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And so now the wheels come off …

Saturday 6th February 2016: Aviva Premiership Round 11: Harlequins v Northampton Saints at the Stoop: result – Harlequins 23 Northampton Saints 27. Yesterday I had a near-perfect rugby day in prospect, having bought four additional tickets to the Saints game upon request for a cousin, a [...]

February 7, 2016 // 0 Comments

It all comes to this in the end

Yesterday I sent an email to my brother, five and a half years my junior, about our theoretical plans for playing golf this year and was slightly taken aback when he replied saying that he hadn’t been enjoying the game for some time and had decided to stop playing it – well, save for making a [...]

February 6, 2016 // 0 Comments

Bound to happen sometime …

Sunday 31st January: Aviva Premiership Round 10: Kingston Park: Newcastle Falcons 26 Harlequins 19. Deep within the make-up of every sports fan – every true, club-supporting, sports fan – is a ‘glass half empty’, hangdog, fatalistic, resigned and fearful core. Take the situation where you [...]

February 1, 2016 // 0 Comments

Steady on, Eddie!

By most accounts Dylan Hartley, the Northampton Saints hooker who will turn 30 in March, winner of 66 England caps, is a regular sort of guy to meet – modest, almost quiet, and dedicated to his professional sport. Yesterday he was appointed captain of England for the 2016 Six Nations by new head [...]

January 26, 2016 // 0 Comments

Sometimes a fan has to suffer

Friday 22nd January, kick-off 7.45pm: European Challenge Cup pool stage: Result – Montpellier 42 Harlequins 9. This report won’t take long because, when typing words is akin to chipping granite with a blunt knife and fork, brevity becomes a virtue. For the last 36 hours, every waking hour, [...]

January 23, 2016 // 0 Comments

The trouble with self-imposed principles

As a player Dean Ryan, 49, the current Director of Rugby at Worcester Warriors, was a tough, rock-hard, uncompromising, sometimes belligerent, Number 8 good enough to have won 6 caps for England – in other words, a top class forward but not a world-class one. When his playing career was over, [...]

January 22, 2016 // 0 Comments

Mine’s a double Jameson’s, Coach …

Now I know something of how fans of David Bowie and Glenn Frey of The Eagles must be feeling – yesterday Conor O’Shea, Harlequins’ Director of Rugby, announced that he’d be leaving his post at the end of the season. He’s being pretty quiet about where he might be going next, but the [...]

January 21, 2016 // 0 Comments

Both in laws and application

If I was asked to list the aspects of rugby union that could be improved, I’m pretty sure that my list would not be too much different from that of every other rugby fan – the laws (and how they are applied) would be right up there. Scrums – everything about them generally, but [...]

January 20, 2016 // 0 Comments

Another game of two halves

The Stoop, Sunday 17th January, kick-off 3.15pm: European Challenge Cup: Harlequins 34 Cardiff Blues 26. The headlines from yesterday’s entertaining encounter are that Quins, despite having yet to play home and away fixtures against Montpelier in Pool 3, have already qualified in first position [...]

January 18, 2016 // 0 Comments

The wait is almost over

Unless I have managed to cross some wires somewhere, this week’s biggest rugby union development – certainly for England fans – will be the announcement of new head coach Eddie Jones’ first Elite Player Squad containing those players from which he will select his teams for the 2016 Six [...]

January 11, 2016 // 0 Comments

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