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Harlequins return to pre-season

28 June 2011

quinsreturn

Harlequins have returned to pre-season at Surrey Sports Park with the first phase of players starting back training yesterday.

Quins return to Surrey as 2011 Amlin Cup Champions, and can look forward to a Heineken Cup campaign alongside the regular Aviva Premiership season.

Amongst the squad that returned to Surrey Sports Park were a few unfamiliar faces. Scrum - half Richard Bolt joins from Bristol, centre Matt Hopper from Cornish Pirates, along with loose head prop Nic Mayhew from New Zealand club side Northcote / North Harbour. Prop Tim Fairbrother joins up with the squad in the middle of July.

Commenting on the arrival of Mayhew, Director of Rugby Conor O'Shea said: "Nic comes from a family steeped in rugby. He is young, explosive and has a huge desire to make an impact in the game. From watching him and talking at length to Craig Dowd, who has coached him, we have no doubt he will flourish in this environment"

The rest of the squad will be coming back in phases with a number of players having been involved with the England Saxons and England U20 sides and also players in preliminary Rugby World Cup squads for England (Danny Care, Nick Easter, Ugo Monye and Chris Robshaw), Samoa (James Johnston and Maurie Fa'asavalu) and Argentina (Tomas Valejos).