To join our coaching team from St Helens

Danny Cipriani has urged Gloucester to bring in Sean Long as a coach next season, according to former Ireland international Darren Cave.

Former Great Britain and England rugby league star Long is currently assistant coach at St Helens and has been linked with a cross-code move to Kingsholm.

And Cave claimed on The Rugby Pod with Andy Goode and Jim Hamilton that Cipriani is a big influence in the move for Long, who would be brought in to work alongside the current first team coaching setup.

“I’ve heard he’s done some work at Gloucester and D Cips insisted that he be brought in to do their phase sort of shape,” said Cave.


“He’s basically come in and said that he needs someone to be on the forwards about their running lines flat out and he can’t be doing it as a 10 and they need to bring in Sean Long.”

Gloucester fly-half Cipriani is a known admirer of Long, who won four Super League title, five Challenge Cups and two World Club Challenges during his playing career with St Helens.

In a column for The Telegraph in February, Cipriani said: “I worked with NRL great Andrew Johns in Melbourne and met Sean Long while he was at Salford and I was at Sale Sharks.

“A five-minute phone call with Sean will teach you so much. He has an unbelievable brain.”

Sounds like a good signing if true.

Will be interesting to see what position he takes, I think it may be defensive coach to allow Gustard to concentrate on his DOR role.  It’s the only clear gap in the setup.

Could be but where does that put Evans? Thought he was the attack coach.

I thought he was our skills coach??

T'website says:-

Quote;-"A club legend and one of the best Premiership imports, Nick Evans joined the Harlequins coaching staff after retiring from playing in 2017; he is Skills and Off-the-ball Coach.

With more than 200 Harlequins appearances to his name, Evans is the Club's record points scorer with 2249 points in a Harlequins career spanning nine years.

Beginning his career at Otago as a fullback, he quickly developed into a ruthless fly-half. Nick made his New Zealand debut in 2004 against England and went on to make 16 appearances, scoring 103 points.

After representing the All Blacks during the 2007 Rugby World Cup, he joined Harlequins from The Blues and played an integral role in the Club's successes in the professional era; kicking a touchline conversion to win the Amlin Challenge Cup in 2011 and contributing 20 points in the 2012 Aviva Premiership final.

Evans produced one of the most memorable moments in the Club's history when he scored a last minute drop goal against Stade Francais in the 2008 Heineken Cup pool stage following 29 phases."

On the Rugby Pod, Darren Cave suggested he was going to Gloucester as Cipriani had identified him as an attack coach

As QP says, the quote was: “He’s basically come in and said that he needs someone to be on the forwards about their running lines flat out and he can’t be doing it as a 10 and they need to bring in Sean Long.”

So sounds more like a forwards attack coach that wanted...

Confirmed by club as signing for Quins as assistant coach......

HARLEQUINS IS EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE TODAY (10TH JUNE 2019) THAT THE CLUB HAS SIGNED SEAN LONG AS ASSISTANT COACH FROM NEXT SEASON.


Sean joins the Club from St Helens where he is Assistant Coach to the rugby league side who are currently top of the Super League table and secured their place in the Challenge Cup semi-final with victory over Wakefield Trinity on 1st June.

A former rugby league scrum-half who played for both England and Great Britain, Sean also won a host of domestic titles across his career including two World Club Challenges, four Grand Finals and five Challenge Cups. He was a Lance Todd winner three times and awarded the Man of Steel Trophy in the year 2000 as a result of being the best player in the Super League that season.

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Commenting on the appointment Harlequins Head of Rugby Paul Gustard said: “I have been looking at adding a coach to assist with some of the finer detail around running lines and creating numerical advantages for some time now and I am delighted that Sean has decided to join Quins ahead of other Premiership options as he takes his first foray into coaching union.

“From an early age, rugby league players have core skill acquisition engrained in their developmental pathway. The skill fundamentals of catch pass, tackling and running lines take precedence over what shape your team plays and they are the key and critical transferable skills which are required in union.

“As a player, Sean was a stand-out amongst his peers and perhaps his greatest strength, despite all his talent, is his competitive desire. We can see with the performance of St Helens this year the impact he is now having as a coach with their attack as they compete at the top of Super League and enter into the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup after a 40-point thrashing over Wakefield.

“We welcome Longy and his partner Sally-Ann to Harlequins and look forward to the contribution he will make as we look to build on last season’s improvements.”

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Sean Long added: “I’m really excited to be joining Harlequins. It’s time for me to pursue a new challenge and Quins is a top Club with a group of talented players and hard-working staff; I can’t wait to join up with them.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone in rugby league for the time I have had there, but now I’m focused on Harlequins and am looking forward to getting started on the preparations for next season.”

He will join up with the team from 8th July when the squad returns for pre-season training.

Huh, that could be an excellent signing. Interested to see how this pans out.