Jimmy Speaks Out

By Jimmy
December 4 2005

Today Jimmy ‘the true voice of Quins supporters’ explains why in his view the existence of London Irish is an embarrassment to English Rugby and a sign of its weakness.

At the outset let me say that I am not anti-Irish. Far from it. Some of my best friends have been to Ireland. Once I even went to an Irish pub, never again I have to say, they had no idea whatsoever about how to mix a pink gin. It’s the whole concept of LONDON Irish that I object to.

My own club Harlequins is a fine, upstanding, English club. You only need to look at our team sheet to say that. Players such as Andre Vos, Ugo Moyne and Ace Tiatia stand as testament to the true blue blood running through our veins. Even our Irish born players have fully embraced Englishness, you’d never find Andy Dunne, Gavin Duffey or Simon Keogh supporting their Irish province against an English team. That would be disrespectful.

The England team is full of Harlequins players. Or at least it was until that upstart new coach Andy Robinson took over. He doesn’t seem to understand the traditions of rugby. That the England team should mainly be made up of Harlequins and Bath players. His allowing players from lesser clubs onto the England team is just not cricket.

It’s a sign of a deeper malaise in English rugby. The RFU are even allowing that well-known Paddy Conor O’Shea to work for them in a senior position. This is disgusting; the job should have gone to an Englishman. However, I digress.

Quite frankly those Paddies don’t know their proper place and need to be told so. Things were so much better in the days of merit tables when we could refuse to play them. When professional rugby started they should have done the decent thing and allowed themselves to be relegated down a couple of divisions where we could have ignored them.

What did they do? Bloody cheek if you ask me. They started winning games and now say that they are in the Zurich Premiership ‘on merit’. Even worse, they now claim that almost half those who support the team are English. That simply cannot be true. How could anyone who calls themselves a proper Englishman support a team called London Irish? Pah!

Some might suggest that my viewpoint is a minority one but I assure you I am not alone. Other fans of Quins and other English clubs have expressed similar views to me at various times over the years. Only a couple of weeks ago I was discussing this in a committee room at HQ with my good friend Julian. He agreed totally with me and he should know. As chairman of Harlequins Supporters Club he has shown himself to be very much in touch with the support base.