The “Five to Watch” listed from Quins were Alex Dombrandt, Danny Care, Marcus Smith, Chandler Cunningham-South and Fin Baxter, but only Dombrandt played, while Care was absent with a knee injury and Smith, Cunningham-South and Fin Baxter were rested as a condition of their participation for England in the Six Nations.
There was a frothy strapline: “Rivalries reignite. Scores must be settled. Pride is on the line” – to which those who paid good money to go to the matches might have added: “And a load of the top players were on holiday.”
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There is common sense and welfare in mind in the rule that says a player must miss one match out of three in the period immediately after the Six Nations if he has had any involvement in all five matches.
Maro Itoje turned out at Tottenham, and Saracens and England captain has now started 21 matches this season, completing 80 minutes in the vast majority of them, which some might argue is enough for an entire campaign.
No, the point here is to ask whether rugby has trying to have its cake and eat it, and who is footing the bill?
A straw poll among a few of the 54,414 people paying £50 or more for adult tickets at Tottenham the next day came back with disappointment over the absent Quins, as it did not fit the billing of the match and choice of stadium.
Check out the highlights from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as @Harlequins pulled out a comeback victory against @Saracens. pic.twitter.com/ZgBTxygmbS
They were steered to an excellent win after trailing 12-0 by academy product Jamie Benson, a 22-year-old Cambridge blue: a great story, and youngsters must have a way to break through.
Quins head coach Danny Wilson can only work within the rules, and he said he had told Smith, Cunningham-South and Baxter before the Six Nations started in late January that they would miss this particular match, if they fulfilled the criterion for the week off.
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Read MoreUltimately, it highlights yet again the push and pull between making a buck and looking after player welfare.
This in turn is a function of the fragmentation of the sports broadcast market.
A blunter instrument would be a weekend free of all fixtures straight after an international window: a blanket time off so the likes of Smith, whose Instagram showed him enjoying the Florida sun last week, could recharge the batteries with no one else having to miss out.
As we have said in these pages many times before, until the entire rugby fixture list is slashed to a much more welfare-friendly level, these frustrating clashes will continue – and the closest the punters will get to some of the “ones to watch” will be on the pages of a programme.
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