Launchbury: It’s down to players on pitch
Joe Launchbury has urged his Harlequins side to man the barricades or face another season of near misses in the Premiership and Europe.
The Londoners dazzled their way to the Champions Cup semi-final last year but their domestic campaign fizzled out with a sixth-place finish.
They were in with a shout of the play-offs but three defeats in their last four league games where they conceded 180 points exposed their defensive fragility.
Jason Gilmore, formerly of the Reds, Waratahs and Australia A has been charged with plugging the leaks with Jerry Flannery joining Rassie Erasmus’ Springbok staff.
But Launchbury has told Quins it is down to the men on the pitch to and not the new defence coach as the Londoners aim to shed their reputation as a soft touch.
Lock Launchbury, 33, who arrived at the Stoop last year from bankrupt Wasps via Japan, said: “I don’t want to be associated with a team that is seen as soft and seen as easy to score against.
“We have had a bit of a change in staff in terms of a fresh voice, but it is down to us now. As a club do we want to get as excited about defending as we do about attacking?
“The most obvious thing which has been Quins’ downfall before I came here is defence. That is a clear work on and a clear fix.
“The beauty of a new coach is they can almost come in and treat us like idiots and go right back to what are the fundamentals of defending. Jason has come in with some fresh ideas which is massively important. He has ideas I have not seen before.
“The change is what we needed as a club. If he had come in with the same ideas packaged in a different way it would have fallen on deaf ears. The proof is in the pudding, and it is all very well me saying it sitting here, but I definitely think we will be more organised this year in what we are trying to do.
“When you are a side who want to attack like we do, it can be great in so many ways but we also understand we are not going to compete or win trophies by having the attitude of being so one sided towards our attack.
“As a pack we have made big strides and we can win in different ways. When it is wet in December we can scrum teams, we can maul teams. I think we had signs of that last year, against Glasgow we won in a pretty ugly way. You can do some great work and undo it pretty quickly with some poor decision making in defence. I don’t think you will not see us playing from deep but there is a time and a place for it.”
That attack saw Quins 71 tries in the Premiership but concede 70 at the other end, the worst return in the top eight sides.
And Launchbury knows the urgency of keeping a lid on opposition attacks, particularly at the back end of the campaign, if he is to fulfil his ambition of landing the title.
“It was a really hard end to the season,” he added. “The excuse is we did really well in Europe but for me that is just an easy excuse.
“We had opportunities in those games to win some of them – we lost four out of our last six games which is the opposite to what you want at that time of year. You want to get to March and April sort of time and be peaking form-wise. We weren’t really, we were at the other end of the scale. We probably weren’t quite as consistent as we needed to be to sneak into the top four.
“The focus is the Premiership. For me, that is the main driver why I am here, why I am back in England playing is to try and win that trophy.”
Launchbury is close to finishing a marathon pre-season and is desperate for the action to start as he prepares for yet another campaign in a career stretching back to 2010.
“I have had a good chance to get a few niggles that have been annoying me sorted but I would be lying if I said I am not looking forward to the games starting again,” he said.
