Only three years ago, Harlequins — one of the founding clubs of the RFU — were slogging up and down the foothills of the professional game, relegated to National League One. Seven years ago they were lucky to attract more than 3,000 to the Stoop Memorial Ground.

Now they are contemplating life as European contenders and the possibility of attracting 50,000 over Christmas to their ancestral home at Twickenham.

It is not so much a sea change as a tsunami for an organisation perennially (and not always accurately) perceived as a “toffs” club. And, much to their glee, they now find themselves not only in a healthy commercial position with a hard core of more than 6,000 season ticket-holders on board, they are the capital’s only Guinness Premiership club after the departure of London Wasps to High Wycombe, London Irish to Reading and Saracens to Watford.

Hence their venture on December 27, of taking their Premiership game with Leicester across the road to Twickenham, where they played club games regularly from 1910 to 1991. They see the opportunity of replicating what Stade Français, under the flamboyant presidency of Max Guazzini, have done in Paris over the past three years: select Top 14 opponents — Toulouse, Biarritz and Clermont Auvergne — have been met not at the homely Stade Jean Bouin but at the 80,000-capacity Stade de France to the north of the city, selling cut-price tickets and attracting a new audience for rugby.

“For the game in general and Harlequins in particular, it shows how far we have come,” Mark Evans, the chief executive, said. “The pricing of tickets \ will be fantastic value for money for the family. It will also be great experience for our young players — three weeks before, we’re playing Stade Français \ at the Stade de France and we’re delighted they have chosen us as one of the four games they’re taking there this season.

“This is something we’ve had our eye on for a number of years. We’ve looked at the Stade Français experiment and there’s a lot of similarities. We thought that, at Christmas against quality opposition, we could have a real good go at taking club rugby to another level.” Hence the arrival of what the marketing men, not necessarily at the height of their powers, have labelled “The Big Game”.

Evans emphasised that many conditions have been taken into account before this leap of faith. He believes that the introduction of professionalism in 1995 left clubs in the South East and the North at a disadvantage compared with their regional peers in the Midlands and the West Country. “We were fortunate in that we owned the land \ whereas some of our competitors have been forced to go to football stadia and move out of the city,” he said.

“If we can continue to grow without huge negatives on the profit and loss account, we will be in a strong position and the opportunity to create a London ‘event’ at Christmas has interested us for some time. We had to reach a certain point in our development before we took on that risk but we have a lot of support from our commercial partners and, if we market it well, we think we can reach 50,000.”

Nor are Harlequins relying on Leicester’s faithful travelling in huge numbers to a stadium where their club’s success has meant regular visits over the past decade and more. Harlequins hope that if they reach their ceiling for the game, 47,000 or so will be drawn from their catchment area of London and the South East. “It’s not a gimme, there are significant differences between the Parisian sporting landscape and London’s,” Evans said.

“Nor will we make money on the game since both revenue and costs will work out around £500,000. But I think over the next ten years, certain clubs will find it hard to maintain their growth, certain others will be OK and that will be down to geography, ownership and scale. If we make this work and continue similar fixtures in years to come, then in years three, four, five, say, there will be financial benefits.”

Not that Harlequins want to move too many games from the Stoop. They have already elected to be always considered the away side in the London double-header at Twickenham, which opens the season, so that their supporters lose nothing on their season tickets; year on year their own ground is growing, with a 17,000 capacity within reach over the next five years, and best of all they have a young, talented and predominantly England-qualified team on the pitch to keep the fans rolling in.

Club information: Director of rugby: Dean Richards Captain: Will Skinner Website: www.quins.co.uk Address: Twickenham Stoop Stadium, Langhorn Drive, Middlesex TW2 7SX Telephone: 0208 410 6000 Tickets: 0871 527 1315

Squad:

English unless stated

Internationals IN CAPITALS

Forwards -

GARY BOTHA (SA, 12 caps); Chris Brooker; John Brooks; Aston Croall; Phil Davis; NICK EASTER (16); Jim Evans; Dan Frazier; TANI FUGA (Samoa, 10); Tom Guest; James Inglis; CERI JONES (Wales, 2); Ollie Kohn; Mark Lambert; Joe Marler; Neil McMillan (Ire); Shane O’Connor (Ire); James Percival; Mickey Pointing; Chris Robshaw; George Robson; Alex Rogers; Mike Ross (Ire); Tom Sargeant; Will Skinner; EPI TAIONE (Tonga, 21); Chris York.

Backs -

Charlie Amesbury; DE WET BARRY (SA, 39 caps); MIKE BROWN (3); DANNY CARE (2); NICK EVANS (NZ, 16); ANDY GOMARSALL (35); Seb Jewell; George Lowe; WAISEA LUVENIYALI (Fiji, 5); Chris Malone (Aus); Tosh Masson; Ugo Monye; Sam Smith; STEVE SO’OIALO (Samoa, 40); Seb Stegmann; DAVID STRETTLE (6); GONZALO TIESI (Arg, 16); Jordan Turner-Hall; Gareth Williams (Wales); Tom Williams.

Fixtures:

Sept 6 Saracens (A, Twickenham)

Sept 13 Bristol (H)

Sept 20 Gloucester (A)

Sept 27 London Irish (H)

Oct 2 Worcester Warriors (A)

Oct 5 Ospreys (A)

Oct 11 Llanelli Scarlets (A)

Oct 18 Ulster (H)

Oct 25 London Irish (H)

Nov 1 Worcester Warriors (A)

Nov 16 London Wasps (H)

Nov 22 Leicester (A)

Nov 30 Bath (H)

Dec 6 Stade Français (A)

Dec 13 Stade Français (H)

Dec 20 Northampton (A)

Dec 27 Leicester (H, Twickenham)

Jan 4 London Wasps (A)

Jan 10 Worcester Warriors (H)

Jan 16/17/18 Ulster (A)

Jan 23/24/25 Llanelli Scarlets (H)

Feb 14 London Irish (A)

Feb 21 Gloucester (H)

March 1 Bristol (A)

March 7 Saracens (H)

March 15 Newcastle Falcons (A)

March 22 Sale Sharks (H)

March 28 Northampton (H)

April 4 Bath (A)

April 17 Sale Sharks (A)

April 25 Newcastle Falcons (H)