“I’ll never forget running out at the Stade de France, and there being can-can girls, knights jousting on horseback and gymnasts doing these amazing flips on the pitch,” said scrum-half Danny Care.
“I was a 21-year-old kid just thinking, what on earth is going on?”
It was 8 December 2008 and Harlequins were part of the cast for Stade Francais’ latest gaudy jaunt to France’s national stadium.
Media magnate Max Guazzini was Stade’s owner and known for his flamboyant marketing of the team. Eye-popping kits, calendars featuring naked players and celebrity visits to the changing room fed the hype.
Staging matches at the Stade de France, and attracting near 80,000 crowds in the process, was another of his ringmaster tricks.
It may have come as a shock to Care, but Harlequins chief executive Mark Evans had been watching for a while.
By the time Quins and Care played in Paris, Evans had already booked out Twickenham for three weeks later and a…
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