Harlequins defence coach Jerry Flannery will leave the London club this month to head up the Springboks defence.

Flannery has spent the past four years at the Stoop, and played a big part in their title charge in 2021.

The move comes following former Springboks defence coach Felix Jones’ switch to England this year.

Commenting on his exit, Flannery said: “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 and I would like to thank Harlequins for supporting my desire to take up this opportunity to develop my career.

He added: “I look forward to the next few weeks with Harlequins and a final home match at a sold-out Stoop in February.”

Quins Director of Rugby, Billy Millard also spoke on Flannery’s departure, saying: “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.

He added: “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.”

Defence coach merry-go-round

With the departure of Jerry Flannery, Harlequins are in need of a full-time defence coach, but it seems they already keen on one man in particular.

As reported by the Times, former Leicester Tigers and England defence coach Kevin Sinfield is the bookies favourite to succeed Flannery as defence coach at the Stoop.

Sinfield helped transform Leicester Tigers from a bottom of the table side to champions during his spell at Welford Road, and this earned him a spot on Steve Borthwick’s coaching group.

Sinfield led England’s defence in the 2023 Six Nations and World Cup, however following the appointment of Felix Jones, the rugby league legend has been moved to skills coach, and he is also set to leave the England set-up this summer.

Sinfield commented on his future last week, hinting he would like to remain in coaching: “Do I still want to coach? Yes. What that looks like, I’m not sure at this stage.”

“I’m pretty excited about what’s to come this year with England, and then there is a lot of unknown for me and I don’t know what it looks like going forward. I’ll make the best of it.”

“I don’t know where that is or what it looks like, but I’ve really enjoyed coaching.”

With Sinfield linked to Quins, it seems there is a defence coach merry-go-round set to take place.