Tag: HARLEQUINS

Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club Harlequins FC saw their dreams of securing a historic domestic and European treble dashed after they suffered a 12-18 defeat at the hands of Irish club Munster in the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup. The Quins were completely outplayed by the Irish side in front of their home support at the Twickenham Stoop, the home of English rugby and the reigning Aviva Premiership champions were completely outplayed in the second half, failing to garner any sort of foothold in the game, especially in tackling.

This is the fifth defeat that the London suffered in the last seven matches, denting their hopes of a treble and this run of poor results also saw them drop from top of the table in the Aviva Premiership to fourth in the table, and now, Harlequins FC are having to look beyond their shoulders for Bath Rugby who have mounted a late challenge for that fourth and final spot that will see the side qualify for the playoff semi finals of the Aviva Premiership.

And according to Nick Easter, the number eight of the side, the club and the players need to buck up and bounce back from the rot they are going through. He stated that the team has to regroup and get their mindsets right. He further mentioned that the team has three huge games in the Aviva Premiership to look forward to and these three matches will define the season for Harlequins FC.

Easter stated that the team wouldn’t want their season to get unraveled and having already won the Anglo Welsh Cup recently, they are still in line to secure a domestic double that will more or less count as a successful season for the side, a season that had looked extremely promising till now.

The Harlequin Football Club which is more commonly known as Harlequins FC is a professional rugby football club currently playing in the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union league where they are the reigning champions. The club plays its home matches at the iconic Twickenham Stoop stadium in London which is also the traditional home of the England national team. For a prolonged period, the club was known as the NEC Harlequins but after the sponsorship rights were bought by Etihad Airways, the club reverted back to its original name.

The formation of The Quins dates back to 1866 when the Hampstead Football Club was formed and the first official match the club played was in 1867. The club was renamed to Harlequins FC in 1870 mainly because the membership of the club was no longer restricted to the local people but there was also the need to retain the HFC abbreviation, which prompted the then officials of the club to decide upon the name. According to historians of the club, the members found the word ‘harlequin’ in the dictionary and all those who were present in the meeting unanimously accepted the name.

However, this also saw a split in the club membership with a section of disgruntled fans not happy with the change of name defecting from the club to go on and form what would become the London Wasps. During the first forty years of existence, the club travelled a lot and did not have a fixed home venue.

But in 1906, Harlequins FC was invited by the Rugby Football Union to play at Twickenham Stoop, which was not being used on a regular basis by the national team and before long, the club shifted its headquarters to the ground and have been at the venue ever since then.

The reigning Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union champions Harlequins FC wrote their names into the history books by going the entire group stage of the Heineken Cup unbeaten after overcoming the star studded Biarritz at the Parc des Sports Aguilera. Former New Zealand international Nick Evans put in the absolute perfect kicking performance in an absolute torrential and driving rain as they completed their sixth win in as many games in the group stages in the top level rugby competition for clubs in Europe.

The Quins were already guaranteed a place in the quarter final place even before a kick in the match but their failure to win the match with a bonus point might turn out to be a bane for them. But still, with a points tally of 28 points after six group games, Harlequins FC are in prime position to get top seeding for the quarter finals. Evans converted all three penalties that came his way as well as converting the only try in an otherwise dull game as the win left the star studded French side with hope they could eventually sneak in to the knockout stages as the best runner ups.

Now that they have made it to knockout stages of the Heineken Cup, the one thing that would be on the mind of Nick Evans, Nick Easter and company is to find a way to unlock the way to success in the most prestigious club competition in Europe after the failure of fellow English teams before them.

With their defense of the Aviva Premiership also well on track, Harlequins FC is the form team at the moment and if they can manage to secure on both fronts, they will become the first team in England to clinch the historic double and write a new chapter in their history.

Aviva Premiership Rugby Union club and the reigning champions of the event Harlequins FC proved their mettle in Europe as the best team in England once again as they hammered struggling Italian side Zebre 53-5 at home at Twickenham Stoop to maintain their unbeaten record in the Heineken Cup and move another step closer to qualification into the next round of the most prestigious club competition in European professional rugby. The win by bonus ensured that the English champions will only need to secure just a single point from their two remaining pool games in the Heineken Cup to top their group and go through to the quarter finals, which will further increase their chances of having a home draw for that stage of the tournament.

Harlequins FC were slow to get off the tracks and took some time to subdue the visitors to The Stoops but once two Zebre players picked up two yellow cards one after another, there was no stopping the English team and it was only a case of damage limitation for the away team as The Quins scored seven tries, while also collecting a whopping 18 points courtesy the right boot of Nick Evans during the match.

Ben Botica, Tom Casson, Sam Smith, Nick Easter, Karl Dickson and Danny Care – all crossed the try line for Harlequins FC, who was also given the added advantage of being awarded a penalty try. Ruggero Trevisan scored the only consolation try of the game for the Italian side as they suffered another mauling in the Heineken Cup.

However, the concession of the try against Zebre will definitely not make the coaching set up at The Quins happy as a clean sheet would have meant an added bonus point and they could have qualified for the next round with two games to spare.