EXCLUSIVEHarlequins’ Fulham-mad prop Fin Baxter reveals his admiration for Cottagers star Joao Palhinha… as he prepares to take on Toulouse for a spot in Champions Cup final against Leinster
Fin Baxter looks down the River Thames from his flat in Teddington, pointing out the pathway that eventually leads to Craven Cottage.
When Harlequins do not have a game, the young prop digs out his Fulham season ticket, dreaming of a day when his team overtake Chelsea.
‘I go with my school friend, Harry Cain,’ he explains. ‘We meet in East Putney and catch the bus over Putney Bridge. We’re happy to be cementing ourselves in the Premier League. Mid-table Fulham is better than yo-yo Fulham. We’re going to catch Chelsea!
I love watching Joao Palhinha sprinting all over the pitch from midfield. It’s so nice to see because so much of football is the art of getting free-kicks and fouls and that can be pretty tough to watch at times.
‘But Palhinha is so physical. He gets loads of yellow cards, but mostly he does it cleanly. I can relate to that physicality.’
If last month’s Champions Cup quarter-final in Bordeaux had delivered the French thumping many expected, Baxter might well have been at Fulham’s match at Brentford yesterday.
Instead, having uprooted 23-stone prop Ben Tameifuna at the Stade Delmas, the 22-year-old Quin has travelled to the south of France to take on mighty Toulouse today.
‘Everyone was writing us off in Bordeaux and that freed us up in a way. It was, “No-one thinks we’ll do it, we’ll show them”. Now we’re going to Toulouse and it will be a massive challenge, but Quins have some of the best travelling fans and there will be so many of them in their little corner.
‘Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack — it’s going to be fierce. Hopefully I get to tackle big Emmanuel Meafou.
‘Everyone’s going to be raving about them, but for us Will Porter has had such a good year, Danny Care is Danny Care and Marcus Smith is electric.
‘We’ve got more than enough fire power to go back at them. We’ve won two from two in the knockouts. We want to win it.’
Baxter’s parents — both from backgrounds in the arts — will be in Toulouse to support him.
‘Dad’s claim to fame is that he did some special lighting effects on a Michael Jackson video. Mum’s dad is an artist and dad’s dad was an architect. My brother’s keeping it up at music school in Bristol but I’m the one that’s breaking the chain!’
