A family catch up (and a Quins match)
Saturday 30th September 2017 – Rugby Premiership Round 5: Northampton Saints v Harlequins at Franklin’s Gardens: Result – Northampton Saints 30 Harlequins 22: League table latest positions: Northampton Saints top on 19 points; Harlequins 9th on 10 points.
Regular readers will know that there has been a certain spring in my step – and a heavy burden lifted from my put-upon shoulders, leavened by a huge sense of relief at the jettisoning of the obligation – since my agonising decision at the end of last season no longer to submit myself to the ordeal of going to watch Harlequins play at the Stoop.
From a die-hard fan’s and indeed rugby spectating point of view it’s one of the best I’ve ever taken. I can still follow the fortunes of my team in the newspapers and media, I can still watch its games whenever they are featured on BT Sport or the radio, but I am no longer prey to that awful match-day feeling of dread and anticipatory nervous tension (and ultimately frustration) involved in going to the effort of making my way to the ground and watch them play at different times in every game fitfully well – and then abjectly – actually in the flesh.
Yesterday I attended my first Harlequins game of the 2017/2018 season by making my traditional annual journey to Northampton at the invitation of some family relations to see our away clash with the Saints.
On a ‘Nought to Ten’ scale of Premiership worthiness over the last decade and a half I would rank the Saints at about 7 and Quins 6. Both clubs have been relegated (Saints in 2007/2008, Quins in 2005/2006) and returned to the top flight the following season, but Saints have been more of a consistent top five (often top four and play-offs) presence, revered for its blood-and-thunder derbies with Leicester Tigers and generally perceived by all including opposing fans as a ‘major presence’ in English rugby.
In contrast, apart from our annus mirabilis of 2011/2012 when we annexed the Premiership title for the first and only time (and a short purple patch thereafter), Quins have always blown a bit ‘hot and cold’, quite capable of turning up and winning – or indeed losing – against any team in the league on any given day.
The adjective ‘flaky’ comes to mind and tends to stick, as do our stereotypical reputations for being ‘a group of la-de-dah toffs who like to throw the ball about a bit’ and ‘a cup team’ (in the sense that we do better in knockout competitions where an occasional dazzling one-off performance out of the blue can sometimes win you silverware, rather than a league, in which consistency and building momentum over a campaign counts for a great deal more).
When talking to my soccer fan mates who readily admit to knowing or caring little about rugby union, I like to wind them up – in seeking to give them a handle of comparison – by calling Quins ‘the Fulham of rugby’.
In recent times, talking to Saints fans including my relations, there is a degree of competition as to which of us can be more hang-dog and downbeat about our team’s form and prospects than the other.
Both teams began this season by getting beaten badly on the first day – Saints by Saracens and Quins by newly-promoted London Irish (who haven’t got anywhere near winning a game since) – but have been gradually improving in recent times.
Yesterday’s outing to the Midlands was pretty much par for the course all round.
In the pub beforehand, both sets of supporters were forthcoming with innumerable reasons why their team was going to lose and the opposition win.
Traditionally the Saints have a heavy-duty, hard-nosed set of forwards and some slick threequarters but for a while now they’ve seriously under-performed and the notion that head coach Jim Mallinder is one match away from the sack has been openly discussed for at least a season and a half.
Quins couldn’t beg, steal or borrow a win on the road last season so I felt my public stance that a losing bonus point – for being within 7 points of the host’s winning score – would be ‘job well done’ as far as we were concerned seemed a rational line to take.
Saints do like to play rugby when they can and the one thing all Premiership teams know is that against Quins, who rarely play percentages but instead just ‘have a go’ whenever they see an opportunity, you can often ‘open up the game’ (risking a bit of harum-scarum, ding-dong madness, chaos and excitement) for a period … but then later ‘close it down again’ and grind out a victory in the final stages, simply because, culture-wise, Quins are pathologically incapable of doing anything quite that sophisticated.
In summary, therefore, yesterday the better team won on the day in an open, positive game.
Quins contributed their share to the entertainment, but they were always behind – albeit threatening to come back – and Saints had enough domination of the action where it mattered to notch a 5 point victory (4 for the win, plus a bonus point for scoring four tries) and go top of the table – whilst Quins narrowly lost out on a losing bonus point.
Meanwhile, I got the opportunity to down a home-made ‘pumpkin soup, bread and cheese’ early spot of lunch on the farm before setting off to the pub, catch up on family news, enjoy once again the life-enhancing ‘craic’ of attending a rugby match in the company of familiar friendly faces, have a few laughs … and then finish with a steaming hot cup of tea shortly before 7.00pm before setting off to drive back down the M1 and home.
What’s not to like?
