
Consider the derby day hoodoo most definitely banished. Before overturning Saracens at the Stoop in October, Harlequins had lost eight in a row against their London rivals, but a more significant streak was snapped with an against-all-odds win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium here. It was March 2012 when they last tasted victory in this fixture away from their southwest London home; a neutral site this may have been but the travelling fans in their quarters filling the seats would have relished such a victory.
The matchday programme declared Alex Dombrandt, Danny Care, Marcus Smith, Chandler Cunningham-South and Cadan Murley as the five Harlequins players to watch; the fact that only one of them was on the pitch made this win all the more significant as young fly half Jamie Benson produced a coming-of-age showing. With a degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge, his mind is just as sharp as his boot.