Interesting article on Rugby Pass from yesterday's Premiership launch:

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/knew-saili-explains-one-main-contributing-factors-behind-harlequins-apalling-season/

Yes I agree QP, much more to it than that!

Lack of fitness is a big issue when you look at how we used to keep going to the end of a game and get close to or actually win late on to how we now fall away towards the end and teams will put two or three late tries away losing us any LBP also making it look like we were well tonked. It has also been given as a reason for our poor injury record.

So then surely, if he is right, then the blame for that must be solely and directly attributed to the coaches? Specifically, the Head Coach, if he was focusing on strength rather than fitness? It seems astonishing that Mapletoft (great personal friends with Gustard, it's said) is still in position. 

Sorry but we shipped stupid tries so many times in the early stages of the match, I lost count how many games someone ran straight through the middle and scored in under 10 mins. That was nothing to do with fitness, sure it may have meant by the end we were struggling but we had lost the game by then in so many matches. To ship an average of over 4 tries a match for the season, our defence was abysmal, we were chasing in so many games we were knackered by the end, might be a combination affect but not all down to fitness or lack of it.

I said last season that fitness was a massive issue. We lost/got hammered in the last quarter of games so often last season.

That Gustard has worked that out so quickly bodes well.