Champions Cup: Harlequins turn to Gareth Southgate to find comeback inspiration ahead of their return leg against Montpellier

England football manager Gareth Southgate visited Harlequins this week as they look to overturn a large deficit in the second leg of their Champions Cup clash against Montpellier.

Harlequins had a difficult first match in France, where they went down to Montpellier 40-26, putting the French side in pole position to advance to the quarter-finals.

However, Quins have looked to use Southgate’s knowledge and experience of competing in two-leg cup ties to stage an unlikely Champions Cup comeback.

“Gareth sat in our meetings and fed back to us a little bit of what he thought. It was great listening to some of his thoughts,” assistant coach Adam Jones said.

“We tapped him up about the two legs because football teams would do the two-leg format way more than we would. I don’t want to give all the secrets away because Montpellier might be reading this!

“He was good, a lovely fella. Probably not as tall as I thought he was going to be! He was very softly spoken. He knew rugby and understood it.

“The impression we got was that he was here to learn off us as much as we were to learn from him. Probably shows how far we’ve come as an organisation.”

Quins have been known for their stunning comebacks and hope to be fast out of the blocks when they welcome Montpellier to the Twickenham Stoop this weekend.

“History has shown over the last while that we come back at teams. It’s never over for us. To pull back within 14 points is not the end of the world,” Jones said.

“Montpellier said they needed 21 points against us and the fact it’s 14 is probably making them sleep a little less easily.

“We know we can score quickly to get ourselves back in the game, but so can they. We’ll give it a crack and we’re looking forward to the challenge of