The men’s Six Nations might be over but another decisive period looms for the club game, on and off the field. After the self-imposed famine – never before has the top English professional league voluntarily gone into mid-season hibernation for eight weeks – the next aim is to deliver a springtime feast of Premiership rugby as appetising as the national team’s last two outings against Ireland and France.
With a run-in of six regular season rounds still to play and just a handful of points separating the seven clubs between second and eighth vying for a place in the top four, some tasty basic ingredients are already in place. But there is also a whole other dimension involved, neatly articulated this week by Harlequins’ progressive chief executive, Laurie Dalrymple. “We’re coming out of a really positive Six Nations,” said Dalrymple, before Quins’ big London “derby” against Saracens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “From an English perspective if we don’t harness that feelgood factor and take it into the club game then we’ve dropped the ball.”
