There are few sports so compelling when played like this. Quins waited to the last‑but‑one minute to overturn the deficit they had wrestled with practically all match – Tim Visser’s try denying Saracens, their most bitter rivals, at the death. Already staggering under a terrible injury list, Quins lost further key players in a match of relentless intensity, but managed to pull themselves out of a familiar rut of possession without points to score two tries in the final 10 minutes.
For Saracens the match was costly, too. Maro Itoje was taken to hospital with a facial injury that his club and country will hope does not prove structural. He collided with his international colleague Mike Brown early in the second half and left the field with blood pouring from his mouth.
This, though, was a triumph for Harlequins’ resilience, in particular for their half-backs, at either end of the experience spectrum. All three of their tries were set up by the offensive kicks that Danny Care has made his trademark, while the young man outside him, James Lang – called up at short notice – survived a torrid opening 10 minutes, including a shoulder injury, to grow into the game impressively.
“I thought he might be off,” said John Kingston, Quins’ director of rugby, of Lang’s early knock. “But for him to come through and do what he did so well was wonderful to see. It was a grandstand finish, but the team had earned the right to stay in the game.”
It looked as if this match – however brutal, however enthralling – was running down to the most predictable of outcomes. If ever there were a team for squandering oodles of possession, it’s Quins; if ever one for making the most of very little, Saracens.
And so it seemed to have played out. The visitors’ defensive system, so ferocious that they have given it a name – the wolf pack – had stood firm in the face of wave after wave of Quins attacks. Saracens, with most of their big guns in place, had sent on a further phalanx of players huge of body and experience, and they led by more than a score as the game entered the final 10 minutes. It may feel as if Saracens never lose from such a position, but the Stoop is the ground they like least, and a mischievous sort might wonder whether they have lost something of their edge. This is their third consecutive Premiership defeat, and every one has been lost from a winning position.
No less glory, though, to a ravaged Quins squad for finding the way to victory. Lang, whistled up when Marcus Smith failed to recover from a knock to the head the week before, was thrown in among those wolves, who quickly showed him they knew a thing or two about attack as well as defence. Owen Farrell sent Vincent Koch on the rampage through Lang’s inside shoulder, which took quite a blow. Thence Koch and Jamie George handled like centres to send Brad Barritt over in only the second minute. Lang was rattled. Not only did he require treatment to that shoulder, he had a drop-goal attempt charged down and sent a punt straight to touch within the next five minutes, at the end of which Farrell landed a penalty to stretch the visitors’ lead to 10 points.
Harlequins took over the ball then, their efforts building to a relentless siege around the 20-minute mark. Lang, his composure recovering, sparked it with a wicked penalty to the corner. Quins tried every which way to breach Saracens’ line – lineouts, scrums, darts, hit-ups – until Care deployed the latest of his deadly chip kicks, this one to send Charlie Walker over in the corner. But for all the possession and pressure of Quins, a half-time scoreline of 10-5 to Sarries felt ominously familiar.
Lang landed a penalty early in the second half, but two more from Farrell gave Saracens, who were starting to find a bit more possession at last, an eight-point lead, as the game entered its denouement.
Up stepped Care. A tapped penalty is one long-established trademark of his, and when he followed up the latest with another, the chip ahead, Walker won the race for Quins’ second try.
Farrell’s fourth penalty forced Quins into the hunt for another, and to the delirium of a full house it followed on cue. Lang’s penalty to the corner set up an attacking lineout, from which Care sent over another cross-kick. Alex Goode, another player of untold experience in the Saracens ranks, could not gather and Visser had a clear run all the way to the line.
“We chucked it away,” Mark McCall said. “We put a huge amount of energy and effort into the game, got ourselves into a winning position, but it was wasted effort.” Saracens, in third, now face a rut of their own, rather less familiar. Nine teams are separated by 10 points. It makes for compelling drama, indeed.
Harlequins Brown; Walker, Alofa (R Chisholm 52), Roberts, Visser; Lang, Care; Marler (Barrington 67), Elia (Ward 67), Collier (Sinckler 32), Merrick, Horwill (capt; Lamb 53), Bothma, Robshaw, Luamanu.
Tries Walker 2, Visser. Con Lang. Pen Lang.
Saracens Goode; Maitland, Bosch, Barritt (capt), Wyles; Farrell, Wigglesworth (Spencer 68); M Vunipola, George, Koch (Figallo 52), Isiekwe (Skelton 53), Kruis, Itoje (Burger 48), Clark, Wray.
Try Barritt. Con Farrell. Pens Farrell 4. Referee Luke Pearce. Attendance 14,816.
