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Harlequins raid a Premiership rival to sign their third international player this week

Italy winger Michele Campagnaro, in action during the Guinness Six Nations Championship match against Scotland, is changing Premiership clubs next season (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Harlequins’ post-Six Nations spending spree continued on Tuesday morning with their latest announcement that they have recruited a powerful ball-carrying Italian international for next season’s English Premiership.

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The London club began the week by revealing on Monday that they had captured the signatures of an Argentina pair for the 2019/20 season, scrum-half Martin Landajo and loosehead Santiago Garcia Botta.

They have now followed up these completed deals by announcing that Azzurri centre Michele Campagnaro, who can also cover wing, will be joining from Wasps.

The 26-year-old, a Premiership title winner with Exeter in May 2017, has just finished out another Six Nation campaign playing for Italy under the tutelage of former league-winning Harlequins boss Conor O’Shea. He has amassed 42 caps and scored nine Test level tries. 

“Joining Harlequins is a very exciting move for me and I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said Campagnaro, who will link up with his new club following a World Cup campaign in Japan where Italy are in a daunting pool featuring New Zealand and South Africa. 

(Continue reading below…)

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“I was very impressed with the winning culture that Paul Gustard has created at Harlequins and I know he is building a squad capable of winning a lot of trophies.”

Talking about his third signing of the week, Gustard explained: “I have watched Michele in recent years starring for club and country and I know he will be a great addition to our squad at Harlequins.

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“We have an array of exciting talent at centre at the club and Michele will provide excellent competition for places as we look to progress and build on this season’s momentum.

“Michele is a seasoned international, a Premiership winner, who will add top level experience to our playing group. He is a fantastic talent, powerful through contact. He will give us even more of an attacking threat next season.”

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J
JW 40 minutes ago
Highlanders looking to keep season alive versus Moana Pasifika

Lol not sure where you’re heading there but a second Auckland team makes more sense than the southern tip of the South Island, so…


This sort of discussions depends on a lot of factors, but first consider you're assumption of the situation in Australia. They probably more than doubled their wins last year to 10 at home vs NZ teams (of 20), and that had been a steady increase over multiple years. This year, I can see them remaining on their current 7 wins (over less games), so my question would then be, is it just a continuation of their improvement over the years, or the disbursement of Rebels players that’s made the “slight” improvement this year?


I suppose they’re doing their bit currently, but why also does Ryan just not camp himself down in Dunedin and work on those two players? Imagine if Highlanders are hoping to secure a top tight heads contract for the next season or two, and they can say that the also have Jason Ryan in their coaching team for 50% or whatever of the next season?


I can certainly go with some finesse, and I’m OK that’s it’s the AB teams prerogative to move a player or two, as the NZR is paying the bills for a portion, but then as I can say, what if the Landers forward coach thinks he’s better than Ryan and doesn’t want him changing his players ideas, or that the club isn’t interested in taking someone the ABs think needs more game time and that the Landers are the best destination? I don’t see either of those two named players helps anything past a better performance on game day to be honest (would make more sense to introduce a system where they can make Lomax return instead, and actual asset).

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