Peter Jackson looks at how attendances have changed in the last 20 years and sees good news in the capital cities

Fan favourite: Marcus Smith on the attack for Harlequins against Gloucester during Big Game 15 at Twickenham
PICTURE: Alamy

Twenty years ago, at the end of a season when England won the World Cup, attendances for the four capital city teams required surprisingly little counting.
Harlequins averaged fewer than 7,000 which made them the tenth best supported club in the 12-strong English Premiership, above only Leeds and Rotherham. Afortune teller predicting that one day London’...