The Saracens chairman, Nigel Wray, used his programme notes to remind spectators the club’s home ground was only a few miles away. The leading club in England attracted a crowd 10 times larger than the one that turned up at Allianz Park last Saturday for the European Champions quarter-final against Northampton: 4,000 fewer than last year’s world record of 83,889 for a club game here but still 8,000 more than the total league attendance this campaign at the home of the champions.
While Harlequins are looking at ways of broadening their business and become self-sufficient, Saracens remain reliant on their backers – vulnerable should investment suddenly be withdrawn. They may be losing money but they are winning matches, the Premiership’s standard-bearers at their peak again after a wobble even if here they looked to have their minds on European matters after taking control of the game by half-time.
That Saracens struggle to generate a full house at their own ground could once have been explained by their unlovely style in the pursuit of victory, functional and unemotional. They have not suddenly become latter day Barbarians but their boundaries have widened and they are now as dangerous in broken play as they are executing set moves.
A play six minutes before half-time was defining. Danny Care’s kick out of his own 22 was half charged down and the ball was picked up by his opposite number, Neil de Kock, who, rather than throwing it to the nearest player in black, spotted Billy Vunipola loitering someway back and delayed his pass until the No 8 had broken into a menacing stride.
When Vunipola received the ball, there was no defender near him and he rolled towards the Quins line and, after a mustering of reinforcements threatened to block his way, he flicked a pass out of the back of his hand to De Kock. It would have been a try had there not been slightly too much pace on the ball, which hit the scrum-half’s chest rather than hands.
Saracens were by then 12-9 up: tries by Chris Ashton and George Kruis trumping three Ben Botica penalties. The lead changed hands three times in the opening 30 minutes and Quins profited from their hosts’ indiscipline, winning the penalty count 7-2 at one stage and 18-6 at the end. When it came to moving the ball and creating space, Saracens were the far more accomplished and in Alex Goode they had a master of invention.
Ashton served early notice when he escaped on the right but put his chip directly into touch. He did not have to wait long: when Saracens won a lineout on the Quins 22, they used forwards to twice suck in defenders before Charlie Hodgson and Goode combined to send away Ashton, who had moved to the left wing.
It was a simple but effective move and a symptom of the defensive lapses to come for the visitors. Quins did impose themselves up front, Botica’s first penalty to open the scoring coming after a powerful scrum earned five metres and a collapse, but they wasted a few penalties by losing the subsequent lineouts and were far from their sharpest.
They did though hang on to their opponents’ tail, taken for a ride but never shaken off. After Botica’s second penalty had restored his side’s lead, George Kruis suffered the indignity of losing a lineout after Saracens had opted to kick to touch rather than go for goal. Such was the England second-row’s ire at being beaten to the tap by Charlie Matthews, when Care received the ball near his own line, it was confiscated by Kruis who only had to fall down to score.
Back came Quins through Botica’s boot but when, two minutes before the break, the outstanding Schalk Brits caught a kick on his own 10-metre line and took out four defenders on his way to the 22 before handing Ashton his second try with an overhead pass, a “home” victory looked nailed on.
It was not. Saracens, who face Wasps in the Champions Cup semi-final on Saturday, made a number of early changes and, while they sniffed a bonus point try, rarely looked like digging it up. Quins have their own European semi-final on Friday, Grenoble in the Challenge Cup, and the second 40 minutes felt as if a non-aggression pact had been signed. There were no tries, just a late penalty from Owen Farrell and an early one from Botica whose 45-metre penalty in the final minute drifted wide and left Harlequins without a point.
“It was a patchy performance and I hope it is a kick up the backside for the Wasps game,” said Mark McCall, Saracens’ director of rugby. “We have won our four matches since getting the Six Nations players back, outstanding in the first two but less so since. This is a massive week for us and the players are already talking about the semi-final.”
