Rugby

Sunday 1st April 2016: Madejski Stadium: Aviva Premiership Round 21: London Irish 25 Harlequins 32: Respective latest league positions – Harlequins 6th on 55 points, London Irish 12th on 20 points (relegated into the Championship). I did not watch this Harlequins away match because firstly, I [...]

The tribal gulf between adherents of Rugby Union and Rugby League, caused by the hundred years ‘parting of the ways’ in 1895 when the Northern Union clubs (League wasn’t called League until about 1922) split off over the question of ‘broken time’ payments, i.e. professionalism, remains [...]

Friday 22nd April 2016: European Challenge Cup semi-final: Harlequins v Grenoble at the Stoop; result – Harlequins 30 Grenoble 6. “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone …” (or whatever it was that W.H. Auden wrote in his Funeral Blues poem that was recited by actor John Hannah at a [...]

Aviva Premiership Round 20: Saracens v Harlequins at Wembley Stadium; result Saracens 22 (4 league points) Harlequins 12 (0 league points). Almost certain outcome: Saracens to secure a home draw in the Premiership play-offs; Quins now unable to reach them. One day I would like to make a visit to [...]

9th April 2016 – European Challenge Cup Quarter Final – Harlequins v London Irish at the Stoop. Result: Harlequins 38 London Irish 30. This was a hard-fought, at times entertaining, but ultimately wholly unsatisfying contest that left this Quins fan still sipping from his ‘glass half [...]

Aviva Premiership Round 19: Harlequins v Newcastle Falcons @ The Stoop: Harlequins 46 Newcastle Falcons 25: (Harlequins 5 points for a 4-try bonus point victory – position 6th in the league table). And so the Harlequins’ stuttering season continues. Our loss to Northampton Saints a week ago [...]