Q&A with Harlequins head coach Mark Mapletoft

Understand you recently went on a globe-trotting expedition?
Correct. I went to Sydney and Auckland and spent time with a number of different teams down there. In Australia, I visited two AFL teams, the Greater Western Sydney Giants and Sydney Swans, and NRL sides Penrith Panthers and Sydney Roosters, where I met up with former England RL coach Steve McNamara. I watched all of them train and sat in on a few team meetings, then I headed to Auckland to spend time with the Blues. I met up with Wayne Smith in New Zealand and it was great to look at things like facilities, how people work and their culture and coaching philosophies. It was a great opportunity to increase my knowledge and personal development.
Brought any ideas home that you'll be applying at Quins?
You always take three to five points away with you, which might be a reaffirmation of what you're already doing or things you need to start doing. Having spoken to so many people, it would be impossible not to learn something.
How are you enjoying your first pre-season as a Premiership head coach?
It's been hectic. We all recognised there were things over the last couple of years that weren't right and we probably didn't adapt very well to the number of players being away on international duty. You aspire to having the whole squad play to their full ability all the time, but that didn't happen and we need to become a bit more robust throughout the whole season. Saracens have achieved consistency despite missing players and that's what you benchmark yourself against.  Getting robustness into our game-plan is key for us now.
Does that imply you're ditching the famous Quins' attacking style?
No. My philosophy is not a million miles away from what we already do and it's a reflection of the group. That identity has evolved over a decade from the period where the club got relegated, came back up and made a fresh start. The overall emphasis of how Quins play is quite set in stone, but what we have to do is translate that into a consistently winning style. If you look at last season we were right up there in second place before the Six Nations but then lost more points than any of the top six teams over that period.
Will the Quins' fans accept a bit more pragmatism in your game?
Ultimately, you're judged on results! It's an interesting one, though, because whenever we do start becoming involved in a kicking duel our crowd start booing. It's not how the supporters have seen us play over the last 10 years but there has to be an element of pragmatism in what you do. Take New Zealand, they're arguably the most exciting Test team in world rugby, as are the Highlanders in Super Rugby, but there's still an element of kicking about their game and it's about trying to get the balance right. There's also a perception that Quins don't like defending, so we have to change the mindset on both those things – and we will.
What legacy has former rugby director Conor O'Shea left?
An incredible one. Because we had such an intense period of success in winning the European Challenge Cup (2011), the Premiership (2012) and LV= Cup (2013), I don't think we celebrated that as much as we should have done. When you look at what the club achieved previously, it was nowhere near that level. You've only got to look at the number of our players in England's EPS squad, something Quins haven't had since around the 1991 World Cup, and our academy is producing guys like Joe Marchant, Stan South and Sam Aspland-Robinson who have just won the Junior World Cup.
Quins opted for a largely home-grown coaching panel following Conor's departure – quite a contrast to your former clubs Gloucester and London Irish?
Two years ago Gloucester went down the road of bringing in five new coaches, all from different environments, and threw it all together. Not saying that's a good or bad approach, but in their instance it didn't work out in the short-term. Who's to say it won't work out now, but London Irish went down a similar road and it didn't work there either. I think the way we've gone at Quins has given us a good coaching mix.
How do you feel your revised coaching team is shaping up under new DoR John Kingston?
When John presented the group in terms of what he wanted, it just felt right. You've got John who's been around the club for an awful long time working under Mark Evans, Dean Richards and Conor, guys who achieved some pretty cool things at the club, and I've seen an incredible morphing of him from the guy who coached me 15 years ago. John's got teenage kids himself now and he understands how to be firm but fair. I've been at the club six years and knew a lot of players longer than that through my England age-group involvement so I'm fully immersed in the club's culture, while having Nick Easter on board as defence coach provides a solid player perspective. Then you've got Graham Rowntree, who did a lot of grand things with England and has been like a breath of fresh air around the place. That's a pretty decent crew.
How's Nick ‘Minty' Easter adapting to his new role?
What Minty's finding out is you're not just concerned about preparing yourself, you're trying to do it for an entire group. But I've no doubt he'll be fantastic. His energy and drive is top-notch and he knows what players are talking about in terms of what we did well last year and what didn't go so well. His challenge is to maintain that hunger throughout the year but he's had a good grounding and he's such an intelligent man on and off the field. It was a great opportunity to get him involved to provide that extra buzz around the place and once he gets his feet under the table there'll be no messing around. The boys will know what's wanted. Minty doesn't suffer fools. He knows the points he wants to get across and the players will be left in no doubt what's expected.
You've also promoted Tom Williams into the senior coaching group?
Yes. Tom moved from playing last year into the role of academy transition manager, but there was no brighter player anywhere in Premiership rugby in terms of his understanding of positional play on both sides of the ball so we wanted to utilise that as a coach. As a former back three player he can talk to guys like Mike Brown, Marland Yarde and Tim Visser, while continuing to bring the younger guys through into the group. Tom's doing a lot more with Nick Easter on the defensive side as well, looking at body shape, how players position themselves and our backfield coverage.
How do you counter fan concern that you're short of top-class signings?
With the salary cap you get a little bit of rope around injury dispensation, but you're working within certain parameters and we're currently halfway through a cycle after signing a good number of top guys last year. There are one or two more players in the pipeline that will hopefully be announced in the next fortnight.
Any truth you were after Danny Cipriani?
There were discussions at the time and Nick Evans is not getting any younger, but Nick seems as bright as ever in pre-season and we've got Ruaridh Jackson in now who's a very good fly-half but has been a bit unlucky over the last year or so. We've signed a young fly-half, James Lang, who's been playing in Wales for RGC1404 and was recommended by Phil Davies, plus Tim Swiel's decided fly-half is his favoured position now so we've got good strength in depth there.
Impressed with what Eddie Jones has done with England?
It's hard not to be. He understood very quickly what England's strengths were – set-piece and defence – and brought in his own people in Steve Borthwick, Paul Gustard and Neal Hatley. You feel sorry for Stuart Lancaster because England had a good side and we always spoke about 2019 being the point where the balance would tip towards England because of our performances in the age-group stuff. But results didn't go his way and Eddie's gone about his business superbly.
Eddie will have a 45-man senior squad and 20-man shadow squad now, how do you see the club and country relationship developing?
The new EPS arrangements will help and there'll be more frequent get-togethers, but the hardest thing for any player is chopping and changing between styles in how their club plays and how England play. Sometimes they're poles apart. What you get in New Zealand is a lot of alignment between their union and the Super Rugby sides, but there's a lot less between the RFU and our clubs so what England are achieving now is probably in spite of the Premiership set-up. Somewhere along the line there has to be a bit more middle ground because, in my view, England should be the best rugby team in the world. New Zealand have a great appreciation of the game but they only have 3.5 million people, so if we could strive a bit more towards the international game while keeping our clubs strong as well, it could only work to our benefit.
Would changes to the season structure help?
Undoubtedly. I fail to understand how, with the global market at our disposal, that we can't do two things: one, why can't there be a stand-alone international season? And two, why do we play league matches in international windows? The Six Nations is a big stumbling block because the TV and money men want it as a financial cash cow at that time of year, but would having it at another time of year really devalue it? Surely it's got to be in the best interests of the game to have a global international season, North and South together. Playing league games during international periods baffles me. You get punished for having international players! There are commercial considerations, I know, but there has to be a better way.
Eddie suggested last week he had ten good relationships with Premiership clubs, an ‘okay' one and a ‘dud' one. Which category are Quins in?
The ‘very good' one! We've got two England age-group coaches coming in this week to give us feedback on how our U20s went, which is great, and Eddie, Borthers, Gussy and Hatley have an open door so they'll come and talk to us about things they're doing with players. We want to win games for Harlequins but, ultimately, we want the players to be as good as they can be to represent their countries.
How impressed are you with the way Chris Robshaw bounced back?
As England captain at the World Cup, under the surface he was hurting more than he showed. That's his manner, he's not loud or outspoken, but he got lambasted for things that were out of his control, notably the Sam Burgess thing that just escalated. I was shocked at how hard he took England's failure, but his performances never dropped and you can only feel pleased for the guy after the accolades he's got during the Six Nations and Australia tour. If you had 15 Chris Robshaws you wouldn't be far away from being the world's best side.
We should see a lot more of Jamie Roberts at Quins this season. Excited by that prospect?
Terrifically so. He came in halfway through last season and we won two European games, beat Worcester away and Saracens at home and we all thought, ‘Wow!'. But then he went away again with Wales and it was difficult for him. As with Tim Visser, we didn't know how he'd react. But it'll be easier now because I know him, he knows what Quins are about and we know his strengths, his work-ons and how he interacts with other players.
Who else are you expecting big seasons from?
The game expects big things of our two young tightheads, Kyle Sinckler and Will Collier, who are at the point now where they need to push on. Jack Clifford's had a taste of international rugby and with Nick Easter making the move into coaching, this is his time to move through. Joe Marchant has done really well for England U20s and he'll start pushing George Lowe. It's whether Joe's got the self-confidence and desire to push past George we need to know. Full-back Aaron Morris is a good signing from Saracens and I've always been a big fan, so we'll challenge guys like him and Ross Chisholm to step up to the mark and really push Mike Brown.
Any targets set for Quins?
We want to be back in that top four, no question. How teams fare during the international windows will probably decide it, so it depends whether we have learned our lessons.