News

Harlequins won't be intimidated

December 02 2008

Harlequins Director of Rugby Dean Richards has predicted his team will be unfazed by the prospect of playing Stade Français at the Stade de France in Paris.

You never really know what you're going to get next with Stade Français.

It's the club that rose from the third division to back-to-back Top 14 championships in eight seasons, the club that revolutionised playing kit design, the club that has changed the concept of a rugby club calendar forever.

President Max Guazzini, determined to sell his Parisian club to the masses far beyond the usual rugby-loving niche, has created something unique out of the club. Pink kit - indeed, the entire Stade de France memorably decked out in pink for a couple of league games - can-can dancers, world records and a team full of stars from all over the world have been the ingredients for the Paris club's success.

No option has been left untouched by the flamboyant owner, who has contrived to create an atmosphere intimidating to visiting teams, friendly to all but the most stoic and traditional of fans, and a team and club recognised as one of Europe's finest.

Harlequins visit Paris on Saturday in the Heineken Cup, a match which marks the first occasion the French national stadium has played host to the competition.

Having lost all four previous Euro meetings against the 2007 French champions, Will Skinner's team will also have to notch up a first of their own if they are to stay top of Pool Four.

Quins lost both their Heineken Cup Pool matches against Stade Français last season and also went down in the 2002/03 European Challenge Cup.

The cosmopolitan Parisian side have a somewhat contrasting record, having reeled off 17 straight home wins and been beaten just once in 32 tournament Pool matches in the French capital.

Nevertheless, ahead of the double header - Harlequins hosting this weekend's opponents at the Twickenham Stoop one week later - Richards predicted that his younger players would cope with their grandiose surroundings.

"I don't think it will be intimidating for our young guys to go and play in Stade de France, although I think what they will find is that it will be a different Stade de France," he said.

"It won't be like an international match, where the atmosphere is quite different to the Heineken Cup games we have played in Twickenham, and I don't think they will freeze on the day.

"We're always looking at teams in France so from that point of view we have seen a few Stade Français games and know what they are about.

"They are very strong across the board so it's difficult to say that they have weaknesses here or there and players like (Lionel) Beauxis and (Juan Martin) Hernandez are real stars and show the quality of the team.

"On paper they have a fantastic side and I'm just hoping that on the day we turn up and are not caught up in the emotions of the occasion.

"Everyone knows that to get through the Pool stages you can only really afford to drop one game so, with both ourselves and Stade Français coming into this double-header unbeaten, of course the stakes are very high.

"In effect this is a winner-takes all scenario. Whatever happens here will have a massive impact on the return match and where we both go on to in the Pool."

By last Friday, Stade Français said that advance ticket sales for the tie had topped 65,000.