Playing at Wembley does not weigh heavily on Saracens who, in front of a record crowd for a club match, moved to second in the table with a bonus-point victory over the club they defeated in last season’s Premiership semi-final. Harlequins will not be among this season’s top four and the 2012 champions have it all to do to qualify for the Champions Cup.
Saracens, who played in two finals last season but won nothing, look to have timed their run this season. The squeeze in the top half of the table, below the leaders Northampton at least, is so tight that the battle to secure second place and home advantage in the play-offs is likely to go down to the final weekend of the regular season, when Sarries will have the likes of Schalk Brits, Owen Farrell and Brad Barritt back on the field.
There was an intent from both sides to play with width from the outset, which was a more questionable tactic against Saracens, whose defensive line was straight and firm, than Harlequins, who all too quickly lost their shape. Quins had only beaten their London rivals once in the previous 12 Premiership meetings, here three years ago, and lost the first match between the sides in September 39-0. Although they scored 25 seconds into this match, they were slower in thought and deed throughout.
If hopes of three successive top-four finishes have not mathematically ended for Harlequins, their thoughts can turn to next season and the fortifying of a squad that has been light on experience. James Horwill and Adam Jones are on their way to the Stoop and talks have been held with Jamie Roberts, but their director of rugby, Conor O’Shea, will be loath to dilute the dynamic style of play that has defined them in recent seasons; one side for whom risk is not taboo.
It was not style that did for them against Saracens, a side looking polished and energised as the season enters its final two months, but errors, forced by an aggressive defence or the outcome of players not quite in tune with each other. They also struggled to cope with Sarries’ moves from set-pieces, the line-out especially, David Strettle and Chris Ashton coming off their wings into midfield and finding large holes.
The start was as good as it got for Quins. Strettle secured the ball on his own 22 and when Neil de Kock kicked towards halfway, no forward was guarding the side and Jack Clifford was able to climb high, charge down the ball and pick it up to score. The next time De Kock found himself in that position after a restart, George Kruis ensured that Clifford, who left the field in the second half after dazing himself in a tackle only to return after assessment, got nowhere near the scrum-half.
Saracens were ahead within 10 minutes after Marland Yarde’s knock-on ended one of Quins’ best moves. Ugo Monye’s poorly directed kick gave Marcelo Bosch the time to counterattack with pace and when Ashton appeared in support on the left, Chris Wyles looped outside him to score under the posts. Strettle ran the ball back from his own line after a turnover, tacklers scattering as if hearing the sound of gunfire, and his chip for Ashton was gathered by Monye who tried to run his way out of trouble and succeeded so well in finding it that he was sent to the sin-bin for holding on near his own line.
Ashton was menacing throughout, although he missed the final nine minutes after receiving a yellow card for a tackle on Matt Hopper that saw the centre break his fall with his right arm. He used Monye’s absence to score his side’s second try, chipping down the Quins’ left where the full-back Ross Chisholm had taken occupancy; Chisholm is no slouch but he had only just got into his stride when Ashton scored.
Saracens effectively won the game in the second quarter, playing with a pace and precision Quins could not match. There was a spell when the game resembled the final round of the Six Nations, hands trusted rather than feet. It should have suited Harlequins, but for all the prompting of Danny Care, who spoiled his best break of the match by running into Alex Goode after kicking ahead and claiming a penalty, there was nothing synchronised about their play.
Ashton’s second try after 50 minutes, which followed Wyles’s break from a lineout, should have been the cue for Saracens to claim the bonus point but they had been stuck on three in seven previous league matches this season and they became bogged down at the period in the game when mass replacements were made.
Quins were forced to take off their prop Kyle Sinckler who suffered knee damage after a tackle by Jacques Burger they were unhappy with but which the referee, Wayne Barnes, decided not to punish after looking at a replay of the incident on the big screen. Ashton was sanctioned with a yellow card after tackling Hopper and taking him to the ground, although it was not head- or shoulder-first.
The score was then 28-14 with Nick Evans kicking two second-half penalties and Quins, whose ambitions for the season have been reduced to finishing in the top six and securing a place in the Champions Cup, scented a bonus point. Instead, they watched Strettle hack on Richard Wigglesworth’s box kick for Wyles to pick up and score before Billy Vunipola was at the heart of a driving maul that rolled its way to the line in the final rumble of the afternoon.
