Our performance in Brive on Sunday afternoon was a long way from being one of the better team displays of the season. Defensively we were very poor, conceding five tries for the first time this season, but having carried a 33-point advantage into the second leg we were only nine points behind in injury time.

So now we face Irish province Connacht in the two legged semi-final, but before then we have five Zurich Premiership fixtures starting with Saracens this Saturday afternoon in front of a packed crowd at the Stoop.

As if Sunday's game against Brive was not hard enough, seven of the squad that had travelled to France literally leapt off one coach and onto another en route to a Second XV game against Saracens on Monday night, played at Old Albanians in St Albans. The team won 31-3 and a special thanks should go to Laurent Gomez, Matt Moore, Bill Davison, Roy Winters, Andy Dunne, Scott Bemand and Ceri Jones, all of whom were very 'tired bunnies' by the time we got back to Twickenham at around 11.30pm on Monday evening!

This Monday's Second XV game against Gloucester has been postponed as Gloucester are also due to play Saracens on the same date! We are looking to re-arrange the game for sometime in March. We will however be playing London Wasps at the Stoop on Monday 16th February, kick-off 7.30pm.

On the injury front, Ugo Monye is not fit to play this Saturday due to an ankle injury, although if fit he would have been with the England 7's squad in Wellington, New Zealand, as a member of the England Core Sevens squad. So too should have been Saracens wing Richard Haughton, but due to an injury crisis at Sarries he was withdrawn from the Wellington tournament and will be joining the England Sevens squad in Los Angeles next week.

Simon Miall is now expected to play against London Wasps in the 2nd XV game on 16th February, providing his training goes well next week. The disappointing news is that Josh Taumalolo had to withdraw from Monday's 2nd XV game against Saracens due to his back injury flaring up again. He has seen the consultant this week and will be undergoing further treatment before we see him on the pitch again.

It has been a huge week for NEC Harlequins. Qualification for the Parker Pen Challenge Cup semi-finals was followed on Monday afternoon by the announcement by Chief Executive Mark Evan of the plans for the re-development of the Stoop, and then on Tuesday evening we saw the launch of the renewal of the Debenture scheme. On top of this, of course, was the fantastic news that Will and Caro Greenwood son Archie had been born fit and well last Saturday.

This Saturday we return to Premiership action and look to further our aim of gaining Heineken Cup qualification through the Premiership. It will be a difficult game against Saracens, who although 11th in the table have some world class players in the likes of Richard Hill, Taine Randell and Cobus Visagie (if fit), but in front of a packed crowd at the Stoop, let us hope that we can achieve the result we all desire.

See you Saturday.