Harlequins announce ‘Big Summer Kick-off’ as second Twickenham fixture

Champions Harlequins have announced that they will play a second fixture at Twickenham Stadium this season, after the long-term success of Big Game and the fact that they have sold out every match at the Stoop during their title defence.

Quins will take on Gloucester at Twickenham on Saturday, May 21 in the penultimate round of regular Premiership season action (it is their final home game), and are calling it the Big Summer Kick-Off.

Just as Pete Tong played at this year’s Big Game, the 13th time that event has been held in the Christmas period, Quins say there will be “a major headline entertainment act” performing. Quins will also parade the 2012 title-winning Premiership team to the crowd, a decade on.

Quins CEO Laurie Dalrymple said: “We can’t wait to get back to Twickenham and play in front of our supporters and community again – it has certainly proved a happy hunting ground for us recently and the advantage we get from being roared on by a packed house of Quins supporters cannot be underestimated. In the last 10 years, we have won 8 of our 11 matches at Twickenham and lost just once.

"We have sold out every one of our home Gallagher Premiership matches this season and we wanted to give the maximum number of supporters the chance to come along to see the match. This is really important for the Club to be able to grow, and of course the additional income from the event is crucially important to the Club as we strive to achieve long term financial stability.”

The game is not currently due to be a double header with the women’s side, because they do not know if they will make the Allianz Premier 15s semi-finals. If they secure a home tie, the intention is to play the game at Twickenham.