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Harlequins statement: Jerry Flannery will depart in late February

Harlequins' Jerry Flannery (Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Defence coach Jerry Flannery will quit Harlequins later this month after the Gallagher Premiership club agreed to release him from his contract to take up an offer to join Rassie Erasmus’ Springboks.

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Flannery’s friend Felix Jones recently stepped away from his role with South Africa following their back-to-back Rugby World Cup triumphs to take up a role coaching defence for Steve Borthwick’s England.

That created the Test-level vacancy that will be filled by Flannery, the former Ireland hooker who previously worked under Erasmus at Munster.

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Both Flannery and Jones decided not to take up contract extensions at the Irish province in 2019 and while Jones was quickly snapped up by Erasmus to assist the Springboks for their World Cup campaign in Japan, Flannery took some time out before joining Harlequins in 2020 and helping them to Premiership title glory in his first season involved.

Erasmus went to the 2023 finals in France in a director of rugby role but with head coach Jacques Nienaber exiting after the tournament win to take up a senior coach position with Leinster, a coaching reshuffle became necessary.

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This resulted on Tuesday in Erasmus being named as Springboks head coach through to the 2027 World Cup in Australia and Flannery was confirmed as one of four newcomers to the Test team’s staff along with fellow assistant Tony Brown, former referee Jaco Peyper and the recently retired No8 Duane Vermeulen.

A statement on the departure of Flannery from the Premiership read: “Harlequins can confirm that defence coach Jerry Flannery will depart the club in February to take up a coaching role with the South African national team.

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“Flannery will depart for the Springboks following the high-profile friendly match at The Stoop on Friday, February 23, as Harlequins take on his former side Munster.

“Having joined the club in 2020, he has been a key part of the coaching team that won the Gallagher Premiership title in 2021 and now stands second in the Premiership.”

Harlequins director of rugby Billy Millard said: “We will be sorry to see Jerry go as he is a big character and can be very proud of his achievements at Harlequins. We wish him well as he moves into international rugby and continues to develop his career.

“He will always be welcome at The Stoop. For the rest of this season, we have a very strong group of coaches and are very fortunate to have assistant defence coach Jordan Turner-Hall with us, and the resources and structure to achieve our goals.”

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Flannery added: “I have loved my time at Harlequins working alongside a talented young group of coaches and players. The opportunity to move into international rugby and to work alongside Rassie Erasmus again after our time at Munster was very appealing.

“I would like to thank Harlequins for supporting my desire to take up this opportunity to develop my career. I look forward to the next few weeks with Harlequins and a final home match at a sold-out Stoop on February 23.”

In a RugbyPass World Cup column last September, Flannery described Erasmus as “an innovator, a genius”.

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2 Comments
m
mark 288 days ago

A big loss for Quins but you can’t restrict his progress.

N
Nuno 288 days ago

Looks like South Africa is assembling a dream team, poaching talent from rivals like it's a rugby supermarket sweep! First, it was Felix Jones, and now Jerry Flannery joins the Springboks' coaching lineup. The only defense these coaches are interested in is breaking down opposition strategies. Good luck, rest of the world – you're going to need it!

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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