Rugby

Yesterday afternoon the Harlequins beat Gloucester 29-26 at the Stoop in the Premiership and now lie in 8th place (on 43 points) behind Sale Sharks in 7th (on 47), who play London Irish away this afternoon, and Wasps in 6th (48 points). Therefore there is still a mathematical chance of Quins [...]

Every fan of team sports is allowed to have two favourite teams – the one they actually love and follow and the one they love to hate. As a Harlequins supporter, the team in my latter category – the one whose every characteristic I despise; the one with the capacity to annoy me more than [...]

This has been a hard, gruelling season for Harlequins – I’m talking for the fans, never mind the players – and there’s still no end to the nightmare. Yesterday I strapped myself in for the ordeal of watching live on BT Sport as we racked up our twelfth consecutive Premiership loss to [...]

  Today I wish to offer a small salute to Ugo Monye who has just announced that he would be retiring from rugby at the end of the season after thirteen years as a one-club Harlequins man. Let’s get the stats out of the way first. He has his 32nd birthday coming up on 13th April. Having made [...]

  In prospect I viewed the contrived denouement of the final round of the 2015 Six Nations on Saturday afternoon with mix of trepidation and nostalgia for the old days, i.e. when men were men and the Northern Hemisphere’s premier national tournament was what it was and not a rugby vehicle [...]

Scots north and south of the border are steeling themselves for the forthcoming Calcutta Cup match next Saturday, a annual clash that brings us the hope of triumph but also the expectation of something slightly less palatable that will leave us with the pain and resentment of ’small nation [...]

  Yesterday to the Stoop with great expectations. Yes, Quins were in a trough of a run results-wise and in the back of one’s mind one feared the worst – especially since we were playing local [well local in the sense they now play out of Reading’s Madejski Stadium] arch-rivals London [...]

The Sale fly half Danny Cipriani, now aged 27, has long been a ‘Marmite’ character – one of those people whom you either love or hate. I first saw him play at international age group level (captaining the England Under 19 team) for England at the age of 18 in a Six Nations game at the Stoop. [...]