After the pyrotechnics in Coventry, here was a curious quarter-final, notable for the relentlessness of a champion team whose form had deserted them. Saracens left it until the 68th minute to overhaul Northampton, when a former Saints old boy, Chris Ashton, swooped to score their first try of the match. Their second, by Chris Wyles, followed a few minutes later.
Good teams win when they are playing badly, so they say; the really good ones do so comfortably. In the end, this was comfortable. Northampton’s second try, scored by Courtney Lawes at the death, took an edge off the final margin of victory.
Nevertheless it lent the scoreline a more appropriate feel. Certainly Saracens were grateful to be only four points adrift at the break. Had Northampton made more of their first-half dominance, we might be lauding not only a major upset but the performance of a makeshift back row that outplayed their more illustrious opponents.
As it was, the suggestion afterwards was that Teimana Harrison, Northampton’s No8 for the day, may be a contender for the Saxons tour to South Africa this summer. His director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, scoffed. “The [England] tour to Australia, I’d say. He was outstanding for us today but he’s been improving over the last few years. I think we’ve seen a level of consistent performance from him this year that suggests he can go on and play at a higher level.”
Billy Vunipola would have to concede he encountered a worthy opponent. The big man grew into the game, doing as much as anyone in the second half to shift the inconvenient Northampton bodies standing between Saracens and their ongoing quest to win this thing. But in the first he was left clutching the air in Harrison’s wake, never more so than when the Northampton man streaked clear to send Ken Pisi over for the game’s first try.
“He plays well for us at No8,” said Mallinder, “but I think at international level No7 would be his position. He’s not particularly big for a No8 but he plays above his weight. I think some of his carrying was absolutely immense. With him and Ben Nutley swarming everywhere looking for turnovers, that was a massive positive for us today.”
As disjointed as Saracens were for the best part of an hour, there were patches of reliability throughout the team, which knitted themselves together the more the game went on. Owen Farrell and Alex Goode were as cool and deadly as ever; Maro Itoje won man of the match for an athletic performance at the lineout and round the fringes; and their scrum was always dominant, but particularly so in the final quarter.
There is something ominously icy about Saracens. Whereas the week before, we saw Leicester confess to whipping themselves into a fury at half-time to turn round a game slipping away from them, here Saracens calmly reached for the intensity dial on their blow torch. “We don’t rely on players butting heads to get us up,” said Brad Barritt, their captain. “We have a lot of pride in this team and the culture we’ve created, so there was no need for added motivation.”
They will need a very different display to overcome Wasps in the semi-final, but in a strange way this victory over Northampton and their own incoherence was as impressive a performance as any Saracens have produced this season.
Saracens Goode; Ashton, Taylor, Barritt (capt; Ransom, 78), Wyles; Farrell, Wigglesworth (De Kock, h-t); M Vunipola (Barrington, 78), Brits (Saunders, 78), Du Plessis (Lamositele, 78), Itoje, Kruis, Wray (Rhodes, 53), Fraser (Hargreaves, 78), B Vunipola
Yellow card Fraser 11.
Tries Ashton, Wyles. Cons Farrell 2. Pens Farrell 5.
Northampton Foden (capt; Mallinder, 48); K Pisi, G Pisi (Hanrahan, 71), Burrell, Elliott; Myler, Fotuali’i (Kessell, 71); A Waller (Ma’afu, 63), Haywood, Hill (Denman, 71), Craig (Paterson, 76), Day (Matfield, 62), Lawes, Nutley, Harrison.
Tries K Pisi, Lawes. Cons Myler 2. Pens Myler 2.
Referee Jérôme Garcès (Fr). Attendance 8,050.
