Defending Premiership champions Saracens showed their class on Tuesday with a 19-11 victory over league leaders Harlequins at a sold-out Twickenham.
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Saracens imposed Harlequins’ first Aviva Premiership defeat of the season as they emerged triumphant in ‘Big Game 4.’
It was Sarries who started the faster and they raced into a 19-6 lead at the break through four Owen Farrell penalties and a converted David Strettle try.
But Harlequins gradually grew into the game and after Nick Evans had kicked two three-pointers, Joe Marler powered over to give them renewed hope, but Saracens held on to end Quins’ winning run.
This much anticipated encounter at the home of English rugby between the two leading Premiership sides generated a full-house of 82,000.
It was a battle between the country’s great entertainers and the more efficient ‘visitors.’ And it was Saracens who dominated the opening half.
Putting pressure on the Quins’ attack, Sarries took advantage of the hosts’ ill-discipline. After eight minutes, Farrell opened the scoring with a penalty.
Moments later, he struck again with his superbly accurate boot before adding another, as the Watford-based outfit stormed into an early nine point lead.
Harlequins got themselves on the board through an Evans’ penalty but a catastrophic pass from Marler gave Strettle a simple intercept try. Farrell converted and then added a further three-pointer with just 25 minutes played.
Quins set about getting themselves back into the game and despite having most of the territory, they were struggling to break through a solid red wall.
That was until Evans converted a penalty opportunity with the last kick of the half to leave Saracens in control at 19-6.
The hosts picked up the pace in the second half and rewarded for their pressure when Marler went from villain to hero as he touched down.
Harlequins tried in vain to get within losing bonus-point territory at the very least, but they couldn’t break an imposing Saracens’ rearguard.
The scorers:
For Harlequins:
Try: Marler
Pens: Evans 2
For Saracens:
Try: Strettle
Con: Farrell
Pens: Farrell 4
The teams:
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Seb Stegmann, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Maurie Fa’asavalu, 5 George Robson, 4 Tomas Vallejos, 3 James Johnston, 2 Chris Brooker, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Tim Fairbrother, 19 Charlie Matthews, 20 Luke Wallace, 21 Richard Bolt, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Tom Williams.
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 David Strettle, 13 Owen Farrell, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 James Short, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Ernst Joubert, 7 Andy Saull, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 George Kruis, 4 Steve Borthwick (c), 3 Carlos Nieto, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 John Smit, 18 Matt Stevens, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Jackson Wray, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Adam Powell, 23 Chris Wyles.
Feeling very sorry for myself, having contracted a rather bad bout of flu from one of our house guests, I wrapped myself up in a warm blanket and settled down to some premiership rugby from Twickenham. I wasn’t expecting too much from this match, what with them being the top two on the log, and it being a typical christmas derby. So, hot toddy in hand, and half awake, I relaxed into the sofa in front of the big screen t.v. in the lounge. I was soon awake, and on the edge of my seat – what a great game from both sides. Riveting from start to finish. The Saracans started off the stronger, and took the early lead (which they never actually relinquished), but by half time, Quins were playing much the better rugby, which continued for the rest of the match, but it really was end to end stuff. All the SA boys played their part, especially Brad Barrit, who was exceptional and went on to win the MOM. We’ve really missed a trick there, he’ll be playing for England pretty soon I fear!. Smitty came on as a replacement, and lo and behold, it was at prop – nothings changed in that department then! He had a good game though, and towards the end it was an all SA front row for the Saracans, with them pushing the Quins off the ball a couple of times.
Really enjoyed this match, hope you all got to have a squizz.
@ Just For Kicks:
I too sat rivetted.
Kids had hi-jacked the big screen with their Wii so I had to lay on the bed with the Captain in attendance.
Ernst Joubert must be getting on a bit now, but still pulls his weight on the field, Brits is still a show pony, but the Brits (pun intended) love him, and yes, didn’t JS have a strong game.
I actually enjoy watching the Aviva games. There aren’t too many walk overs.
Its good to see you writing positively about the game, I saw the score and initially thought it may not have been a good one with so few tries scored, but can you imagine that atmosphere a packed Twickenham for what was basically SA equivalent of a Currie Cup league game between the top two sides!
In today’s main game Glasgow beat Edinburgh 17 – 12 in Glasgow, was nowhere near the standard of last week’s game, which endede 23 all and 6 tries, this game only had one try but both teams had lots of 2nd choice players playing plus defences were tight and on the narrower field there did not seem much space out there, added to this cold and damp made for tough conditions, quite a few basic handling errors. But in the end its Glasgow that retain the 1872 Cup with the higher aggregate score combining last week’s game with this one, and they get 4 valuable points on the Pro12 log.
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