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With flamboyant flair and an audacious mindset to attack from anywhere with some of the league's silkiest players, Harlequins have been branded the league's entertainers for as long as we can remember.
With flamboyant flair and an audacious mindset to attack from anywhere with some of the league's silkiest players, Harlequins have been branded the league's entertainers for as long as we can remember.
'Swing the bat' was the motto for the south west Londoners' Champions Cup run last season. Harlequins travelled to Bordeaux-Begles, facing long odds of progressing to the quarter-finals. But in true Quins spirit, Marcus Smith and co. threw the ball around and secured a famous win for the Quarters.
Where are the mesmerising counter attacks?
Their defence has always been questioned, operating for the speculative ‘we'll score more than you’ mentality, but now Billy Millard's side appears to have lost their attacking edge as they sit outside of the top five Premiership teams in tries scored.
Quins' scrum is also creaking, losing the third most scrums in the division (12) as the likes of Fin Baxter have failed to kick on from last season's heroics.
Millard's men crashed out of the Champions Cup with an embarrassing display courtesy of being nilled by Leinster at Croke Park in a ten-try humiliation.
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HarlequinsIn recent weeks, their attacking prowess has continued to evade them, while their play-off aspirations are all but ended courtesy of three consecutive Premiership defeats.
Failed to kick on since Tottenham triumph
Quins scored four at home to Sale Sharks but shipped seven, and last weekend they touched down just once - an interception handed on a plate by Handre Pollard to Luke Northmore, while their hosts scored six.
It's rather remarkable that this season is when Quins ended their Saracens hoodoo, beating the north Londoners home and away for the first time in what feels like forever.
Jamie Benson's remarkable cameo from the bench inspired a dramatic comeback victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in March, but since then, four defeats on the spin have left their campaign fizzling out with little to play for.
Smith is unable to play behind a misfiring pack and crash ball 12
Andre Esterhuizen's departure has proven costly. The South African was in contention for being the greatest Premiership signing from overseas, seeing that his ferocious carries guaranteed Quins gainline every time he touched the ball. He wasn't just a crash ball merchant, though. Esterhuizen had some of the best hands in the division and thrived in Quins' attacking DNA.
Northmore has filled in at 12 but doesn't have the power of the mammoth South African, while Lennox Anyanwu hasn't kicked on as much as people were expecting.
Meanwhile, Joe Launchbury has failed to remain injury-free, and while Will Evans is a menace over the ball, Quins lack of power up front means Smith doesn't have the platform to strut his stuff and play from deep, which he of course loves to do.