Harlequins install 6ft 3ins bear in their team room as Paul Gustard targets defensive improvements

It has not taken Paul Gustard long to get his teeth into his new role as head of rugby at Harlequins.

Eddie Jones’s former defence coach got off the plane from England’s tour of South Africa in June and drove straight to Quins’ training ground for his first session.

Since, he has brought into the team room a 6ft 3ins bear to remind players of their mantra in defence, the issue he most wants to improve after they shipped an average of 22 points last year.

Gustard’s Saracens and England teams used “the Wolfpack” set-up, but it appears he has moved on.

Fly-half Demetri Catrakilis said: “I haven’t gone too close to it. It looks real but it hasn’t moved yet! There was a curtain over something in the corner. I was wondering, “What the hell is this?” and I was waiting for someone to come out of the back.

“That is going be the basis of how we defend: to be like bears. It is nice to use as an analogy, to think of yourself as a superior animal, so that is what he has chosen.

"Bears are so dominant — we want to be dominant ourselves, we want to make sure we are going forwards and [our rivals] are going backwards.”

For his first pre-season game in charge, against Jersey on Saturday, Gustard also decided to call his replacements “game-changers” on the team sheet.

“Why do they have to be called substitutes, reserves or replacements?” said the 42-year-old. “For me it’s quite simple: we want them to do something. They are not a substitute, they are coming on to change the game.”