Harlequins – a Tour d’Horizon
This is not my favourite time of the year – it reminds me of the lockdown with confusion as to what day it is as one blends inevitably into another.
Add strikes and universal financial concerns and a war in Europe.
Like many I take refuge in sport in general and Harlequins in particular.
I am of an age that I remember the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show when it was broadcast, not repeated, and most of the Xmas TV films I have already seen.
So yesterday I fortified myself – feasted might be the better word – on two Harlequin documentaries prior to the defeat 12-15 by Bristol Bears.
The first was Prep to Win, a fly-on-the-wall account of their Premiership winning season of 2021-22 and the second Rugby Stories covering the period from the abyss of relegation to winning the Premiership in. 2012
Both did well in describing a rugby club eccentric in its colourful quarters but also it’s cavalier ethos.
The colours are magenta red, chocolate brown, sky blue and light grey with green flashings down the side and the ethos best summed by second row forward David Marques once explaining his shaking the hand of an opposing forward who had roughed him up with “I just wanted him to know he was a cad”.
Like most images it is inaccurate.
The documentaries revealed how intense is the training in the gym, how driven the players are and – let’s face it – notable players like the Claxton Brothers, Jason Leonard, Joe Marler and Stephan Lewies are hardly toffs.
The game against Bristol Bears spilled over and the Quins scrum mixed it with the best.
What has perpetuated is that Quins are not just expected to win but to do so in style.
A more relevant criticism – perhaps stemming from the proximity of the Stoop – to RFU headquarters Twickenham is that Quins players have an advantage in gaining international selection for England.
It’s a bit like Middlesex CCC, who play at Lords – would say Kim Barnett of Derbyshire win more caps if he played for Middlesex?
I would defend this accusation by saying Harlequins are arguably the most diverse club in the Premiership with a thriving women’s team, who played in a double header yesterday thrashing Bristol Bears, and many players from from an ethnic background like Ugo Monye, Joe Marchant and the 18 year old Cassius Cleave.
