Is owner joining board a cause for concern for Prem Rugby club?

It is not uncommon for rugby clubs and their associated companies to appoint directors to their boards; it happens quite often and the more eye-catching news tends to relate to individuals who are removed from their posts.

Take the departure of Lloyd’s of London’s chief financial officer Alexandra Cliff from the Saracens board after less than a year last November. Or former England Rugby captain Jamie George’s exit from player contract operation Team England Rugby. The latter, in George’s case, was followed by a retirement announcement this year.

In an interesting move this week, Harlequin Football Club Limited – the company that directly controls the eponymous rugby team – appointed the club’s long-term owner Duncan Saville to its board.

Curious move for Harlequins

Saville, who has been a co-owner of the club since 1997, has sat on the parent company’s board – Harlequin FC Holdings Limited – for decades, much as you might assume as part of his role as the club’s owner.

But with the club languishing closer in points to winless Newcastle Red Bulls at the bottom of the Prem Rugby table than the team above Harlequins in eighth, and a long-time search for a new head coach concluding that the interim man, Jason Gilmore, was the right person for the job all along, it is a curious move after all of this time.

Why would a long-time owner – described as a Singapore resident on Companies House – suddenly want to be closer to the club than he has in years?

One London-based sport business insider tells City AM that the move could be about “control at a critical moment”. 

They reason that, following on from recent investments in Prem Rugby sides Newcastle and Bath by Red Bull and Sir James Dyson respectively, Saville may just want to be around while the league looks to go through a transition.

But they also point out that Saville is likely “shifting from a hands-off investor into a role of active governance”.

An Institution at stake?

Harlequins is an institution of Prem Rugby, key to a number of the league’s most iconic moments. But the Londoners are in a rut at the moment, without a win in the top flight since October having only won one other game in the Prem this season, in the same month.

They’re unable to string any run of performances together and fans are getting restless.

Given Harlequins has a good record of selling out its 14,800-capacity Twickenham Stoop – as well as its December Big Game and its Big Summer Kick-Off at Allianz Stadium – there were a striking number of empty seats during their loss to fellow strugglers Gloucester last weekend.

There are huge swaths of tickets available for Harlequins’ match against Exeter Chiefs in the so-called “Big Stoop” next month.

Fans who spoke to City AM didn’t mince their words. “What a load of shite,” was one’s reaction to the coaching hunt. Another described the season as “the toughest I can recall watching since the short-lived [and bleak] John Kingston era” despite the club being in the knockout stages of the Investec Champions Cup in just a matter of days.

Quins have said little about the reason for Saville’s appointment to the board of the organisation directly running the club, besides sources indicating it was his personal choice.

In doing so he’s caught attention, and that may be the last thing Harlequins need at the moment. Fans, though, may welcome the scrutiny this change could bring, for the sake of a rugby club that’s performing far below its usual high standards.