<1R>The day offered the final opportunity to meet and mingle with the England squad, including Quins players Andy Gomarsall and Nick Easter before they fly out to France today to begin their World Cup campaign, as well as the chance to take part in fun training exercises and meet players from London's four Guinness Premiership rugby clubs.
The O2 Scrum in the Park also gave the brave and the bold the chance to get physical themselves. The RFU Go Play Rugby zone gave eager props and flankers the opportunity to test their skills on the inflatable bungee runs and scrum machines. Kicking, passing, running and tackling were all tested by the England Rugby team as they put novice players through their paces in the O2 Kick Pass Run Challenge. Harlequins were on hand to support the event with Quins Community Development Officer Ben Thurlow leading a team of four Quins coaches in coaching and training exercises for children throughout the afternoon.
In addition to this, Quins players David Strettle and Alex Rogers made an appearance at the event, signing autographs and posing for photographs with fans at the Harlequins stand within the Guinness Premiership Village. Community Development Manager, Richard Varney said: "The whole day was a fantastic success and we were inundated with families interested in finding out more about our matchday programme."
<2>"The Harlequins coaches put in a lot of hard work entertaining and training the kids all day and David Strettle and Alex Rogers proved to be extremely popular with people queuing up for an over an hour to meet them! The competition we ran to win Quins home and away replica shirts signed by the Quins squad went down very well too and we had over 1,000 entrants keen to get their hands on the most famous club rugby shirt in the world, signed by the Quins squad."
"With rugby receiving a lot of attention right now with the World Cup starting this week, it was also a great opportunity to promote Harlequins itself with the season kicking-off in a fortnight's time. Season ticket and Mighty Quins brochures were handed out in abundance and we definitely raised the profile of the club within our key support base to people who are genuinely interested in rugby."
Harlequins Signed Shirt Winners:
Winner of 2007/08 home replica signed shirt - Jo Mattick
Winner of 2007/08 away replica signed shirt - Susan Hopkins
Runner-up (winning a Quins pennant signed by the Quins squad) - George Pratt
