Gareth Southgate helps Harlequins in bid to launch Champions Cup comeback

Montpellier have a 14-point lead from the first leg

Duncan Bech
Wednesday 13 April 2022 12:37 EDT
Comments
England manager Gareth Southgate has been helping Harlequins prepare for their second leg against Montpellier (Adam Davy/PA)
England manager Gareth Southgate has been helping Harlequins prepare for their second leg against Montpellier (Adam Davy/PA) (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Harlequins have enlisted the help of Gareth Southgate to assist in staging an unlikely comeback in their Heineken Champions Cup tie against Montpellier.

England’s football manager has been at the Quins training ground this week as they prepare for Saturday’s last-16 second leg against the Top 14 leaders at Twickenham Stoop.

Montpellier have a 14-point lead from the first leg and with the aggregate score from the home and away matches deciding who proceeds to the quarter-finals, the Gallagher Premiership champions must produce a special performance.

“Gareth sat in our meetings and fed back to us a little bit of what he thought. It was great listening to some of his thoughts,” assistant coach Adam Jones said.

“We tapped him up about the two legs because football teams would do the two-leg format way more than we would. I don’t want to give all the secrets away because Montpellier might be reading this!

“He was good, a lovely fella. Probably not as tall as I thought he was going to be! He was very softly spoken. He knew rugby and understood it.

“The impression we got was that he was here to learn off us as much as we were to learn from him. Probably shows how far we’ve come as an organisation.”

Quins were 26-0 down by half-time of the first leg but the comeback kings of English rugby mounted a trademark response to keep alive their hopes of progressing further in Europe.

He was good, a lovely fella. Probably not as tall as I thought he was going to be! He was very softly spoken. He knew rugby and understood it

Harlequins' Adam Jones on Gareth Southgate

“History has shown over the last while that we come back at teams. It’s never over for us. To pull back within 14 points is not the end of the world,” Jones said.

“Montpellier said they needed 21 points against us and the fact it’s 14 is probably making them sleep a little less easily.

“We know we can score quickly to get ourselves back in the game, but so can they. We’ll give it a crack and we’re looking forward to the challenge of pulling those 14 points back.

“I was googling famous comebacks earlier because apart from Stephen Hendry beating Jimmy White in the 1992 Snooker World Championship final I can’t think of any!”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in