By Giles Lester
April 6 2005

It scarcely seems possible that it was over 7 months ago since we took part in one half of the first ‘London Double Header’ at Twickenham. Our opponents then, as with the coming weekend were London NEC Harlequins. I somehow doubt either team would’ve predicted that they would be playing out a ‘6 pointer’ at this late stage of the season.

Irish ran out 18-12 victors that day in what was a dour event. Since that they have lost 12 and won only a further 6 games in the Zurich Premiership.

That loss was the first of 7 in a row for the Quins suffering one of their worst starts to the season in their history. Since that day Quins have lost a further 11 games and won 6

As stated neither team has had the best of seasons. Both sets of supporters started the season with high expectations, with Quins finishing in 6th place at the end of 03/04 and with Irish investing (relatively) heavily in big names such as Mike Catt.

Of their recent form Quins have won 5 of their last 10 ZP games, drawing 1 of the others. Irish on the other hand have only 2 wins from their last 10 ZP games with no draws at all.

Irish have the upper hand in meetings between the 2 teams running out 8-5 leaders in wins in the 15 encounters to date in the ZP.

All of that will probably not count for a thing when the two teams run out on Saturday and to quote Stuart Barnes “Irish’s match with a Harlequins team yet to win on a non-international weekend is going to test the durability of a few sets of finger nails.”

Much has been said about which team will go down at the end of the season, indeed will a team go down at all?

One thing is for sure – with Quins only 2 points ahead in the current standings this fixture could play a huge part in who is playing ZP rugby v NDL1 this time next year.

The main stat to keep Irish hoping is that Quins haven’t won at home on a ‘non-international’ weekend all season. Lets hope Irish continue that tenuous stat and remember the scoring ways of Vicarage Road?

We all know the definition of a Harlequin is a clown or a buffoon. It’s also a species of fish and a duck. Let’s hope they’re stooping to all time depths on Saturday feeling like a fish out of water and a win will be water of a duck’s back to the Irish !!