Luscombe has won fifteen caps for Wales so far, playing in every Six Nations game this year and scoring a try against France. Although primarily seen as an outside centre he spent most of the 2004/5 season playing on the wing for both the Dragons and Wales.

Luscombe was one of the foreign born players that Gavin Henson said in his book should not be playing for Wales, although he later apologised for causing any offense. If we were to face the Ospreys next season either in a pre-season or in the Anglo-Welsh Cup it would be very interesting to see the battle between Henson and Luscombe.

He first came to Britain seven years ago when he signed for Newport as an 18 year old after being brought over by Tony Brown, the former Newport and Dragons benefactor.

Luscombe said: "I've been at Rodney Parade for the past seven years and have played under six different coaches in that time. I've loved playing for Newport and the Dragons, but I felt I needed a fresh challenge and playing in the Premiership will provide me with that.

"My decision might have been different had Tony Brown still been there, though my decision to join Harlequins (where Brown has a hospitality box) is nothing to do with him at all, we haven't even spoken about it.

"Harlequins have got a good bunch of players. They've done extremely well in the First Division and I'm looking forward to playing in an exciting back division with Stuart Abbott and Andrew Mehrtens.

"I'll miss not playing in the Heineken Cup, there is no hiding behind that, but moving to England shouldn't hamper my international career at all if I can produce the goods. It hasn't affected Colin Charvis or Mark Taylor."

On the official Quins website Dean Richards said "Hal is a very strong runner with the ability to break through the first line of the defence, which is a crucial commodity to have in the modern game, his arrival, along with Stuart Abbott and combined with the players we already have within the squad, will give us plenty of experience and strengthen the competition for places across the back division next season."

It will be interesting to see how Abbott and Luscombe play together, they were at the same school in South Africa with Abbott being the senior by two years.

"He was two years above me," said Luscombe. "We didn't play rugby together but we know each other."

He will certainly be a great loss to the Welsh side and it is obviously a loss that ex-Quins coach Paul Turner isn't too happy about. When asked about Luscombe's departure he avoided the subject saying "I'm not in any position at this stage of the season to make any comment on players coming or going. We've still got a lot of work to do this season."

Luscombe is a hard running outside centre, something that should gel well with the silky skills of Stuart Abbott and with speedsters outside him like Monye, Keogh, Harder, Strettle, Amesbury and Barratt it should be the makings of a formidable attacking back line. But we mustn't forget the other centres who are already here - Mel Deane, Gavin Duffy, Tosh Masson and Jordan Turner-Hall, all of who will be pushing the new signings hard for the 12 and 13 jerseys.

I'd like to welcome him to Harlequins and wish him all the best for his time with us.

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