When Ron Greenwood became England football manager in 1977, he came up with an interesting way of trying to get success on the international stage.
Liverpool were the reigning champions and European Cup holders so Greenwood picked six of their players for his first game in charge – this in the days, of course, before foreigners dominated the elite teams.
It didn’t work. England drew 0-0 with Switzerland and, despite the fact English clubs won the European Cup every season, Greenwood never translated that success on to the international stage.
I tell the story because Warren Gatland, the British Lions head coach, this week took the other extreme by not picking a single Harlequins player in his squad to tour Australia.
This, of course, is English rugby’s champion club, having last season topped the league standings and won the Aviva Premiership final against Leicester Tigers.
That’s the same Leicester that Quins have now beaten four times in a row. The same Leicester with six players in the Lions touring party.
Missing out: Mike Brown
Of course, as Greenwood found out, you can’t pick international teams by quota. I’m sure the vastly experienced Gatland has not even considered club colours in picking a squad that oozes quality.
Even so, it is hard to fathom out why not one solitary Quins player is deemed good enough to feature among these islands’ 38 best players.
With respect to Danny Care and Mike Brown, the most glaring omission is that of England skipper Chris Robshaw.
Six weeks ago, Robshaw was the poster boy of English rugby, the favourite to complete his set of captaincies in the famous red Lions shirt.
His demise from captain-elect to number one outcast appears to have come purely on the basis of those remarkable 80 minutes in Cardiff that saw an inspired Welsh side storm to the Six Nations title.
Forwards coach Graham Rowntree (co-incidentally a former Leicester player) described Robshaw as “desperately, desperately unlucky”.
Robshaw, with the dignity that has characterised his England captaincy, has so far let others do the talking on the subject of his omission.
Perhaps, in the weeks ahead, the Lions’ self-inflicted loss can become Harlequins’ gain.
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