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MTM13: Latest Signings: Mehrtens and the future
By Prof July 28 2006
The thirteenth report from the Quinssa Meet The Management Evening. Dean Richards and Mark Evans talk abou the signing of Andrew Mehrtens, whether they thought about signing Jonah Lomu, whether there are more injuries these days and will there be more signings to come.

Q: Can I ask you then if you have the squad to take you through to the end of the season, or will you make any more signings?

ME: I think we have the squad to see us through to the end of the season, you have to remember already that Henry Barratt has done his ACL and will be out for a period of six months. Will Greenwood has injured his shoulder this week and will be out for 3 or 4 weeks, so I’m mindful that if we get another injury in the centres it leaves us pretty thin but at this moment in time I am happy with what I’ve got and it should be able to see us through to the Premiership.

 

Q: How did you persuade Andrew Mehrtens to come?

ME: I paid him a load of cash [laughs]

DR: Mark told him it would be the new Mehrtens Stand [laughs] and then when Lexus came in he had to say sorry Mehrtens [laughs]

ME: Some deals are very, very complicated, tortuous and go on for ages, some people say one thing and do another, they promise this and go back on their word, even sign contracts and then say they didn’t have fair representations. But I must say that that Mehrts’ signing was one of the most straightforward deals that I think I have ever done. I met him in a hotel in London in February/March, we had a chat about Harlequins, he didn’t have an agent with him. I made him an offer, he didn’t haggle and said that’s fine, I said he’d have to square it with New Zealand, he said leave it a couple of weeks, we kept in touch, he rang up a couple of weeks later and said he’d sign it, he signed it and rang up and basically said if you still want me and can honour the contract I’m coming and I said ‘get on the plane’. I don’t want to make him sound like a saint because he isn’t [laughs], but it was certainly contractually one of the easiest signings ever, at least for someone of his reputation. After he said he wanted to join the club he never really deviated from it. Some time you walk away and think ‘that guy’s going to sign’ other times you walk away and they say they’ll sign and you know they won’t.

Q: After you got his signature, knowing the quality is, do you think that is a waste of his talent to keep putting the ball down between the posts? [laughs]

ME: I’m sure he’ll live with it [laughs]

 

Q: Did you ever think of asking Andrew Mehrtens to persuade Jonah Lomu to sign for Quins?

DR: No [laughs]. I think that there are great wingers around that you would look at before Jonah, he’s had his day, so no.

ME: We talked about it commercially [laughs]

DR: but he wouldn’t start a game [laughs] 

ME: Which might somewhat defeat the object

DR: Oh, I don’t know [laughs] 

ME: I think Cardiff have taken a big risk and good on them, he’s a lovely guy and I really hope it works out for him, he’s gone through a hell of a time, you wouldn’t wish that on your worst enemy. He’ll never been the player he was but if he can come back from that start playing well again then every rugby lover in the country will be delighted. Good luck to him.

 

Q: On the subject of injury, do you think it’s getting worse in the game today and is there anything we can do about it?

DR: Not really, no. I think our medical staff are second to none, I think the sports science side of things is so far advanced now that anybody that is injured they are treated not only by the best people in the UK but the best people in the world.

I dislocated an elbow, I calculated the other day that I had 14 or 15 operations over the years and it just goes with the territory really. The main thing is how you get treated and the rehab, and making sure the players don’t carry on when they’re injured so they end up hobbling around like I am when they’re 42.

ME: I’ve seen him on the squash court “hobbling around”! [laughs]

 

The next part will tell what the management and players thing about the Quins travelling support this season and whether we'll see 80,000 turning up for a GP game in the future.

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