sport. It's really, really difficult to maintain the level of performance output that you want consistently in any sport. And we're having a slight sort of, as I say, a bit more of a bumpier road at the moment, but we'll definitely be back of that, I guarantee you. And we'll be back consistently. And as you'll see in a second, the future is bright of the players that are coming through and the quality that's coming through and the work that's coming through. But I just wanted to reendorse my appreciation for the fan support that follows this club. And really do, as I'm sure you will, continue to get behind all of our teams as we carry on through the remainder of this season and as we go into next. Right, that's probably enough of me for now. I'm going to do some QA with Joe shortly. I'm going to hand over to Matt. Oh, you didn't.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Thanks very much for the opportunity to come and speak to you about the small part I play in this great organisation, but more importantly, the opportunity to tell you about some of the fantastic young players we have in our pathway, who we hope, and I use the word hope on purpose that we see out on that pitch for the years, for the years to come. And the reason I use the word hope is the stage that we're in is actually trying to find evidence to prove that those players have the capability of going on to be the future Queen's player of the future. The actual transition space, which is the title that um that I'm given, is actually changed now in a number of sports to the word confirmation, which I'm actually a much bigger believer in. And I actually put into a uh a well-known image making uh internet uh a young twins player being confirmed, and it had a picture of the Pope. It had a picture of the Pope on the middle of the stoop. Now I know I know we've not played particularly well this year, but I'm not sure we need we quite need the Pope on the centre on the centre pitch. Um but but the word the reason why I like the word confirmation is is that's that's very much what what I believe my role is. We have a conveyor belt of 18 to 22 year olds coming into our system. Our job is to find evidence that they are going to end up to be the next 200-300 cap Quinsmen. And the reason and the way that we do that is through high challenge and high support. And I want to try and make this as as realistic to my life as possible. So the best story of high challenge and high support is Sam Bland. It would have been very easy for this club, as we have in previous years, to have got some lonely players to go to Leicester and finish our PRC when we were short of tight head props. But I was convinced we've got an 18-year-old international in our system, Yorkshireman, as tough as Yorkshire T. The opportunity for him to go and play was the right thing to do. And I went really heavy at the selection to make sure that we gave that young man that opportunity. Now, it probably didn't work massively like he dreamt it when he was yellow carded 12 minutes later and walking back and walking back to the dugout. That is, that's high challenge. You know, he was competing against uh a loose ed that only four months before that was earning penalties against Bordeaux in a Champions Cup final. So that's the high challenge. Where does the high support come in? Well, he had a phone call from me that evening. We had a Zoom call on Sunday morning, and we went for a cuddle on Monday. And and I'm I guarantee you now that, and we've all seen it, and he won't be the first and he won't be the last, an 18-year-old prop going to Welford Road having a tough time is part of life. And I believe that's an example of what, a real life example of where this pathway is high challenge and high support. And when I came into this job and was lucky enough to speak to Laurie back in the summer, I set myself three aims that I wanted to put in place. In order to develop these great 18-year-olds that Laurie has talked about to become 25, 26, 27-year-old Queens players, we have to expose them to pressure and professionalism. We just can't put them in a separate room, in a separate entity, and say, we'll see you in three or four years' time. It doesn't work like that. Think about those of you that have had apprentices in your in your working life. It's exactly the same for a young player. So we need our young hookers to see how Jack Walker lives his life. Probably not past seven o'clock on a Saturday night, but but but up and up until up until that point. Okay, and if you see Domers looking a little bit sad, he's just been looking at the highlights of the under-18's number eight that's been picked for England, okay, he's just pass slightly panicking that his days are coming to an end as well. Okay, but having that having that player, having that player been able to watch Domers in his daily life is how we expose players. And and from what I understand previously, due to the playing squad that Laurie talked about, when we had a large three-team playing squad, we never used our younger players. So they were kept separate. So the Sam Bland wouldn't have got his experiences. The Elliott Williams would never have made a debut because we would have gone into another group of players. Does that make sense? And and and I will I will live and die by these three by these three points in here. The appropriate playing program is then crucial. Rugby players get better at rugby by playing rugby. Not by sat in a gym, okay, not being sat behind a laptop. You get better at rugby by playing rugby. So, what do we need to do with Lucas Friday to make sure that he does become a better version of Danny Kerr in the future? And then finally, the living development plan. Think about all the meetings you've had with your bosses when you've said, Oh, I want to learn more about Excel. And your boss says, Yeah, we'll get you on a course, and 12 months later you say, I need to get better at Excel. Okay? It's absolutely crucial. My role is to make sure that these players are having something day by day, session on session, that they live, that they live by. And ultimately, when someone says to you, What does a transition coach do? Well, you can now say basically the Pope, okay? But but what I'm actually all about, it's it's a growing process where we are trying to grow players, we're trying to grow players from where they come in to where they end up. And this slide I use at the start of every one of my meetings with the confirmation players. Because it was also evident to me when I joined the club, although we had a great group of players, we didn't have many of them smashing the door down to want to take chances. But they became really happy to be a Quinn's player, really happy to sit in the environment. Why shouldn't we have more 21, 22-year-olds playing in the first team? So this slide here represents who's gonna kick and get his door down. Okay, because you're gonna get two years to do it, and those two years will pass you by really quickly. So we can talk about lows around what we want to do. We actually need the young player as well to come to the party too, so it's a two-way, two-way process. So I I love that, and uh, the boys are sick of seeing it. But when we uh have the horrible conversations at the end of their two years, and we say, sorry, you're not got a professional contract, that's also the slide that I'll be showing them. Um is an arrow up and arrow down is also on my list. It'll still be there next year to do as well. So, um, having a little bit more detail in those three headings. So, how do we expose players to professional? I'll mention a little bit about the ability for players to see people like Jack and Domus do their work. But but ultimately, again, when I when I joined, it was evident to me that the confirmation players weren't invited into first team meetings. Like, so there's so much rugby IQ goes on in our meetings, so much. That why wouldn't we put your apprentice at the back of the room to listen to it? Okay, so that was really important, really important to me. And it doesn't matter how good a coach any of our coaches are, players learn best for their peers. So on that picture at the side here, subdriscoll getting smashed by Chandler is the most better learning experience he'll ever get. Because he'll realize where it where to put your head where it doesn't hurt pretty quickly. Okay? That that probably takes me three or four weeks of chatting. Having again, having the picture at the front there with Finn talking about scrums to a young prop, absolutely priceless. So that's an example of how we how we do that. Because our training squad is reducing, there's more of a requirement now for the younger players to be involved in our first team in our jesters. We've now called our non-playing squad a jesters rather than the second team or the non-selected, they've now got a team. And the idea is you become a Quinn's player by being the best jester, okay, and me and G will rev those boys up to upset those two on a Thursday afternoon, okay, and then that's how you then show to your head coach you're worthy of selection. Again, that can only happen if they get the chance on the pitch to be to be there. Um, really important for me is is what I've enjoyed the most about this year has been my link to the under 18s. So, as a role of that confirmation coach, my job is to is to sit alongside uh Jim and two fantastic uh um quinsmen in Geordie uh Turner Hall and Jim Evans. Like what two, what 360 odd twins caps between them? What what two great men to prove to our youngsters what it what it means to uh to be a Queens player. We've currently in that group got four of our under-18s uh in the England under-18 squad at the moment. Um we finished fourth in the league this year. It's the first time that the league became a premiership, a league, uh countrywide competition. And arguably, throughout the all of it, it is well documented that we played the best rugby. So rather than me just telling you, I just thought it might be a good opportunity to have a look at what some of that future rugby looks like. I understand why Domas has pooed himself at the back of the room, can you? Okay. Um what I think's worth indicating with that, that that's our boys against the best of their age group in the country. You know that some of that looks like a cheat code, doesn't it? It looks like they're they're playing a different that's the best player. That's that's the best part of that video is us putting 60 points on Northampton. That by by for me by far. That's the best part of that video. But that's the best, that's the best players, that's the best players in the country at their age group. Okay, so right consistently, even at the finals day, even the Bath coach had highlighted to Chim and the coaches that you boys have consistently played some of the best rugby. That rugby looks like Quinn's DNA. And again, that's what I'm about to make sure that that that's happening. And I think it's been a real highlight. Uh, some of those players in the near future, you'll be hearing, have got uh contracts to join the first team next uh next season, and that will be the next cycle, and that'll be the first group that I've got to play with, if you excuse the pun. Um second part, I mentioned earlier, you get better at rugby from being rugby, from playing rugby. Uh and if we look at senior debuts this year in either the premiership or the Prem Cup, okay, so the number of people that we have given a chance to put a Quinn shirt on for the first time. I've been told by Laurie if anyone gets these next two numbers right, he's got some stash for them in his office. Um, anyone want to take a shout out? How many senior debuts have we had of players under 23 in the Premier ship or the Prem Cup this year? Take a guess somewhere. Well, yeah, we're in the right sort of number, we're in the right sort of number. Bath have put something out recently about how great it is that they've got 10. Okay. We've definitely put 14 players this year. That's pretty much a full team going from uh Jamie Miller right through to Josh Bellamy from a loose head to a 15 that we have they've put on the Quincher in a competitive uh game. I think the next bit is the loan program. How we get people playing players better at rugby is by playing. We need to find the right appropriate playing level. We are unbelievably lucky at this club due to our geographical uh strength, that within the championship, we have a strong relationship with London Scottish, with Richmond and with Chinna. Obviously, Scottish and Chinna have strong Harlequin influences, so when we send people there, we know that they're being looked, we're being looked after. That's our championship level two players. We have a strong link with TJ's, which is Jordan Turner Hall's team. And we've also a strong link with Isha and obviously Brownie, terrorising people, terrorizing people there. We've also got we've also got we've also got a strong number, uh five of our players who are doing their rugby alongside education, people playing at Exeter, at Loughborough, at Cardiff, in the Bucks Super League. And those of you who have been lucky enough to watch any Bucks rugby will understand that's a decent level as well. This this season so far, we've had 30 players out on loan. Okay, so we've got our 25-26 players out here in the Prem. Underneath that, we're putting 30 players out into the uh game at the right appropriate level. Someone playing Elliott Williams playing at in the championship might be very different to a uh uh Ash playing in National 2. Okay, find the right level for the player to develop based on their position and their skill set. Does that make sense, yeah? Okay, that and then really, really um a credit to the whole pathway is eight under-20s. So more than any other premiership club, in the under-20s EPS, we have got eight players. So almost over a quarter of the EPS, the best under-20 players in the country, come from this club. And out of those eight, six of them are playing right now, okay, in the six nations. So you start thinking you've got those eight in there, we've got four currently in the under-18s. It's pretty easy for me to do my job. Don't tell Laurie that. One of the things that we um have done with with Gilly is set out the requirements that he believes a player in every position should be proficient at in terms of making their game go well at the weekend. So that's from a first team level down to our under-eighteens. So if you're a number a number eight in our under-eighteens, you are being judged on the same criteria as Domers when he plays. Because that's building the skill level, that's building the continuity, that's what successful teams have. We don't have a change every six months, a change every year. This is what a number eight in a Quinn Churcher does, and it doesn't involve kicking. Okay? So when I'm sat there with a player and he's going, Yeah, my ball carrying wasn't great, and I missed three tackles, but I kicked the ball really well. You can understand the kind of feedback that he's gonna be getting from me. So we have a clear understanding, and the players, more importantly, have a clear understanding. Now, just to put your minds at rest, really luckily supported by Joe Mullen, um who's the uh first team skill coach, he looks after the backs. So I'm not sat there telling uh Lucas Friday how to play a game of rugby. Don't worry about that. Our backs are well, well and truly. But I will spend a lot of time with Elliott Williams looking at how we how we grow him in that area, in that area there. So they're the three things that we go after daily exposure to professionalism, an appropriate playing, and a living, a living plan that they're in charge, they're in charge of. And I just thought it would be interesting to bring this up, and hopefully you can see from where you're sat. But this is this by no means is not a performance based team. I've just picked 15 players here that may not be household names, that are all under 23. And finally finally, if you're genuinely interested and you want to see rugby like you saw in that video, then Tuesday night we play Japan down here with our under 19s. 6 o'clock. A lot of those players you've just seen. I'm in charge of the attack. It's going to be mental. Okay? Okay? When um when the the the whole the whole greatest showman, when Jim said the fixture was there, I said we'll put a show on. And that's that's the circus that we've been practicing. And it's gonna be made up of um predominantly uh our under 18s and previous players that in the last two years that have been for our system and released to get a chance to play on the stoop pitch. Okay? So it's gonna be a massive game on Tuesday night. Get down, bring your bring your family down and certainly see some rugby. Thanks very much for your time.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:54

Well, a um fascinating, valuable insight into again that ecosystem, what is feeding the future of Harlequins. I think you'll agree, pretty exciting. That mass at the bottom of the iceberg that is ready to emerge and pull on quarter jerseys. Uh, I should say as well, that ACAD team as well, they are a whisker away from being in the final and competing for the number one spot. There is a rich vein of talent that is coming through. Right. Speaking of rich vein of talents and successes, it's hugely exciting to be a woman in quarters at the moment, be that in the pathway or be that playing for the senior side. And Allianz cup final, right in the mix of arguably the most competitive PWR season in the history of the league. And to talk you through it, we've got first team head coach Ross Chisholm, and we've got head of the women's pathway Platinum Calvin. Please welcome everybody.

SPEAKER_10 1:09:06

Firstly, I think just to start it off, um thank you for your support so far this season and uh the support of the weekend. I thought 4,000 people, the spectacle that was put on by the club and the just general atmosphere this season at the stoop has been outstanding. Post the World Cup. I think it's been the best PWR season we've had, the most competitive. Makes it difficult to coach in at times because you know every game is going to be really, really tight, but thoroughly enjoyable. And I just wanted to start with that as a massive thank you for all your support. Look, obviously, it's amazing to have Ether in the room tonight, and it's amazing to have the likes of Ellie K and Lucy Packer that have won a World Cup and the accolades that they've won, uh, particularly Ellie as an individual so far this season has been phenomenal and amazing to be part of. Again, the likes of Ether and Liana in the squad is critical to winning trophies, and that's what we're about. However, for the sustainability of the club and to keep pushing our game on, where Pat is gonna hopefully give some insight into our programme and how programme runs slightly differently, but in the essence, we do similar to what Ferg and the men's team is doing. It's critical to the future and the success of the programme. And I think we were starting to see this as year two of my journey as head coach. We're starting to see these players come through for the amount of time that I've given them and they've earned and they've deserved. And to make the Prem Cup final this season, part of the vision I had was one, we wanted to win it, and two, we wanted to develop them in a winning mentality because actually I strongly believe that actually we develop people through trying to win games with rugby, not just oh, let's chuck them out there and give them a go. Okay, we're learning to try and win trophies because that's what the club's about. I suppose listening to Ferg's journey, I cast my mind back 15 years to when I joined the club as an academy player. I was really lucky to go through that successful academy system. And although there's slight nuances in the way we do it, you get a really good understanding of how Quinn's want to do it, what success looks like, and actually how we produce talent and players. So I'll hand over to Pat now to give the insights and the lowdown of how we do it and the context, and then I'll wrap it up with some of the success stories that we've had this season.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:23

Brilliant, thank you, Ross. And and likewise, pleasure to be here tonight. Um, I think it's always a massive privilege working in in sport and an elite sport, and even more so with with a club with the history um that Quinns brings with it, with the playing identity and with the strong supporter base and all of you here this evening. So I can only echo the thanks that that Ross has given and I give a bit of my own background. So I think um Joe actually introduced me there as head of pathway. That was my previous role with Quinn's. Um so thanks for that. Um I've just moved into the the head of women's rugby role, um, but obviously what we're talking about tonight is hugely close to my heart, and my my background um before I came to Quinn's as a as a coach to lead the um to lead the women's pathway about 15-16 months ago um was working in the under 18s game, um, worked across a couple of different PWR clubs, um, the centres of excellence, so um really kind of uh honing my craft as a coach with the next generations of players coming through, some of whom are at Quinn's now. So um Ella Cromak on the screen. Uh I worked with her from when she was 15 years old, and again, hugely fulfilling to see her now. Um the right to wear the Quinn's badge and and represent the club on the stage as she has this season. So um I think the key message is sustainable success here, and our landscape looks slightly different to um what Ferg has described in the way that we would run our our boys' academy into our senior men's academy and and how that would then integrate with the with the squad. Um pathways in its infancy, okay, being really honest at Harlequins. Um so when I came into the role 15 months ago um looking after the pathway, we uh we didn't have a university partnership. Um we were starting to have that conversation. Um the the link with Worthing College, which is our under-18s partner college, wasn't as strong as it perhaps is now. Um, and we weren't necessarily seeing the transition of those players through into our into our senior squad. So a huge amount of emphasis and work has been done in this space over the last 18 months because we know how important it is, and Laurie touched earlier, Gloucester Hartbury, who've had immense success in the last three seasons, they've won three back-to-back PWR titles. Um it's no secret, they have historically had the best pathway in women's rugby, probably in the northern hemisphere, probably globally in women's rugby. Um so they're based out of out of Hartbury College, Hartbury University, they have that conveyor belt of players coming through, um, which adds huge depth to their squad and and creates an excellent training environment for them to push their first team and um and and put on performances week in, week out. And that's something we wanted to emulate, but we wanted to do it our way. And Andy Reese Jones, I think, stood up here in front of you last season and and talked you through the performance strategy. And that was a three-year strategy which started when Ross came into the head coach role at the beginning of last season, um, and it's working. We we're not coming away from this, we truly believe in it. We've seen um uh excellent performances across last season and this season, and obviously into playoffs last season, something we're looking to do again. Um and and we really feel like we have we have the squad, we have a hugely talented squad, um, but a young squad who we're going to look to develop over the next couple of years, and you know, the ambition across the whole of the club is silverware. So that performance strategy was based on these four pillars. So creating the right environment and culture, um, doing it the quin's way, the quin's identity of playing, which I think you see when you know some of the footage that Fergus shown, but you see that when our women play. Um and and then the recruitment and the retention that we've done, and we've brought in some EFAs here today, we've brought in some hugely um high potential, high-quality world-class talent over the last couple of seasons. Um, and we'll be again not quite in a position to be able to tell you all this evening, but over the next few weeks, um we we've got some big resignings in that space and some new additions to the squad which are going to drive us forward. Um but always from the beginning of that three-year strategy was how do we develop that performance pathway to retain and develop that talent and to make a sustainable successful future for the women's program here. Um, and what we come back to with all four of those pillars is underpinning it all by a consistent, high-quality staff group. That is our point of difference when we recruit players with the conversations that we have. It is our point of difference when we look to embed the Quinn's way into our playing style and the coaching and the delivery that Ross and the senior coaching group deliver week on week. The environment and the culture that our staff and our players create, and ultimately that's what we've done with our pathway. That's where we've made our investment, and it's been a big investment over the last 18 months. What does that look like? Um, these are some of the faces, they're not all of the faces, but they're some of the faces that have joined us, particularly around coaching in that space, and some of them you'll recognise. Um, Quinn's through and through, Langey and Shauna have come through obviously their playing careers at the club and are huge supporters of developing the next generation of players through to the senior squad. Um Ali Chisholm, part of the Chisholm clan, um who consistently contributing to the to the women's um to the women's performance and program. Um James makes a frequent appearance as well in the coaching office. Um and and Kate Yeomans have joined us, and and Ali is currently the head coach of the university program. Um sitting down with players week on week, going through their clips with them, having the types of conversations that Ferg's alluded to there, uh, I'm sure with just as many jokes thrown in along the way. Um, and Kate Yeomans has joined us as part of our community team in a role that that sits between the community department and the performance department leading our Word and College program as well. So to create the best players coming through where we don't have necessarily that conveyor belt of talent coming through at under 14s, 15, 16, 17, 18s. Okay, what we've looked to do is we've looked to staff the environments and the partnerships that we do have that lend themselves to our landscape and the women's game really well by getting high-quality coaching staff in there. Um in Lange and Shauna role models. Um you've you've got to see it to be it, and and inspiring those players to continue with their rugby journeys and aspire to be future Harlequins. A few updates on what what's going on in those various programs. So Worthing College has been a partner of ours for two years now. That's really come to life over the last six to eighteen months with that group now training regularly at Surrey Sports Park alongside senior skills um sessions, so daytime sessions that we would have with the with the senior squad. So we'd have young players practicing kicking next to Ellie Kildan, who's practicing hers alongside. Okay, so again, it's part of seeing the professionalism, the environment that they're aspiring to in the future. Um, and and that's really given us the ability to um expose those players to the senior coaching group as well. So Ali alongside Ross, Damo, and Chris going out and coaching those players when they're at Surrey Sports Park. Um, I think alluded to earlier, but they've also played their first fixture at um at the stoop as well, in what was a top-of-the-table clash to get to the ace final, which is going to be at Twickenham next Thursday. So, again, another date for your diaries just across the road. What a brilliant experience for those young players. They've played at the stoop last week in front of quite a noisy crowd, um, and they've got an even bigger one to look forward to a bit later on the season. So it's about they've got it, they've got to play rugby, it's about playing uh playing opportunities, appropriate playing opportunities, but also the training environment, the coaching quality that they're getting week on week. And then on to the University of Surrey partnership, and this is um this has really come to life over the last 18 months. So we signed a long-term service level agreement with the university in July. That was significant investment from both ourselves and from the university to develop that program to make sure they've got the coat the coaching quality that they need to progress in their rugby, the medical provision to look after them on and off the field, um, high-quality athletic um development, access to facilities, and all of the holistic support that wraps around that. So, how do we support them with their studies and their education alongside their rugby um career? How do we make sure that they get they're getting their lifestyle support, nutrition, psychology, etc. One of the massive benefits of being based at Surrey Sports Park is that we share obviously the training facilities with the university. So we've worked pretty pretty tirelessly in the coaching office to make sure that those players are being seen and exposed to the training to the senior training environment. So identifying windows in the calendar where we can get them into senior training sessions, where we can support the program with contested training sessions against the senior squad, um, where we can expose them to potentially a young prop to a senior front row session and start to integrate into that environment. Again, Ferg touched on appropriate playing opportunities, and they've got to play rugby. We're absolutely firm believers in that as well. They've got to play high quality, competitive rugby. Okay, and there's a slight difference there, and and where again our pathway is in its infancy, um those those players have had to get through quite a lot of fixtures, which perhaps haven't been competitive at times, to be able to move their way up the leagues to now start to see the fruits of their labour and and get more meaningful fixtures in the calendar. Um, and a huge ambition of ours is to get that team to box super rugby, and we're well on the way. So they were promoted into the Box Premier South League at the end of last season, so that's the league they've been playing in this season. They've won the league, um, which is a testament to the to the coaching that they're receiving and the the quality of programme provision and the work that they've put into developing their rugby. Um, and they've now got to a playoff against the equivalent North League, which again, date for the diary, Wednesday next week. It's Nottingham away at 7 pm, um, which is potentially um yeah, only for the hardcore fans, but I will be there. So um, yeah, anyone travelling, um please do let us know. Um and there's a conversation around whether that will be a straight promotion to box super rugby um or whether they'll have one more playoff to get through. Um but that's the ambition, and getting into that league that truly is in our eyes the um the next best level of domestic competition after the PWR. Okay, so if they're not playing PWR rugby, that's the best place that they can play their rugby. Okay, and we're and again the club and the university have made a huge investment to be able to make sure that those players are getting the exposure and the competition that they need. Um, what does what does success look like? Um and I'll hand over to Ross here, but again, for a program in its infancy, we've seen a huge amount of success, which is really exciting. Um so I'll let you take the reins and then I'll come back on to how we're gonna push it forward.

SPEAKER_10 1:24:56

Yeah, I've got my coaching notebook out so I don't miss any of the information because I think it's important for people to know in the room. So, look, our two sort of trailbrazers at the moment, Nicole Wythe and Sarah Parry, both been called into England camp from performances of the PWR this season. So that's a real testament to them and hopefully to the pathway and all the work that's been put in. Sarah Parry is 19 years old and is training in England camp, and who knows whether she'll get captain of the Six Nations. So they're two of our sort of like high flares. However, also to add to that, we've got eight players in the Red Roses under 20s, one in Wales under 20s, one in Scotland under 20s, five playing in GB7s or have been called into GB7s camps. We've also got a bit of a trailblazer in Katie Schillicker that's been playing GB7s, is currently um away, sort of travelling the world and playing in lots of tournaments, but again came through that Worthing College pathway, didn't go to the university, but shows actually the investment that the club puts in. We start to see the free thrower. Katie played in that Premiership Cup final as well. So there's high hopes for some of this talent in years to come, and I think again to go back to that Premier Cup final. I chose to pick the team that got us there, not to load it with a couple of internationals that came back because the exposure and the desire they had to go into that game, and hopefully, in a year's time or two years' time in finals for that group that might not be involved in the final this season are exposed to playing in those fixtures and having to compete in those games, which is going to be really important. Again, I go back to my journey. I was lucky to be involved in the club's period when we won the premiership, won the Amlin Cup and the LV Cup. And that group, when I played in the LV Cup, I think we were all 20, and the exposure we got in that was critical, and that's something that we strongly believe in. And I think just to finish it off, and that's there are high flyers, but in general, a couple of weeks ago I looked at it, there was 1,200 minutes available for all players across the university and the first team programmes. That young group, including injuries, injured players in that group, were about 650 minutes on average per player. As a young player, you should be hitting about 800 to 1,000 minutes depending on position. So they are well on their way to making the minutes required to make the transition into the senior team. And look, that is the absolute cornerstone of what will be future success, and hopefully, with some of the group that we've seen, the success of this season as well.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:30

So, what next? I've obviously come from the pathway role into now the head of women's rugby role, so we're actively recruiting for that head of pathway and transition to really take that staff group to the next level. Um what does the next level look like for that? Well, we want those players transitioning to the to the first team. And again, we talked about we're we're young in this process, we have been extremely Fortunate to have recruited players well, despite not having a university program that's that's been linked for a long time to Harlequins. We now have that, and we've got more players coming through that pipeline. The challenge is to make sure that they are breaking into the senior squad and that when we're when we're getting them, that we're working them hard, and that we're we're realizing the potential that we have in the building. So watch this space. We've interviewed some really high quality candidates, and um and we we're gonna add some quality to that already strong staff group. Promotion to Buck Super Rugby, we've touched on it. Um it's the best university competition and it's attracting the best talent. So it being in that um being in that competition gives us a real recruitment pool as well as the ability to give those players competitive minutes week in, week out. Um so again, we're well on our way, but a huge ambition for the program. Um and then and then we've already touched on that player transition, but um I think to add to some of the context that Ross has given there around the cup and some of those other environments that players have gone on to this season alone. Um we've had two young props, 1920, who got their first opportunity. One of them came through Worthing College, one of them didn't. Um have come to the university, got their opportunity during the cup campaign, um, and over the last couple of fixtures, PWR fixtures have featured in our squad. Um, and they've gone really well, and that is the progression that we want to see from these players coming through. Um so more of the same across 1 to 15. That's that's certainly the goal and the ambition. Um, and and that's what our focus is going to be on over the next 18 months to get us to the end of this three-year, um three-year vision, three-year strategy and and see those players playing in future Harlequin shirts. So thank you very much for your time. Um again, a huge privilege for us to be able to stand here and present to you on some of what's been going on behind the scenes. Um please do if you're if you're ever, sorry, Sports Park Way, or indeed uh find yourself at Twickenham next Thursday or in Nottingham on Wednesday evening, and do come and support the group because they're doing amazing things. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:45

Um thanks to continue Russian, women's head uh coach and Garth Jones, head of women's rugby. Slash head of buttons upon okay, and uh look uh maybe I'm a little bit frazzled because I've been uh commentating on all of the other Ace Girls finals, and I can tell you today I've seen some extraordinary quality. So if Worthing are in the final, that's a real taste of what Quinn's have got in their Arsenal coming through. So that is very, very exciting. Next Thursday, and actually that same Thursday as well, it's at Twickenham across the road. Epsom College are going to be playing Northampton School for Boys in the school's under 18s cup final, and you can bet your bottom dollar there's Quinn's Academy players uh suiting up for Epsom. Um, okay, guys, we are snatching time at the moment. We've heard some great presentations, thorough, insightful. Uh let's have a QA with the main man now. So, Laurie, if you'll come up and join me, we've uh we've got a few questions for you, sir. We'll start in the middle comes. So we might have to have a bit of a reorganisation. And uh, these questions have come in in advance from everyone. We've got a few coming in from the stream, and as I said, we'll open it up to you guys as well. And um, thanks for all the detail that you gave us. Uh pertinent question at the forefront of everyone's mind. Uh, from the men's perspective is the coaching situation. We've got a question in from Tim Baker. He says, We've got a mixed group on the coaching staff, including two consultants at the moment. How a decision's made and who has the clear accountability amongst that group.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:34

Yeah, so I think um I think this is the the slight confusion or the uncertainty has come around. Um this was commented on externally from the club. There's there's real clarity in the room, and there's real clarity in the group. Um consultant is really a title. Uh so Sean, obviously, let me address those two in particular. Sean worked with his uh a few seasons ago, he's come back in with a very, very specific remit. Um supporting certain aspects around attack, working on certain aspects specifically with Marcus, um, with a very, very clearly defined set of things that he's he's there to support. Um it doesn't in any way invade in next space. Uh similarly, Toby is uh he's the forwards coach, uh, and he's been working with us in that capacity. He also does some other bits and pieces externally to the club, but he's with us all the time. So it's a bit of a it's a slight misnomer to suggest that he's a consultant that that in in the regard that he's not there, present. There's clarity in what he's doing, what he's delivering, the players know what they're expecting from him, um, how he's driving them and coaching them is is is clear as day. So and and Jason's the lead coach. There's no again, there's no confusion as to he's the boss man. Yeah, there's no confusion at all about where the decision making's coming from ultimately. Um and they've all got their key coaching areas that they focus on and deliver on, and and that's how it works. It's it's not as confusing as some might think.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:07

Okay, well, look alike when it when it comes to appointing that director of rugby, that head coach role, um what are the qualities the Quinns are looking for? And sorry, this is from Jason White, by the way. And how do Quinn's plans ensure better continuity than what Quinn's have enjoyed in in the recent past?

SPEAKER_08 1:34:28

Yeah, um I'm pretty sure Jason White used to play, didn't he? Um the No, I don't think it's the Scottish back rower, no. Um look, it's a really fair question, isn't it? Um because we have had, and I've said this uh more than once, we've had a bit too much change in that seat. Um so ensuring that we've got some stability going forward is really important, uh, which is one of the reasons why we've been taking our time about it and wanting to ensure that we've got the right structure. We've nothing's been off the table in terms of uh the long-term structure that we want to go with. Um not contradicting what I said half an hour ago in the prayers by any means, but we want to go with a head coach structure. Um that's to say we've explored all of the uh all of the various sort of ramifications of it. The person's got to understand us as a club, and I think first and foremost they've got to be coming in to be additive to what we are and what the room looks like at the moment. Um we want them uh we want that coaching group to be connected with the identity of the club. Uh they have to understand that what it is being a Queen, and we've talked a lot through the evening around the development of young players and the quality that we've got within the academy, um, which is one of the big reasons why we wanted to sort of structure the coaching content in this evening to really sort of further validate and inform some of the really important work that we're doing behind the first team, which is ultimately gonna come and sort of support the first team in future. Um, so these are the real qualities that that I think they've got to have and and and as I say, drive a real cultural standard around the group that we think is gonna allow them to reach their potential, enjoy themselves, create good team alignment as well.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:20

Look, we we touched on accountability in the room amongst amongst the coaches, and I guess sort of reaching a little bit further to the top, David Taylor asks who is responsible for for the failure to put in place a proper rugby leader structure over these years with a DOR or a head coach. Who does the buck stop with there?

SPEAKER_08 1:36:41

Well, ultimately it stops with me, um to be totally honest, but we are equally our board is very involved in the club. It's it would be again slightly misleading to suggest that the club's operated as a committee of one. Um that's not the case at all. Um but so they're very invested. We make decisions, principal decisions around the sort of senior positions in the club are made at board level. Um similarly, um, recruitment uh is done again by a committee, whether that's coaching led uh in the specific key skills areas that feeds into the head coach, um, feeds into our performance leads, feeds into our general manager, um, our head of recruitment, uh, as you'd expect, is heavily involved. Again, just to clear up one probably misunderstanding that he operates equally as a committee of one. He doesn't, he's given clear direction from our coaches as to where the gaps are, what we need to bring into the group, who we want to bring through in the group, who we want to retain within the group. His task is to then go and complete that task of either retaining them or recruiting them. Um but that's that's the general format of how the recruitment works. But look, you're right, the the bucker ultimately stops with me, um, and everyone within the organization, me most definitely, is self-reflective over the last couple of years where we've got things not quite so right, uh, and often it can be very small decisions that can have slightly more material impacts on what our um our outcomes are. But similarly, we've got a significant amount right, um, and so we are fully focused on getting the the small things that we've got wrong into a more positive state as we go forward.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:28

They've got you've sort of taken us into the recruitment area, and I think that another R that that really strikes a note with everyone is retention. And Philip Bonds asks, what is the strategy for retaining the talent that has been developed through the youth and the academy system? He he identifies Will Trenham, Joe Marchant, Lewis Liner, Nathan Jabulu, you know, quality players who were once in quarters but no longer. So, what's the strategy around that?

SPEAKER_08 1:38:58

Yeah, I suppose it's a bit linked to what I was saying a second ago around there's a there's a clear there's a clear overview that and sort of discussion process that exists within the coaching room around what the identity of the squad looks like now, what it will look like next season, what it will look like in the coming seasons, and where these players are on the on their development path. Um it's fair to say we're not we're not going to get every single piece of retention done that we want. Um sometimes we also have to take difficult decisions. Uh Trenorm is an example, where super, super great bloke, super great player. Um, but we also had a really competitive roster for players that operate in the back row, and so ultimately in that situation, um he left the club. Uh as you've seen from Matt's presentation as well. We've got another rich vein of players that are coming through. So you're looking not only at the here and now, but you're looking at what's going to be coming through in the future to some degree. Um, I couldn't be more happy for Will, actually. Like he's gone to Gloucester, he's he's playing well, he's getting picked, um, and he's doing really well. And nothing gives you great play, even when you come into the changer room at Kings on when we were there. You kind of sort of still feel um reluctantly sort of pleased for him in some ways on that day. But it's it's that's a measure of, I think, again, the academy and what we've produced and and the player pathway that we've got. There's one or two others that, yeah, we're sad to see them go. We don't always want to see them leave. Nathan, we've talked about in the past, was one that left. Um it it's it's just total rubbish to suggest that the club let him leave. He is a he has a he's a grown adult, he has a decision to take himself. Um, we make big efforts to try and keep the players that we want, we're not gonna keep them all. But similarly on that one, and if you relate it to Matt's presentation a second ago, um two of the six players that are in the England under 20s are hookers. Um, so uh and we think that both of those have got a high ceiling. So the future continues to be bright. We're not gonna we're not gonna win them all, we're not gonna retain them all. But I think as our retention list from this season shows, um we're far more successful at retaining the talent that we want than than not.

SPEAKER_07 1:41:13

Um just sort of turning to performance a little bit, and this comes from Ian Christopher Scott. It says, I've been a season ticket for season ticket holder for 22 years, love my association with the club. Seems to be a major issue with the first team in his appearance. How is it possible to beat a strong Starry side, home and away, beat Lara Shell on the road, and then see standards drop so much in many of the other games? I think you know, pretty in quote, the mentality piece around things.

SPEAKER_08 1:41:44

Yeah, and and and I think that's what it is. Um it it's frustrating, and if you think it's frustrating for supporters, um it's equally frustrating for everyone within the club, and and I've got no doubt for the players themselves. Um and and no one, yeah, you don't want to go from one game where you're feeling like top of the world to the next week where it's it's a greater challenge. But that's I'm not simplifying it by saying it's professional sport. It's it is incredibly hard to operate at that level, and we need to be better at it. There's no two ways about it. It's one of the focus areas we've spoken a lot. We spoke about it last year, we've spoken about it this year, is probably something we speak about too much because it's one of the areas we need to fix up for being really reflective. Um, but it was what it equally demonstrates is um what was the first how did he phrase it in the first part of the question?

SPEAKER_07 1:42:38

Uh how did he phrase it? How is it possible to beat a strong Sarre's side at home and win away at the Larrachelle, but then see standards drop so much in other games?

SPEAKER_08 1:42:48

Oh, it's not quite what I thought it said. But it was more around the fact that the group, we have a good group of players. You know, we show that when we go to Lara Shell, we show that when we beat Sarre's uh here at home. We have good quality, it's about just maintaining that consistency, and that that's the big bit that we've got to fix. So I think it's my personal view, and obviously I'm far closer to the program than than a lot of people that are outside, so I appreciate it's harder to understand or to appreciate in the moment, but the group's not as we are we're a good group. We've got some fix-ups, there's no doubt about it. But when these can come, I think we'll kick on pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:27

Alright, pertinent question, you know, with what's coming up um next week and the membership of Mass here super engaged. We've got we've got people as far flung as Antigua who are tuning in to this. Nice life. I'd rather be in the North Found village, I don't know about you guys. Um why why should everybody renew their season ticket for Quinn's next season?

SPEAKER_08 1:43:48

Yeah, I've seen I've seen this a bit on socials about the value, is it value for money? And I saw on certainly one of the sort of um threads on one of our fan sort of pages, um, is this still value for money? I think there's probably two ways in which I'd probably approach that. One in terms of is what we include within the price of membership value for money. I would I would still strongly argue yes. Um, when it includes all of our men's games at home and over the road at Twickenham, are it includes all our women's games, it includes all of the um the big match day production we put into our big games over the road. It guarantees you your seat at i i at the state at the stoop in the stadium. So there's a whole heap of benefits and um value that I would associate. The match day delivery that we do here at the stoop now is still, regardless of results, is still up there in the top within the league. So, in terms of value for what you pay, I think that's fair. If the part of the question is, do we want to see the team winning and drive that resonance with what we're investing in the season ticket? Then a million percent I agree, yeah, we need to be doing better at that. And that I know that is what ultimately drives the feel-good factor out of the investment, and that's the bit that we really need to sort of double down on and focus on in the coming months.

SPEAKER_07 1:45:05

Right. I know there's an infinite number of questions that we want to ask Laurie, but we've got a load of other people as well to chat through before we get on to yours. So we're gonna bring everyone up and we're gonna fill the uh fill the stores. We're gonna have to reorganise ourselves. So we're gonna welcome up Matt, we're gonna welcome up Pat, Ross, and also for the first time tonight, Alex Nonbrand, Jack Walker, and E for Way for everybody. So give me that. We got enough chairs. Okay, first things first. How could you remind me of your job title? Um head of women's rugby. Head of women's rugby, everybody. Next question is Jack. What happens after 7 pm on a Saturday night?

SPEAKER_04 1:46:03

Um, well, I have a daughter who's two years old, so I put her in bed. Well, bath bed, and then on the go on the couch and relax every Saturday night.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:12

That sounds like a barefaced lie to a number of supporters, and it's going out on the airways and recorded forever. Um, look, um, you know, we've got a range of people here, we've got a few questions to ask. I just want to stop some of the players. I'd love to get Afa here, okay, guys. So, um, you know, for those of you who've been living under a women's rugby, right? Yeah, we'll get a ripple, we'll get more than a ripple. Um Ifa Wayfer women's six uh Guinea Six Nations, player of the tournament last year. Uh in a recent game against Exeter Chiefs here at the stoop, uh, where Quinn drew at the death, she made 33 carries in the match. Now, Oval Insights have logged over 150,000 games of professional rugby, men's, women's, international club, you name it. And through their database, they've never ever seen a carrying statistic that matches it ever across world rugby. So we're talking about a bona fide superstar here, okay? Um so look, I look I I've embar I've embarrassed you sufficiently, Afa, okay. Uh we got we got a warrior S from Wexford here, and loads of clubs must have been courting you. A lot of sign people would have wanted your signature. Uh what was it that drew you to Quint's?

SPEAKER_00 1:47:35

Uh yeah, quite a few things to be fair. Um I was fortunate enough that I was able to actually come out and experience a match day um when Quince played Saris last year here at the stoop, and uh Jade Conka was actually injured that game, so she kind of took me about, took me for coffee out in in Twickenham, and um yeah, she was she worked quite hard at getting me across, I suppose, for quite a long time. But um yeah, look, I I think being a part of that match day in terms of washing it up in the stands, seeing what the girls were about, and like, yeah, you follow the PWR from across the water in in Ireland, but um seeing it in person um here at the stoop was was something that was really special. Um and then kind of going away to to meet a few of the players and kind of chat to a few of them, see what they uh they thought of the club, I guess, just speaks volumes of of what the club is about as well, because I guess like players, players tend to be very honest with you as well, um, on what they think is bad or what they think is good, and and I really got that honesty as well, which is which is something I value. Um and as well just the effort that the club put in to to get me across, but to make me feel extremely welcome as well, even though I wasn't officially part of the club at the time.

SPEAKER_07 1:48:47

So, what's it been like since you got here? Is it lived up to the expectations? It exceeded, I mean it it's a hell of a league this year, and we're talking about the PWR, which is which is the envy of world rugby when it comes to women's domestic competition.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:00

Yeah, like I said, it's it's the best league in the world. Um like yeah, hands down it it is. Um and you play week in, week out at basically international standard rugby, and you're playing against the best players in the world, you're playing with the best players in the world, and uh you get to do that every week uh consistently, um, which is something that you don't get anywhere else. So yeah, I I think it has lived up to what I thought it would be. Obviously, it was tough leaving home, tough leaving post-World Cup when I when I had quite a few injuries and and leaving after a World Cup that didn't exactly go our way in in terms of Ireland's uh campaign. Um but yeah, the girls straight away got me under their wing and then started taking the mick out of me, and I guess that hasn't stopped since. But um yeah, I I think there's a good bit of slagging, especially around the accent thing. But um yeah, look at no, they're they're a great bunch, and yeah, I think it has lived up to everything I thought it would be.

SPEAKER_07 1:49:52

Sounds like you're breeding a hell of a culture there, Ross. Uh you know, slagging off your star player uh amongst amongst all the great. And look, look, like, look, ton of ton of campaign, uh, you know, to give those who are not fully across it a bit of colour. It's an absolute fight to get into those playoffs. Maybe Saracens and Gloucester Hartbury kind of a way uh apart from everyone else, but there's four, five teams maybe now with Rosale in there who are right in the mixer to make those playoffs. And I mean, Quinn's have been playing some fantastic rugby and had a lot of injuries at the start, but right in the throes of it now.

SPEAKER_10 1:50:31

Yeah, it's the it's the most competitive season there's been. I think I can't remember the statistic, but the league wants games within seven points when we sit on these uh the sort of like uh PWR conferences and things like that, and you see that, and every game goes down to the wire. I think that's been the thing, apart from the Saracens away performance, which we're really disappointed with that fixture. We've been right in games, and we might not have won games, but we've given ourselves every opportunity. Even on Saturday, I think for 65 minutes, just five minutes before half time and ten minutes after half time, it really hurt us. But for the majority of the game, we were right in the fixture, and you see enough in those games to go look, we play consistently for 80 minutes, we can we can beat anyone. But look, we've got a maths challenge coming off on Friday night going to uh to Franklin's Gardens to play Loughborough, and again, it's it's another game that you know is going to be super competitive, and each game you go into is as as Eve has alluded to is is almost at our international standard now, and each game you have to be right on it.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:34

Um Pat, like I see it sort of strays a little bit into your realm as well, Laurie. Um, this is from Jason White again. Yeah, Jason White, you're busy on the keyboard. Um how's the Quinn's women's uh the attendance at the games, PWR particularly, has it been compared to last year? Like what does that mean for for the team, for the club widely? What's the sort of what's the impact that that brings?

SPEAKER_06 1:52:00

Um I start. Um I think we've definitely seen an uplift in attendance, um, without a shadow of a doubt, um without without getting the numbers up. Off the back of um obviously a really successful um World Cup, um, which saw a couple of our Holland players lift the trophies. So um that that breeds enthusiasm for uh for the event and it hugely energizes the group, and I know um the players love playing at home in front of the home crowd, and um there's there's a huge and building sense of occasion. Um and I think you know the fixture against Saracens at the weekend uh was was a perfect example of that, where um yeah, I think I think it was a fantastic occasion for all the result that we wanted, though it wasn't. Um but there you know that that was what you want to see in in a women's domestic league game, and we're looking to build that. I think um one of the challenges that we do have is just around the um the broadcast timings and um where where we would like to be is we would like to be hosting fixtures at times where we can get um our target audience, which we know is a lot of um families, um it is slightly different from our um from our men's audience. It it's young people, it's children who come and watch you know the their idols, Ellie um playing on a on a Saturday afternoon, and and the more of those fixtures that we can get, um we know that we'll see uh more fans through the door and an even better experience. But yeah, a hugely um, hugely successful campaign so far. Nice.

SPEAKER_07 1:53:50

Actually brings you on quite nicely, Laurie. This is a this is another question for you. This is from Robert Hayes, and it's a roundabout the fixtures. What is your opinion of more and more games being scheduled to suit TV on Friday nights, Saturday nights, and Sundays? So it's very, very difficult for many supporters to get to the stoop, and it's actually the reason for at least three of his friends who've not renewed their ticket, uh their season tickets for this season. What's your take on that?

SPEAKER_08 1:54:16

Yeah, I think um it's difficult. There's there's effectively sort of three broadcast slots. Um I think I said last year what what makes it slightly difficult or harder is that some other stadiums have got quite stringent um safety licenses that dictate when they can host games, so that narrows the opportunity even further. So, for example, like um I think it's Chiefs that can't host the local council just don't permit them to host on Friday night. Um they've got limitations on their stadium in that regard. So it's it I understand it makes it hard, um, but similarly, the broadcaster is the platform that transmits our sport to thousands of people. Um we have to we have to work in partnership with them, and what we've tried to do is create different identities regarding the different sort of broadcast slots that we have. We've obviously made a big thing about our Friday night games. Um I'm also acutely aware that Sunday is eats into some community rugby space, which again is far from ideal in certain regards. Um and we work as closely as we can with the broadcasters. Um I think we've had more three o'clock this season than we've had previously. Um and again, similarly, the the EPCR fixture, for example, um we negotiated pretty hard to try and get it off a slot that was not our first choice, was their first choice, not ours. We got it onto a slightly preferable one, again, accepting it's not ideal. Um but we do our best to try and get it into our preferred slot. Our preferred slot is three three o'clock on a Saturday as well.

SPEAKER_07 1:55:53

One more for you, Laurie, only difficult ones tonight, by the way. Um it's a it's around about, it's about stash, see plenty of quarters, pink jersey as well in here too. Um and got people asking, do the club engage with fans with regards to what they want to see in the club shop? And if that's not the case, can it start?

SPEAKER_08 1:56:15

I certainly think we can more we can be more open to that. Um the the sort of transition, we've talked about it in the past, the transition to Castor, obviously, when you change kit manufacturers, it's not it's not easy to have everything extremely seamless. As the years have evolved, it's got much, much better, and and our relationship with them is now in a really good space. Um our sales conversion is comfortably the highest it's ever been. Um and there is a broad range. Could it be broader? Absolutely. Could we work more collaboratively? Absolutely. Are there ranges that we want to get to that aren't currently there? Absolutely. Are we happy to include the fans in that? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 1:56:58

There you go. Um right, let's uh I just want to bring to the players quickly before we we open things up generally. Uh Jack, um season of up and downs, shall we say? Prem Cup, Prem, you're uh real roller case. Being honest, what's it been like as a player?

SPEAKER_04 1:57:16

Um yeah, like I said, I don't think there's much we can say apart from we've we've been poor, we've been much poorer than what we wanted to be. Um like we do at the start of every season, we set our goals and it was to be a lot higher than where we are in the premiership. And we feel like we've let the fans down here turn up every single week, so we're doing our best to fix that. I feel like the last few weeks in the Prem Cup block, we've had a real good, real good turn as a group, a look inside, and hopefully we can show that for the rest of the season we are taking strides forward. Um we're still in Europe, we we still want to dream big there, and we think that's an opportunity we can go after. But yeah, we feel as a group we we've taken strides forward the last few weeks, but we we want to be a lot more consistent, as it's been said tonight, and that's obviously our goal.

SPEAKER_07 1:57:59

I mean that that that LaRochelle away moment. I mean, Quinn have had the Quinns have had some seismic results in Europe on the road in recent times. What are those occasions like? What are they like how special are they?

SPEAKER_04 1:58:12

Yeah, they're um they're really special. That they're they're hard to explain. Um and like like I said before, the the travelling fans from Quinn's uh unbelievable. I truly think we've got the best fans in Europe. And I'm not just saying that because you're all sat here, but um, but no, there's the the the sport we we we got on the road is unbelievable. To turn up to like you say Bordeaux and and these kind of places and be able to look to a corner of the stadium and see hundreds of Queens fans is um no, it's awesome. Then to get over the line in those games, yeah, it's been huge. They've been uh my most most favourite games of my career, so yeah, they've been outstanding.

SPEAKER_07 1:58:47

Hey Domas, you're right, mate. Um look, can you can you put your finger on the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the season? You've been here for so long, man and boy as a pro. Um, you know, can can you sum it up? Can you can you sort of uh I don't know, crystallize for everyone who is has been less scratching their heads at times uh as to what kind of what's gone down?

SPEAKER_09 1:59:11

Um look, I think it's hard to to put your your finger on one thing. Um I think like Jack said and like it's been alluded to already, I think we're striving for that consistency. Um I think we've shown at multiple points this season that when we get it right, we're we're a top top team with with a lot of talent in a squad. But I think when we don't quite get it right, we've also shown you know we can be a little bit off it, and with the competitive nature of the premiership, you know, if you're slightly off it, then you get punished. But I think probably over the last few years, I think we've probably been guilty of like in these sort of six nations blocks, or when we've got a bit of a down week, have we really utilized that time well? And I think speaking from a personal experience, these last six weeks have has probably been the best. I've felt that we've used that time in my in my Quinn's um career. I feel like we've really taken a step back, evaluated the season up to now, really sort of gone back to the drawing board, picked a few things that we really want to get after, and we've trained exceptionally hard to do that. And like Jack Jack sort of said there, with these last few weeks, I think we've really sort of shown a real improvement, and I'm I'm genuinely excited for the rest of the season. The the beauty of it is there's still loads of rugby to play. Um I think we've got a genuine opportunity to go really far in Europe. I genuinely believe that we have the talent in the squad to do something special. Um, I think with the fans as well in the crowd, in the stadium supporting us, I think we can really go deep in this competition. And in terms of the premiership, look, we're we're not where we want to be, we're we're way off it. But I really think that we can turn the tie quickly, start building some momentum and really climb up the table to where we want to be. Look, I think it's gonna be obviously tough to push for that top four now with where we are, but I think we can really you know change the momentum, really build some positive vibes in the premiership as well.

SPEAKER_07 2:01:11

Um look mate, it's uh ninth season, ninth season at Quinn's eighth season, eighth season, eighth season at Quinn's. How's Quinn's changed in in the eight years? It's the only club that you've ever known as a professional, and you you came in with not much of a TV, uh not like hugely heralded. I've I've always beat you up, Thomas. I've always beat you, I've beat you up. But you're a bolt from the blue, and now you're club captain, you're you know, you're rattling down records. So you've seen the evolution of the club across a decade that's delivered titles and then gone through challenging periods like this. So I wonder for you, you know, how how has the club evolved? How's it changed?

SPEAKER_09 2:01:52

Um yeah, look, I think it's changed a lot over the years, um, just through the nature of the different personnel that we've had, different coaches that we've had. So naturally, there's that sort of the change over the years. But for me, Quinn's has always been at the heart the same. That that same family club, the same club that you walk into, and and everyone can be themselves. Um look, it's a club that I've supported growing up, and to be here as club captain is is a huge honour and something that I don't take lightly. Um something every day I I go in and try and be the best version of myself and try and push forward this club and help you know drive standards and help you know help this team go forward. So no, it's a it's a massive honour for me, and um that's something I really enjoy. I think we've got a huge amount of talent in the squad. I think you know Ferg alluded it to there, obviously, really humble himself. Um it's such a great job that he's doing. Um but yeah, obviously I sat at the back of the room and he just sort of slated me for 20 minutes, so that was that was brilliant. But no, look, I I think we're the bottom line is look, I think we're doing a lot of good things as a club. Obviously, we're not doing well as we wanted to be on the pitch, but I think look, we're doing a lot of good things, and there's a lot to be proud of being associated with this club, and long may that continue.

SPEAKER_07 2:03:15

I was, yeah, long may I continue. I'll be honest, I was struggling for a question for you, Fer, because I think A-star performance on the presentation, and I think we can all agree. It's funny that your mic was turned off there for the film, but I think he's got a hand in there. Um I guess look, we've heard from we've heard from Domus and I touched on you know his his arrival and his progression and you know development into you know an iconic player here at Quinn's. And you you touched on some of the themes. How do you find someone in university rugby, or how easy is it, and what do you have to do to create the next Alex Donbrand? Because as you said, you touched upon all those quality players, but how difficult is it? What what's the what's the je ne sais quoi to go from that university, that sort of embryo of a of a quality player to become the main man now there?

SPEAKER_01 2:04:13

Well, you don't kick from eight from the start. Now look, um it's it's actually uh a pretty phenomenal story as you've as you've kind of hit on sort of Domus because when when he was tearing it up over in Cardiff, the sort of uni rugby wasn't at the level it is now. Um if you actually look at the quality of Bucks rugby, um then it's probably uh overtaken championship rugby. So from a uh a recruitment point of view, um we've got people watching uh Bucks Bucks rugby every every Wednesday. So the standard of that uni rugby now has has come through the roof. So you know every every uni side is having multiple internationals. I say we've got four boys um who are who are playing in it is playing it as well. So it does actually put even more uh credit into Domers Bank, sort of going from where he's got to.

SPEAKER_07 2:05:09

Minus the kicks. Minus the kicks.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:13

Yeah, just don't kick.

SPEAKER_07 2:05:15

Um alright, I think are we are we gonna open up a few questions to the floor? Yeah, okay, right, so um we are gonna look around. Gentlemen at the back in the blue with your hand. I think someone is gonna hurry a microphone over to you so that you can be audible to everybody in the room. And uh yeah, if you could sort of direct your question to someone and uh and fire away, please, sir.

SPEAKER_11 2:05:42

Thank you. Um questions around the men's team, so I'd be interested for Jack to answer before Domers. Um in 2021 season, after Gus Dard left, um, and most famously with Bris Dambo, Quinn's were behind quite often in games. We saw the likes of Collier and Mahler get the lads under the posts, not accepting subpar performances, and really kind of never say die attitude. Feels a bit like we've lost those senior players through Quinn's and we're not seeing that as much. How do we get back to that culture and who are the players who are gonna kind of yeah, never say die?

SPEAKER_04 2:06:29

Um firstly, I um I joined the the year after Bristom Ball, unfortunately. Um so yeah, that's where it's turned, isn't it? That's where it's um but no, I um I think I'll um address a couple points. Obviously, yeah, we've we we've lost those players. Um trying to replace uh Joe Marlowe, Will Collier, DC, it's impossible, isn't it? There's there's there's no other players like that out there. Um but to think that we we think it's acceptable to have poor results and not come back from from those score lines is would be completely wrong. Like we know that's unacceptable, we take um accountability for that, and that doesn't make it okay, it doesn't, like, but we're working hard behind the scenes to try and change that. I truly believe we've got um a young leadership group but that's growing and evolving really well, and I hope it shows as we push on, like we spoke about, we think we've made those improvements. Hopefully, we need to start showing it because words words isn't gonna do much, is it? So we need to put that back on the pitch, but um yeah, I'll just emphasize to think that we think that's acceptable, that isn't the case. We know it's unacceptable, and we take responsibility for that.

SPEAKER_09 2:07:41

You answered that well, didn't you? Um no, look, I I just uh echo Wacker um like been captain for two years now, um, obviously with the assistance of Caden, and yeah, we have got a young leadership group, but that by no means is is an excuse. Um, I think we've really grown into this role, starting to make this team what we want to make it in terms of the standards and what we want to drive day to day. So look, for for me, the I can say all the right things up here, but we we've got to start showing it on the pitch, and and that's what we'll endeavour to do.

SPEAKER_07 2:08:23

Uh yes, down down here at the front. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:08:35

Hello. Um I'll be really quick, but it's a two-parter. First one, coming in as um, for anyone that isn't aware of the women's game as much, Afa coming in as such a dominant, very high expectation player, how was that for you? And then is it Verg? I apologize. Um, some people may know me. Um I am the crazy autistic person that loves Queens that has a spreadsheet. There's loads of people that know it, and there aren't many people that necessarily know who all the young academy players are coming through. I'm probably one of the only people, one of the few people that knew who the lads were when you announced the ones that made it last year and got there. They're highlighted in blue because it's their first season in our senior academy. How do we make sure that other people get to know who these players are, are proud to see them progressing? We know they're not all going to make it. I wish they could, but that's not realistic. But how do we make sure people know who these are, take them into their hearts, be proud to see them get their first caps before they're even announced on that team sheet while not putting too much pressure on them?

unknown 2:09:46

That's a great question.

SPEAKER_00 2:09:49

Um, yeah, I think coming over, um, like obviously I've I've played rugby since I was like six, so to me, coming over, all I wanted to do was was try to get better as a player. Um like I I love rugby, um I've grown up with it, I've grown up with several sports, but I was fortunate enough to to get into a pathway, albeit not Quinn's, it was it was the Leinster pathway, unfortunately. But um I know I love Leicester. Um but look at like I I've grown up in rugby and what I wanted to do was when I when I came across, I wanted to improve as a player, uh improve as a person, um, and just learn as much as I could because there were so many people here that that I knew I could learn from. Um whether that be back rows, whether it be I don't know, centers, back three, wherever it was, like everyone has different pieces of information that they're able to give to you or that you can give to them to make each other better. Um did I feel a lot of pressure? Uh yeah, no, I'm I'm not the type of person to dwell on pressure. Um generally it's all kind of external noise that that like at the end of the day, only only I can control what I do on a pitch or how I prepare for a game. So it just comes back to what I do and how I conduct myself on the pitch and how I how I manage my kind of week to to be able to perform because at the end of the day it's it's about performance at the end of the weekend and what you can put out onto the pitch to be able to help a Quincher and get better as a team.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:23

Uh yeah, the the first um and obvious one is you get down here on Tuesday night and you see them play against Japan, that'll be a that'll be a start. Um our uh our under 18 fixtures are all live streamed through through next gen. The links are always on on our website. Obviously, there's a little bit around uh data protection in terms of putting the sort of age group stuff out there. Um our senior players, so our senior academy are on our are on our web are on our website, um, so that you know the guys who are playing at Scottish and whatever, you can you can pick that up from there. But um, I think uh I think you're dead right. I think um you know the homegrown talent and the the captain hero that's that's been here. Is something that we should always get behind. So yeah, get down to Gordon's school whenever you can and support the A E's. I know the Queens are have been producing man of the match medals this year, which the boys have been absolutely you know fighting over. So you know that the idea of Quins are sort of providing that is a massive boost to the group. But um yeah, I think there's information out there. We've probably just got to find it uh a little bit harder than than maybe it should be.

SPEAKER_07 2:12:23

I should add as well that Quinns are the only Prem side that live stream all of their under 18 games. Uh none of the other ones do, so it's very much well worth tuning in. The commentator sucks a little bit, but you know, it's uh it's it's still a decent watch. Um we got we've got time for one more, I think. Uh and sir, you there in the uh in the black replica jersey. Henry, if you'd be so kind.

SPEAKER_02 2:12:50

Thanks, Henry. Hi guys. Um obviously I think we can all agree that maybe this hasn't been the best start, and there are obviously ongoing issues at the club that we need to deal with. But at the end of the day, life isn't easy. We have ups and we definitely have downs. And I think the most important thing we can all learn from those downs is about how you dust yourself up and build yourself up. I'm not really specifically asking anyone here for an answer, but if anyone wants to jump in, that's great. But what would you say is sort of like the most the biggest motivator for you to like be a better person for yourself, whether it's for your job, for your community, whoever? That's really my sort of question. What would you say? Is it your family? Is it your you know your friends, that sort of thing? Is it just a personal goal you have? If anyone's able to uh share with that, that'd be interesting. Thank you.

SPEAKER_09 2:13:38

Um yeah, I'll I'll kick off. Um, like obviously, family's a big family's a big motivator uh for me in terms of wanting to make them proud, but also like get just giving back to to people that that believe in you, whether it's you know for me, school coaches, university coaches, people that have inputted such a lot of time and effort into your journey to get you where you are today. Like, I want to do well, I want to do well for them, and then also not just because you're here, but for the supporters. Like, I know you guys pay your hard earned money to come and watch us. So for us, it's our responsibility to put performances in that not only we can be proud of, but you can also be proud of as well. That doesn't guarantee whether you win or you lose, but hopefully, we can put a performance in that when you leave the stoop or or come and watch us on away days, that you can be proud of what we put in. So that's what that's what we'll strive to do.

SPEAKER_08 2:14:42

The the only other bit I just I'd add to that is um hopefully these evenings are productive. I hope they're um informative. You might not necessarily get all the answers you want, you might not get the some of the transparency that you want yet. Um but one of the big takeaways that I do want you to go away with is the understanding that we all really, really care. Like, and and whether we're flying high, which we have done numerous times over the last few years, or whether we're having a slightly more challenging time, that the people behind the club, the people that work in the club, the people that play for the club, the people that own the club, the people that steer the club, just really deeply care about this place. And that's all we're we're we're wired to to try and change and deliver, and um and so in I guess in part answer to your question, Will, that it's about motivating to deliver uh a club performance that everyone that equally passionately cares about, and that's the same for everyone within the club. Um, and that's that's certainly what motivates me. I've seen a fair bit of questions or criticism about the club and and about our decisions that we're taking, which I understand, I understand entirely, we're here to be critiqued. Um, but it doesn't mean to say we don't care and we're not motivated to try and get us back on a level consistently that we think we should be capable of doing. So that's that's the biggest motivation as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_07 2:16:17

Right, folks, uh, we're gonna draw our evening to a close. A few thank yous first. First and foremost, thank you to you. As I mentioned before, the Quinn's, the supporters, the membership, they're the bedrock of the club. It's the foundational piece with which all of the efforts that everyone as part of the club puts in from on field to off-field to right to the very top. So thank you for you to you for making the effort to come tonight, to tune in, to continue to support the club. And to everyone here, Pat, Ross, Jack, Ferg, Aither, Thomas, and Laurie, please give them a warm round of applause.