Harlequin F.C.
Harlequins is a professional rugby union club that plays in the Gallagher PREM, the top level of English rugby union. Their home ground is the Twickenham Stoop, located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
The club, which was founded in 1866 as "Hampstead Football Club", split the following year with some of the membership forming Wasps RFC. Three years later Hampstead renamed itself Harlequins and became one of the founding members of the Rugby Football Union in 1871. For more than a hundred years, Harlequins had been one of the top UK teams during the amateur era and this continued with the introduction of professionalism in 1995. The club has been champions of England twice, winning the title in 2012 and most recently in 2021. They won the European Challenge Cup in 2001, 2004 and 2011, the joint most wins of any team in the competition, and the domestic cup in 1988, 1991 and 2013. It remains the only founding club member of the RFU to still be in the top flight of English rugby.
Harlequins has the largest social media following of any club in the Premiership, the 2nd largest of any club in Europe, after Stade Toulousain.
The current club captain is Alex Dombrandt and de-facto head coach is Jason Gilmore for the 2025–26 season.
History
Formation and early years
The Hampstead Football Club was founded in 1866 and the first recorded game took place in 1867. A disagreement between Club Secretary William Titchener and William Alford in 1867 resulted in Alford leaving with half of the membership to form the club now known as Wasps. The club was renamed Harlequin Rugby Football Club in 1870, supposedly because the membership was no longer purely local and to retain the previously created "HFC" monogram mark. The word 'Harlequin' was found in a dictionary and all present agreed to the new name.During its first 40 years the club played at a total of 15 venues. Since 1909, they have only played at three.
In 1906, the club was invited by the Rugby Football Union to use the new national stadium in Twickenham. In those early days, only one or two internationals were played there during the season, and before long Twickenham became the headquarters of the Harlequin Football Club.
1961, first East Africa tour
In 1961, Harlequins undertook a tour of East Africa in conjunction with Pretoria Harlequins from South Africa, as guests of the Kenya Harlequin F.C. and the Rugby Football Union of East Africa; the club won five and drew one. The tour is notable for two facts, it was the first time that three sister clubs of the Harlequin family all played each other in a coordinated series of matches and at 19 days it was the longest overseas tour undertaken by a British club up to that time. Despite this, the tour pales to insignificance when it is realised the Pretoria club spent four weeks in East Africa playing eight matches and another in Rhodesia on the way home.The London club arrived at Entebbe airport at dawn on 4 May and opened their tour with a 44–13 win against Uganda in Kampala on 6 May. They played West Kenya Province at Kitale, and the Pretoria Harlequins on Saturday 13 May at the RFUEA ground, Nairobi. The next two matches were played at the same location, beating the host club 16–0 the next day and earning a 9-all tie against Kenya Central Province on Wednesday 17 May. The last match for the London club was against Kenya at Nakuru on Saturday 20 May. This last match was played under a typical "long-rains" shower that, though heavy, did not soften the hard ground enough to be a problem.
Acquisition of The Stoop
In 1963, Harlequin FC acquired an athletics ground with 14 acres just over the road from the Twickenham ground, which became its training pitch. This subsequently become their home: the Stoop Memorial Ground which in 2005 was renamed The Twickenham Stoop. This is named after Adrian Dura Stoop, who won 15 caps for England and is said to have been the person who developed modern back play.League rugby and the professional era
With the introduction of leagues in 1987 bringing a more competitive environment, Harlequins maintained their status in the Premier Division as one of England's top 12 clubs until 2005.The club has won the Rugby Football Union clubs knockout competition on two occasions: the John Player Cup in 1988 and Pilkington Cup in 1991. In addition, they played in the finals of 1992, 1993 and 2001.
Harlequins hold the world record for providing the most players from one club in a Rugby World Cup final. In the second ever RWC final at Twickenham in November 1991, seven Harlequin players appeared for England and Troy Coker played in the Australian pack.
They are also affiliated with amateur team Harlequin Amateurs.
Harlequins became the first British team to win the European Shield in 2001, defeating Narbonne 42–33 in the final. They then became the first team to win the tournament twice, defeating Montferrand 27–26 in the final of the renamed Parker Pen Challenge Cup on 22 May 2004.
In 2005 they were relegated to National Division One after finishing at the bottom of the Zurich Premiership. In July of that year they announced that they would be establishing a partnership with rugby league club London Broncos, which saw the two clubs sharing Harlequins home ground The Stoop from the start of the 2006 Super League season. As part of the deal, the Broncos changed their name to Harlequins RL, though the two clubs remain under separate ownership.
In 2005–06, Quins utterly dominated National Division One. They won 25 of their 26 league matches, including their first 19, losing only at Exeter Chiefs on 25 February 2006. Quins also averaged nearly 40 points per match, scored four or more tries in 20 matches, and racked up an average victory margin of slightly over 25 points. They secured their return to the Premiership on 1 April with four matches to spare, crushing Sedgley Park 65–8 while the only team with a mathematical chance of pipping them for the title, Bedford, lost 26–23 at Exeter.
For the 2008 tour to New Zealand, England coach Martin Johnson selected four Harlequin players to play for the tour, Nick Easter, David Strettle, Mike Brown and Danny Care. Also five Harlequin players were selected for the England Saxons Barclays Churchill Cup matches to the United States and Canada. Tom Guest, Chris Robshaw, Adrian Jarvis, Ugo Monye and Will Skinner were all selected with Will Skinner chosen as captain for the side.
2007–08 season
Chris Robshaw played a leading role in the 2007–08 season as Harlequins won 12 of their 22 Guinness Premiership matches and finished 6th in the league. Harlequins got off to a shaky start which saw them be in 2nd, 3rd 4th place consecutively, and during the latter half of the season Halequins managed to reach third after a string of seven wins out of nine, but defeats to London Irish, Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers to finish the season meant that Quins dropped to sixth and missed out on the play-offs.Two Harlequins players were short-listed for awards, Danny Care and Chris Robshaw, were short-listed for the Land Rover Discovery of the Season award. As well as Coach Dean Richards being short-listed for the O2 Director of Rugby of the Season as well as Tom Guest being nominated for MBNA Try of the Season for his try against Leeds Carnegie on Sunday 13 April 2008.
2008–09 season
Players to leave Quins at the end of the 2007–08 season were Adrian Jarvis, Hal Luscombe, Chris Hala'ufia, Paul Volley, Nicholas Spanghero, Simon Keogh, Ricky Nebbett and Ryan Manyika.For the 2008–09 season Quins signed five new players; London Irish centre Gonzalo Tiesi, Ulster Back-row forward Neil McMillan, Auckland Blues fly-half Nick Evans, Tongan international Epi Taione who plays on wing, centre and back row and Fijian utility back Waisea Luveniyali.
Quins finished second in the 2008-09 Guinness Premiership table. In the play-offs, they lost 0–17 at home to eventual losing finalists London Irish.
Quins also hosted their first "Big Game" at Twickenham over the Christmas period, playing out a 26–26 draw with Leicester Tigers in front of 52000 people.
In the 2008-09 Heineken Cup Harlequins came top of their pool, including beating Stade Français both at home and away in front of 80000 people in the Stade de France in Paris. They lost 5–6 at the Stoop to eventual tournament winners Leinster Rugby at the quarter-final stage, a match in which the infamous Bloodgate Scandal took place.
2009–10 season
The contrast between this season and the previous season could hardly have been greater. With the shadow of Bloodgate still hanging over the club, the club struggled to an 8th-place finish despite retaining most of the players from their successful previous campaign. They also made a swift exit from the Heineken Cup at the group stages while failing to chalk up a single victory in the competition. Owing to the club's lower league position, they failed to qualify for the competition for the first time in three years.Quins also hosted their second "Big Game" at Twickenham. Despite losing 20–21 to "London" Wasps, the game attracted 76000 spectators.
Following the resignation of Dean Richards in August 2009, Conor O'Shea was appointed Director of Rugby in March 2010.
2010–11 season
Harlequins endured a mixed 2010–11 season, which was characterised by inconsistency. They finished seventh in the league, which was insufficient to ensure Heineken Cup qualification. However, they proved their potential with some inspiring performances on their way to the Amlin Cup final. This included a historic win away against Munster in the semi-final, where they became only the second club to beat the Irish province at home in a European Competition. Harlequins won the final against Stade Français to win its 3rd Amlin Cup.2011–2012 season
Harlequins started the season well, winning their first ten premiership games before losing to Saracens at Twickenham Stadium in "Big Game 4" in front of a then club record for a premiership crowd and a world record for the highest attendance of a regular season club fixture, consisting of 82,000. The club's results after the defeat to Saracens continued to be generally strong, with only three other defeats in the regular season and the club went on to finish top of the league. They played Northampton Saints at the Twickenham Stoop on 12 May 2012, a match which they won thanks to a 25–23 victory sealed with a try in the 77th minute by Joe Marler. Harlequins beat Leicester Tigers on 26 May 2012, in the Premiership final at Twickenham Stadium to win their first Aviva Premiership title with a score of 30–23 in front of an 81,779 crowd. Tom Williams and Chris Robshaw scored the tries and Nick Evans scored 20 points through penalties and a conversion. Chris Robshaw was named man of the match. Nick Evans also equalled the record at the time for the most conversions by one player in a Premiership final with six.During this season, Harlequins played in the Heineken Cup thanks to their victory in the Amlin Cup the season before. However, they lost out on a quarter final spot in the last game of the pool stage after a defeat to Connacht. Subsequently, they went into the Amlin Cup competition but were resoundingly beaten by Toulon. Harlequins also played in the LV= Cup but did not make it out of their group with two wins and two losses.