Harlequins and England lock George Robson talks exclusively to Harlequins.tv about winning the Aviva Premiership, the unfinished business in Europe, and his summer success with England in South Africa.
Harlequins and England inspirational lock forward George Robson has sounded a warning shot to the club's rivals for the new season - "there's a lot more to come from us this year."
The strapping 6' 5" second row says that although Harlequins are naturally delighted at winning the league competition last time out, amazingly they achieved NONE of the goals they had set themselves in seeing off all-comers domestically.
Speaking exclusively to Harlequins TV, Robson, 26, says that the unbridled joy of winning at Twickenham over arch rivals Leicester Tigers was a tonic, yet the squad feel they can improve in the coming season.
Returning to pre-season training from a holiday in the Dordogne, Robson says,
"With the Premiership there were a number of goals that we set ourselves throughout the season, and we didn't achieve any of them I don't think, to the level we want to be at, so we want to take things for forward and lift the bar - or even reach where we said we wanted to get to."
Last season's premature exit in the senior European competition is a source of particular frustration too, Robson admits,
"Also if you look at Heineken Cup rugby we want to make sure that we're challenging in Europe. I think everyone is aware, no-one more so than us as a playing group of how we let ourselves down in not getting out of the pool stage, so we've got some unfinished business there as well."
Arguably George is enjoying something of a golden age personally having not only won with Quins, been selected for the summer tour of South Africa, but to top it off, Stuart Lancaster afforded him the honour of captaining England in the midweek tour match against the Southern Barbarians.
Naturally Robson was thrilled at the accolade, but in typically modest fashion gives credit to the club for nurturing two natural leaders of such quality in himself and Mr Robshaw. He says, "Yeah it was great, I got a lot of messages of support from the guys at Quins back home and from the guys out there, and obviously from friends and family so that was really good and that was great to hear and really a big honour for myself. It's a great testament to the club that we've got two guys who are prominent leaders going forward."
There is little chance of any complacency heading into the new season as the squad head off to France for their pre-season camp with everyone "looking strong" and "working hard."
To see George speaking to Harlequins TV please click here