Match winner: David Strettle scores for Saracens
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Defending Premiership champions Saracens showed their class on Tuesday with a 19-11 victory over league leaders Harlequins at a sold-out Twickenham.
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.
Comments
kybone says...
I have to agree with Rugbynut. The Sarries game plan just seems to be to make eveything as slow as possible and kick penalties. This worries me from an England point of view because quite a few of the youngsters are sarries players. as is one of the coaches. i have nothing against Saracens as a club. i just wish they'd play like they did in the Prem final more often!
Posted 11:46 29th December 2011
damo says...
The ref ruined the game, he penalised Quins for anything he could think of, I like Sarries but they didn't turn up and they were gifed the win by the ref and 1 bad pass, Saul should have been carded for the number of times he lost his footing over the ball and then held on but instead he won motm due to some idiotic refereeing. Sarries were 9 points up and hadn't managed to string 1 pass together I feel sorry for quins as they played pretty well.
Posted 10:34 29th December 2011
Rugbynut says...
davodiablo, are you just biased or maybe a Sarries fan?
Barnes had an off day, Sarries took so long at the breakdown you could have read War and Peace and not missed their moves and, mainly, Sarries lived offside! Forget all of that however because as all the papers reported, Quins played the attractive rugby, they turned up to entertain and Sarries turned up and just bored everyone. The South African contingent must be so embarassed!
I hope Saracens don't win the Premiership again, it would be a poor result for rugby in England.
Posted 22:59 28th December 2011
davodiablo says...
Just been to this game . Quins fans booed every time Saracan's slowed their own ball down at the breakdown . Perhaps your team might want to challenge at the breakdown . Do you understand the game or is it just a family outing where you boo in unison to anything.
Als got to love Danny Care throwing away any chance of his team winning, with 8 mins to go he takes a quick tap to go on one of his little selfish mememe runs when Evans would have easily put Quins 1 score from a win .
Posted 20:34 27th December 2011
gingergenius says...
said it was a big game for Saull and he was MOTM imo. Quins pack was second best; Farrell's boot did the rest. Hodgson class too.
Hopefully this might halt the "Quins are sooooo amazing" juggernaut. They're a good side, but they've had 3 real tests this season (Toulouse twice, Sarries once) and won just one of them.
Posted 19:29 27th December 2011