Can-can can’t crack Quins' serious side

The match-day coach trip transported the players straight into the stadium - via an underground entrance - and a short walk later they were in their dressing room where the kit men had draped club flags over the walls. The Stade team area, meanwhile, was covered in advertising logos to maximise the exposure a static camera screwed into the wall in one corner provides a club that thrives on publicity.

If the players are not posing, mostly naked, for a calendar that is a massive hit with the French gay community, they are belting hell out of the opposition while wearing a jersey that is homage to bad taste.

Dean Richards, the Quins director rugby, and his management team, had tried to prepare their players for Mad Max's latest rugby extravaganza and ensuring the dressing room looked "normal" was crucial.

But when the players eventually headed onto the pitch for their warm up, the presence of Can Can dancers could not be totally ignored. "I suppose I did have a look over;" admitted England scrum-half Danny Care.

As Richards headed back down the tunnel to deliver his final team talk, he had to side-step a wild- eyed, white faced mad man carrying a stick with a skull on top. Richards got his wish and soon the mad man was being burnt at the stake as the PA system belted out "Highway to Hell".

The Quins players were largely unaffected by a show that was aimed at the 77,000 crowd - featuring around 1500 delirious Quins fans - who put around £1.3million into the Stade coffers. The next circus will be put on for the home game with Perpignan. The theme is Roman and don't rule out a full blown pre-match orgy, if Max gets his way.

The Quins party, including owner Charles Gillings and chief executive Evans were hosted in Max's Presidential suite, decked out in shocking pink. Even the fluorescent lights in the room were pink.

On the pitch, the Stade players were not so startling and with tries from young stars Tom Williams and Jordan Turner-Hall plus Nick Evans' kicking allied to a magnificent defensive action in which Nick Easter and Ugo Monye made try saving tackles, Quins claimed the victory. They even dealt well with the loss - for ten minutes - of the yellow-carded Care, who confirmed his status as England's premier No9.

Care's loose lips did see a last-minute penalty reversed in Stade's favour, but Quins held them out.

"He would have been kicked all over Paris if they had scored," was the Richards verdict on Care.

The Quins boss hailed the win as a defining moment in the development of a young team and added: "The boys stood their ground and didn't give an inch. We will have to do exactly the same next week."

The police came to Quins support after the game, with an escort of outriders that propelled the team coach containing the players, and a mountain of sandwiches and cans of the tournament sponsor's brew to Gare de Nord, getting everyone on board the 20.30 with three minutes to spare.

It was spectacularly Parisian way to end a day that finally convinced the doubters Richards has assembled a squad of players capable of standing toe-to-toe with Europe's best.

Now comes the really difficult bit - fronting up a week later on home soil against a Stade team that let Mad Max down. Given the vicious look he gave one French reporter who dared to suggest the day had not been a success, the Stade owner is not a man to annoy.