Charlie Matthews Exclusive: ‘It definitely feels like being back at home’
Charlie Matthews left Harlequins for Wasps in 2018 before playing for Kamaishi Seawaves in Japan
©JMP for Harlequins
Ahead of his second debut for the club, Charlie Matthews says it is an 'honour' to be captaining Harlequins ahead of their first Premiership Rugby Cup game of the season against London Irish tonight at The Stoop.
Returning to West London after four years away where he would pull on the colours of Wasps and Kamaishi Seawaves, Matthews came back to the club where he not only began his career, but where he won the LV= Cup as a key part of the side and watched on as the club lifted Premiership and Challenge Cup trophies during the early stages of his life as a professional player.
“It is just such an honour to be asked to captain,” Matthews said. “I can’t really believe it. It definitely feels like being back at home with the history here. But being asked to captain, I only have been here a couple of months.
“It is going to be great. One of my happiest memories with the club was winning this competition back in 2013. I have already told the young lads that. Hopefully we can repeat that this year.”
Skippering a squad largely made up of young Academy players that will be hoping to become regulars for Harlequins in the years to come, it is very much a shift from being one of those young players nine years go.
In their local derby with London Irish tomorrow night in the opening round of the new Premiership Rugby Cup season, five Academy players will be making their Premiership debuts.
This includes Zach Carr and Connor Slevin who make their debuts as starters, whilst the likes of Cassius Cleaves, Matas Jurevicius, Bryn Bradley and Will Trenholm also get starting berths. Senior players joining Matthews include Santiago Garcia Botta, Will Edwards and Ross Chisholm, who will go up against an Exiles side with a similar mix of experience and inexperience.
Like all those years ago when Harlequins were winners, Ross Chisholm is again in the squad. One of just a couple of familiar faces that still pull on the four quarters from Matthews first stint - Will Collier being the other - Matthews returned to West London after spending a month on trial with Rob Baxter’s Exeter Chiefs.
Starting his preseason with plenty of running on the Devon sands. It was also a return to what Matthews knew well. Spending time in Japan, learnt about an entirely new way of doing things, including being a player-coach for his division two, Kamaishi.
Now instead of a steel corporation taking on an information technologies company, it is back to the cut and thrust of club rugby and rivalries that have been going on for much longer than the game has been professional.
“Japan was a great experience, but it was a bit tricky because if the location, we weren’t in a major city, and also because of Covid,” Matthews said. “Their restrictions were pretty tight, even as we were leaving last season.
“I have a really young family, I have got two under four year olds, so it was tough for them not being able to travel and much and lots of restrictions on what we could do and couldn’t do. It just felt right to come back and be close to friends and family. That was the main driving force.
“Then, there wasn’t much on offer in the Premiership. I just text my old U20s coach, Rob Hunter, down at Exeter. I did four weeks with them, and as that came to an end Quins came in and offered me a contract.
“It ended up being great timing and getting that experience down at Exeter has really helped as well.”
As things have transpired for a player that wanted to return home, and for someone born in Kingston-upon-Thames and raised in Richmond, Harlequins is very much that. It is something that adds even more meaning to the 31-year-olds return to the matchday 23.
“For me it is wearing the shirt, at The Stoop, under lights,” Matthews, when talking about what it meant to be making his second debut for the club, said.
“It doesn’t matter if it is the Heineken Cup Final or the Prem Cup. I didn’t think I would be playing – I did kind of feel like I was done. I was like ‘I am going to see out my career in Japan now’ and I wouldn’t see a proper game again, with proper crowds and all that sort of stuff.
“That was quite hard at times. Especially as it got to June and July and there was no contract on the table; the thought that I wouldn’t be playing ‘proper rugby’ again. Every opportunity I get – even the preseason game against Leinster was just amazing.
“I am just very grateful for the opportunity. Especially being captain as well. I am really looking forward to it.”
As a club, Harlequins have undergone a significant change during Matthews’ time away. In his last season with the team, they finished 10th overall in the Gallagher Premiership. Three seasons later, the side won the top-flight domestic competition and made the semi-finals again last year.
It is a change that is blatantly apparent to the lock forward, who saw it no more present than in the aftermath of the team’s 27-30 loss at home on Saturday afternoon to London rivals, Saracens.
“When I left, losing to Sarries by three points at home with the squad that they had, boys would have been cracking the champagne and it would have been happy days,” Matthews said.
“Whereas after this weekend everyone was bitterly disappointed in the changing room and it was a real low moment for the squad. I think that change of perspective, where they are expecting to beat Sarries at home, no matter who is on the team sheet, that change is massive.”
Since coming back to London with his family, Matthews has continued to coach. Helping out with KCS Old Boys RFC and Wimbledon RFC on Tuesday and Thursday nights, Matthews is hoping to pass on some of the knowledge that he has learnt in a career that has spanned 13 years.
Upon his return to Harlequins, Matthews light-heartedly described how it was almost a shock to walk into laidback club environment. Especially when contrasted to that of Exeter with their military ideology and disciplined approach to how they do things at Sandy Park.
“We were definitely in a slump before,” Matthews said. “A few things are still the same, some of the group are still the same, but in terms of culture it has changed massively.
“How to describe it? I don’t know. It is just a real positive place to be. There is a real player led culture. It is not super disciplined, but if anything does go wrong, the players drive the standards.
“I have been really impressed by it. It was quite shocking actually. Almost a bit too lax and a bit too loose. Especially coming from somewhere like Exeter where it is super disciplined. Neither way is right or wrong, it was just a big shock to the system. Especially having been at Quins beforehand. It is interesting.”
