New Harlequins documentary could be a game-changer for club rugby

For years rugby clubs barely considered their wider profile. As long as their captive audience of season ticket holders and local sponsors were happy, everything else was a bonus. Even for prestigious London sides like Harlequins it was less about the scattering of customers at their games than ensuring there was enough ice and lemon for the committee’s gins and tonics.

Sometimes we forget the huge difference professionalism has made. These days a packed house will be in full cry at the Stoop for the European last 16 second leg fixture against Montpellier, hoping to see last Sunday’s 14-point deficit thrillingly overturned. After last season’s Premiership final, when Quins were memorably crowned domestic champions, there should hopefully be a sizeable lunchtime TV audience on Channel 4 as well on Saturday.

Professional club rugby, though, remains a commercial speck on the horizon behind the Premier League, the NFL and the NBA. There is even a quantum leap to be made before it can hope to compete with the international game. Which is why Quins’ biggest promotional platform this month is arguably not the Montpellier fixture but a revealing three-part documentary series about the club made by the Bath and England prop Beno Obano’s company, Sinnybaby Media.

Prep To Win, coming soon to Amazon Prime, is an intriguing project on many levels, not least Quins’ willingness to place their trust in an active player from a rival team. Nor was the club permitted full editorial control which even Obano describes it as a major “leap of faith” by their senior management. “We spoke briefly to a lot of other people and initially I found it quite weird how many blockades there were. But Quins were just so helpful. They were like ‘Yeah,