Not long now … (thankfully)
Saturday 28th April 2018: Aviva Premiership Round 21: Worcester Warriors v Harlequins @ Sixways: Result – Worcester Warriors 44 (5 points – 4 for victory, 1 for four-try bonus) Harlequins 13 (0 points): match stats include Worcester Warriors scoring 19 unanswered points in the second half and 7 tries in total: new League positions – Worcester Warriors 11th on 36 points (having avoided relegation), Harlequins 9th (also on 36 points).
[Author’s disclaimer: for those wishing to examine the entrails of this match please refer to your favourite newspaper’s report. I did not see any of it myself – it was not being televised – but I did spend my afternoon socialising in the country with family whilst playing the BBC local radio station commentary off the internet in the background on the computer.]
I’m in a strange state of mind at the moment, being an out-and-out Quins fan who, like all those similar I socialise with, despairs of the way the club has been going since our 2012 Premiership victory.
On the one hand I am dismayed at the team’s form and performances this season – 7 Premiership wins, 14 losses; results since 1st January 3 wins, 10 losses, now with one last (Premiership) match to come this season, at home on 5th May against reigning champions and current league leaders by a 13 point margin Exeter Chiefs – and yet I can derive no satisfaction at all at having my views vindicated.
Sitting at the corner table in the lounge bar of our favourite pub nursing our pints of John Smith’s Bitter the one thing currently dominating our thoughts is the grim prospect that – unless someone somewhere within the club (possessed of the power to do what is necessary) finds inside themselves the wherewithal to get a serious grip as regards acquiring a new Director of Rugby/coaching team, clearing out the over-30s and/or general ‘dead wood’ in the playing squad and instilling a completely new attitude/atmosphere throughout the operation – next season, with the heavily-moneyed Bristol Bears coming up from the Championship, Quins will be evens in the betting stakes to get relegated.
No surprise then that we’re looking forward to the end of this season and a summer break no less than the first team squad must be given the way they’ve been playing.
