Mutiny is in the air for Quins stars
ON THE basis of the old adage that admitting a problem is half of the battle, Northampton are 50 per cent ahead of Harlequins in finding a way out of the hole both clubs are in.
These are two marquee names in the domestic game being dragged through the mud. What happened on saturday in south-west London and the East Midlands amounted to the betrayal of a proud heritage.
A patched-up saints team capitulated 63-13 against saracens at Franklin’s gardens. It was Northampton’s heaviest Premiership defeat but the devil was in the detail. They were in touch at half-time before the visitors plundered 48 points without reply — to take their aggregate season tally against these fallen rivals to 237 in four mismatches.
At least the saints’ hierarchy are not hiding from the state they are in. The coaching team is being overhauled, Chris Boyd is coming in from the Hurricanes in New Zealand and Dan Biggar will arrive as a pedigree playmaker. Thus, there are glimmers of hope, even from 10th in the table.
There is no such optimism at Quins.
BRISTOL will be back in the Premiership next season after their promotion from the Championship was confirmed when nearest rivals Ealing lost at Doncaster. Pat Lam’s side return armed with a couple of in-theirprime All Blacks in the form of Charles Piutau and Steven Luatua. If they can survive and consolidate for a year, they have the backing — both financial and among the city’s public — to become a formidable force.
Instead there appears to be mutiny in the air.
How a side containing Mike Brown, Chris Robshaw, Danny Care and Joe Marler can slump to a 35-5 defeat at home against relegation- stalked London Irish beggars belief.
Quins’ England contingent exude competitive intensity, drive and ambition. However, they are openly scathing about their club. The suspicion must be that director of rugby John Kingston has ‘lost the dressing room’, as they say in football.
Kingston and his coaches were awarded extended contracts in January. At the time, Harlequins chief executive David Ellis said the club were ‘on an exciting journey on and off the pitch’. Yet, they have lost six out of seven league games in 2018.
Rugby should not adopt football’s hiring-and-firing culture but unless there is a startling turnaround in the next month it is hard to imagine Kingston staying in his post.
Northampton know they have a problem and are doing something about it. Irate Quins fans will be wondering when the penny will drop at their club. CARDIFF BLUES’ Pro14 match against the Cheetahs on Saturday mirrored their journey to Bloemfontein — it went on too long and proved to be extremely disappointing. Their flight from Heathrow to Johannesburg was cancelled. They flew out the next day, only to face further delays when trying to connect to Bloemfontein. Eventually, the Blues arrived 55 hours after setting off — only to find out their luggage had been mislaid. Despite the shambolic build-up, they were on course to win the match only to lose courtesy of a dubious penalty try in the eighth minute of injury-time. WORLD RugBY’s quest to resolve the World Cup qualifying debacle involving spain and Romania has been undermined by the re-opening of an old can of worms in relation to Test eligibility. The global governing body is now investigating allegations that Romania and spain fielded ineligible players in the recent Rugby Europe Championship. National allegiance is locked-in once a player has represented a country’s senior Test team, but also a secondary ‘capture’ team which can be an ‘A’ side or even an under 20s side. Enough of this complexity. A universal approach is needed. senior national teams should be the capture level — nothing below that.