In an interview with the The Times, Harlequins chief executive Mark Evans reflects on a turbulent year for the club.
"In Mark Evans’s office at the Twickenham Stoop hangs an action picture of Nick Duncombe, the Harlequins scrum half who died of a rare blood disorder in 2003, aged 21. 'Now that was a tragedy,' Evans, the Harlequins chief executive, says thoughtfully.
"The photograph offers some perspective on a year unparalleled in the long and distinguished history of Harlequins. The first and the last quarters of the year suggest a club making significant progress back to the upper echelons of the English game, bookended by Big Game 1 and Big Game 2. Last Christmas, more than 50,000 flocked to the RFU’s headquarters at Twickenham to watch Harlequins play Leicester and, on Sunday, some 75,000 — probably more — will see the Guinness Premiership encounter there with London Wasps.
"The six months in between were dire. Bloodgate and the cover-up that followed the use of fake-blood capsules during the Heineken Cup quarter-final with Leinster will haunt the club. It cost them Dean Richards, their director of rugby, Charles Jillings, their chairman, a £250,000 fine and a proud reputation. 'I don’t think we will ever be defined by Bloodgate but there will be an association, always,' Evans, 50, said. 'You would be naive to deny that.'"
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