ComeAllWithin.co.uk - 2007 Pre-Season Press Conference: Part 2: Dean

From a back line perspective we have also introduced De Wet Barry, Chris Malone and youngsters such as Seb Stegamman coming through who I think will make a big impact to the side

The difficulty for us is, obviously, marrying the rugby world cup with the premiership on a day to day basis and it’s something that I think every club has to monitor on a close basis. It’s something that won’t effect us probably as much as some of the other sides, a bit more than the likes of Worcester, we have, and will have 6 or 7 guys unavailable during that period due to either injuries caused by playing for their countries or unavailable due to world cup duties. But I don’t think that will hinder us as much as it may other sides.

I’ll open it up to you boys, if you want to ask questions, I’m normally very guarded about these things though, aren’t I Julian, as you are aware.

J - Terribly so

DR - Ask anything thing you like and I’ll….

ME – not answer it

DR – Well I will do in a roundabout way but you might not get anything out of it.

J – You said you were reasonably happy with the recruitment that seems to infer that you are not totally happy with it.

DR – No, I am happy with it, the guys that I really targeted I got, a couple of blokes Gary Botha, who I think is an outstanding player, De Wet Barry who has been a world class player for a number of years. I’ve also brought through, not only those guys, but other guys who are lesser known John Brooks, James Percival, Chris Brooker who is one for the future, people such as that and Chris Malone who has been very much underrated down at Bath.

You know, when you sit down at the start of the year and you work out where, perhaps, your deficiencies might be at the end of it, and sometimes when you are looking at it, things change throughout the season because of peoples form, it goes up and down doesn’t it? And it does change, your view changes throughout the season. I’d like to think that what we looked at, at the start of the year and what we thought at the end was very very similar and the guys that we targeted we’d already got.

J – Mark talked about a top six finish, do you have any other aims beyond that?

DR – What I said to the players is, well let’s try and improve on what we did last year, from a premiership perspective that would be improving on seventh position. I’m not going to put any pressure on them, other than saying that the whole reason we are here is to improve and win games, and there is no point in us saying, right we’re going to accept seventh or eighth, we’re here to improve year on year and that is our objective.

What we have to do from a European cup point of view and an EDF point of view is take those games as they come, at this moment in time there are people away who are on international duty, and we’ve got a number of injuries, which will be coming back, and as such you never really know how you are going to play these competitions and what side you are going to put out until you get close to the tie and you’re looking at the strength of your squad.

J – Given the signings, and last year, do you feel there is a sense or shift in expectations around Harlequins this year, not just from within the club but from the outside as well

DR - I think if you ask the players we try to step up year after year after year and from a playing point of view and certainly commercially, Mark will tell you exactly the same. The infrastructure we have in place from a playing perspective is getting better, the coaches I think are doing there job, the players that we have in I think are quality players and the fact that it is a relatively new side in terms of knowing each other and understanding each other, means the longer we have these guys together the more cohesion that is there, the better we will perform. The expectations amongst our selves is getting higher, so yes to your answer but the expectations are actually borne by the players themselves and the coaching staff. We don’t really listen to what other people say, we try to raise our own standards and playing levels ourselves which is very important

J – Can you give us some insight into some of the problems director of rugby, like yourself, experience in the transfer market or the recruitment area, is it like we imagine, the big names either cost far too much or are not ready to move here or just…..

DR – I think Julian what you have to do here is sit down and work out where your weaknesses are, and where you want to recruit, what areas do you want to recruit, and then look at the type of person you want to recruit, you look at his personality, his footballing skills, his mental toughness, whether he is a team player all these bits and pieces come into it. When you take all these into account, you then go out and look and see who may be available at the end of the season and who may fit into that position. There is no doubt about it, you look and you say I’m not going to bring anybody in who is going to be worse than the players I already have in situ.

It’s almost like juggling balls as the season goes on, certainly as a players form goes up then goes down you are looking at these boys and thinking “have I made the right decision, have I made the wrong decision, shall I change my mind, shan’t I?” It’s fun at times and actually quite depressing at times, when things come or don’t come up, it’s probably, I would say, one of the most important things to get right.

Same Journo – Given that, and with Stuart sat next to you, you recruited two excellent centres last year and you’ve gone for another one this year. Can you explain the theory behind that.

DR – There are certain positions which you look at, that in some ways are more important than others to the side and are susceptible to injuries because of their positions than other positions. Hence why we have brought in De Wet and why we have brought in Gary Botha and Chris Brooker. So there are positions that we look at, not just from the quality of the people you are bringing in but also the susceptibility to injuries because of the positions they play in and what’s required of them throughout a game. Hence why sometimes you recruit more in one area than another

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