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Sounds like I was well out of it

English Rugby Premiership, Round 7. Harlequins v Worcester Warriors @ the Stoop, Saturday 28th October, kick off 3.00pm. Result: Harlequins 41 Worcester Warriors 35. League points: Harlequins 5 (win plus 1 four-try bonus point), Worcester Warriors 2 (losing bonus point plus four-try bonus point). League positions afterwards: Harlequins 3rd in the table with 20 points, Worcester Warriors 12th (bottom) with 3 points.

What you get when visiting this glorious website is total honesty and integrity.

Despite being the Rust’s official correspondent upon all matters Harlequins I neither attended nor watched this match (it was not being featured on television).

Instead I spent yesterday afternoon happily watching BT Sport’s live coverage of the match between Northampton Saints and Wasps at Franklin’s Gardens kicking off at the same time 3.00pm – a 22-38 win for the visitors – and the first and only thing I learned yesterday of this Quins/Worcester clash was contained in a text received after the game was over, from a pal who was there, as follows:-

An entertaining victory but Easter [Nick Easter, former Quins Number 8 legend, now Quins defence coach] must go. The defence was woeful. Six tries conceded, I ask you …

Today therefore I can only offer my readers the following comments:

Firstly, Worcester Warriors – who are yet to win this season albeit yesterday they went back down the M4 with 2 points to add the solitary one they’d amassed from their first six Premiership games – are in desperate trouble. Not only are they locked in a death-struggle with newly-promoted London Irish to decide which of them will get relegated, they are officially up for sale because the current owners have decided that they’ve lost enough money and interest for now and wish to walk away.

Secondly, as witness my pal’s reaction to yesterday’s fare from the Stoop, the one thing you can say about Quins is that at least they provide entertainment.

They either win by a shed-load … lose by a shed-load … or else the onlooker gets presented with roughly 100 minutes [taking into account the half-time period] of complete, exhausting-to-watch, chaos and mayhem.

A perfect example of the last was the truly extraordinary Big Game (Quins’ annual Christmas/New Year Premiership game at Twickenham Stadium) of a year or two ago now against Gloucester which ended 35-35 after a ding-dong battle in which first Quins went so far ahead they were out of sight, only then to be gradually reeled back in during the second half.

It was head-in-hands, head-shaking-in-disbelief Whacky Races stuff which would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so damned serious, stupid and frustrating. There’s only ever a limited amount of comfort to be had (for fans of both teams in a game like that) in the consoling thought that ‘Well, at least the neutrals would have enjoyed it! …’

All I can say is that, from all reports I’ve now read, yesterday’s match – in which Quins scored five tries to Worcester Warriors six to edge the result – was right up there in the lunacy stakes.

Lastly, after my critical comments about Marland Yarde last week I note that he was missing from the Quins team for yesterday, this after being also dropped for the La Rochelle one last week for disciplinary reasons, i.e. failing to turn up for the ‘Captains Run’ training session.

Various references and rumours are now flying around that he’s reached the end of the road with Quins and is likely to be off to Sale Sharks in a highly-unusual unusual mid-season transfer within the next few days. Quins head coach John Kingston was studiously giving nothing away in his press interviews yesterday but all the signs of an exit are gathering.

 

 

 

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About Derek Williams

A recently-retired actuary, the long-suffering Derek has been a Quins fan for the best part of three decades. More Posts