Paul Gustard warns Harlequins stars their reputations count for nothing

Paul Gustard says he will ignore players’ reputations and history when he starts as Harlequins’ head of rugby on July 1 as he looks to reverse the fortunes of the ailing south-west London club.

Gustard left his role as England’s defence coach to take over at Quins, whose under-performance this season — they finished 10th in the Premiership — made the job more attractive.

The 42-year-old will officially start following England’s three-Test tour of South Africa.

Gustard knows plenty of the club’s top stars — such as Chris Robshaw, Danny Care and Mike Brown — from his time with England, but insists “everyone starts with a clean slate”.

“I’ve got no preconception of them,” he said. “Whatever I know of them from England, whatever I hear from them from Harlequins, is irrelevant.

“It’s how I experience them in a club environment at this club when we get together.

“Then we start building, we start earning trust and respect and we start getting better.

“And that’s the one thing we have to do from day one, we have to improve, because 10th isn’t good enough.

“We will achieve what we deserve to achieve. We didn’t play well last season — finishing 10th indicates that.

“There is work to be done and that is the challenge that has been set. I believe they have underperformed. My job is to win.”

Gustard’s reputation was enhanced by his time at Saracens, where he came up with the “Wolfpack” defensive method that has been central to the club’s success in recent season.

And he immediately vowed to turn around Quins’ propensity to leak tries, saying: “We will have an unbelievably brutal defence.”

Another challenge for Gustard, who had been in talks with the RFU over extending his contract beyond next year’s World Cup in Japan before taking the Quins job, will be the identity of his backroom staff.

Quins will also appoint a general manager, whose role will be “driving high performance” to work alongside Gustard. That could be Ben Ryan, the Olympic gold medal-winning Fiji Sevens coach, although his chances would appear to be hurt by the lack of coaching involved in the role.

“The exciting thing for me is the roles and responsibilities of the general manager will allow me to be a tracksuit coach, to be out on the field with the team, where my strengths are,” added Gustard. “Their role will be driving high performance, with the strength and conditioning team, medics, helping me drive high performance with the rugby, dealing with agents and all that kind of stuff.”

The club’s backroom staff is enlarged by recently-retired, high-profile players, but Gustard said he will take time to identify who to retain. “I want to understand what they want to do and then we will go from there,” he said.