Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore says his aim alongside performance director Robbie Deans is to lift trophies in the next five years after being installed as the struggling club’s new coaching team.
New Zealander Deans, 66, served as number two in the All Blacks’ coaching set-up prior to becoming the first non-Australian coach of the Wallabies in 2007.
“We’re ambitious,” said Gilmore, who has been in temporary charge for the past six months after Danny Wilson left the club on the eve of the new season.
“We don’t want to be waiting four or five years for the club to win something.
“So we’re definitely going to be aggressive with it, but we’re going to be smart with how we do it.”
The club have also announced that former Exeter Chiefs coach Rob Hunter, who left Sandy Park at the end of last season, will be taking up the role of forwards coach at The Stoop next season.
The trio will be tasked with sparking a major improvement at Quins, who are second from bottom in the Prem and slid to their sixth league defeat in a row against fellow strugglers Gloucester on Saturday.
Gilmore says that Deans, who stepped down as head coach of Japanese side Saitama Wild Knights last summer, will help bring in the players needed to revive the club.
“His network is the number one thing,” added Gilmore.
“The people that he knows, players that he has coached before and access points he has got around the globe. We have really looked to sharpen up our recruitment this year leading into next year.
“I think what Robbie will give us is a wider opinion on players, hopefully greater access into world-class players.”
Deans will spend 12 weeks a year on the ground with Harlequins, while working remotely for the rest of the time. Gilmore anticipates meeting up with Deans in Sydney as well on occasions.
The club’s decision to install Gilmore on a permanent basis despite a dismal run of results may have surprised some, but the Australian is confident that continuity combined with a full pre-season to imprint his plans on the team will pay dividends.
“I know what it takes to rebuild a club, to reset it and I feel I have got the experience and understanding of our club at Harlequins as well,” he said.
“I think can mesh the two together.
“I believe firmly that with the right people in the right seats, we can turn this around and turn it around quicker rather than later.
“What I want to do is keep layering on and keep building across the months rather than we go one way and then jag back the other, which the club has probably been guilty of a little bit in the last period of time.
“I definitely know where to put this club.”
Gilmore added that Hunter has been brought in with the ambition of making Harlequins more formidable up front, a key characteristic of the Exeter team that conquered Europe during his spell in the South West.
“For Harlequins to be themselves, it’s not a case of you’ve got all these flashy backs and back rowers and that type of stuff,” he added.
“At the end of the day, you need a tight five. So if we want to play how we want to play, that’s definitely a targeted area within our team that I’m looking at.”
Gilmore is also keen to ensure that the team’s next campaign is less hampered by injuries with Fin Baxter and Oscar Beard among a number of front-line players sidelined.
Harlequins chief executive Laurie Dalrymple added that the club plan to recruit an assistant defence coach to take on some of Gilmore’s current duties.