Harlequins have revealed their pre-season schedule as they look to gear up for the 2017/18 Aviva Premiership.
Ahead of the new season, Harlequins will travel away to Bristol Rugby and London Irish before facing Greene King IPA Championship side Jersey Reds at The Stoop.
Harlequins kick off their pre-season schedule by taking on Bristol on Saturday 5th August at Cleve RFC (kick-off 14:30). Harlequins faced Bristol on the opening day of the 2016/17 Aviva Premiership season, running out 21-19 winners before beating them 8-42 at Ashton Gate in February.
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The following weekend – on Saturday 12th August (kick-off 15:00) – sees the Londoners face recently promoted London Irish in the next instalment of the Cunningham Duncombe Series at Irish’s Hazlewood training ground.
The series is titled in memory of former London Irish fly-half Jarrod Cunningham and former Harlequins scrum-half Nick Duncombe. Irish currently hold the trophy following last pre-season’s 12-28 victory at The Stoop.
Concluding their pre-season fixture list, Harlequins will host Jersey Reds at The Stoop on Saturday 19th August (kick-off 14:00) with a fortnight to go before the start of the 2017/18 Premiership season. Harlequins will return the favour and travel to play Jersey in the 2018/19 pre-season.
Preceding the match against Jersey, Harlequins will be hosting a Members morning between 10:00 and 12:00. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet players and coaches, take a tour of The Stoop, meet and train with the newly-launched Harlequins Ladies and much more. Full details of the Members morning will be released soon on quins.co.uk.
Confirming the pre-season fixture list, Director of Rugby John Kingston said:
“Pre-season friendlies are absolutely vital for our preparation and it’s crucial we face meaningful and competitive opponents going in to the start of the 2017/18 season.
“Last season we only played two matches and on balance we thought it would be important to play three matches this year to ensure we hit the ground running ahead of the season proper.
“We’ve left a clear fortnight in between our last friendly and the start of the league season to make sure we have as clean a bill of health as possible going in to our opening match.”