Guinness Premiership: Sunday's reaction

Dean Richards insisted young scrum-half Danny Care compares favourably with England's finest after Harlequins won 15-6 at Saracens on Sunday.

Dean Richards insisted young scrum-half Danny Care compares favourably with England's finest after Harlequins won 15-6 at Saracens on Sunday.

Care has replaced axed England scrum-half Andy Gomarsall in the Harlequins side and will be hard to dislodge according to Richards.

Gomarsall was dropped by England coach Brian Ashton who gave a first start to Sale scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth in the Six Nations win over France on Saturday.

Richards is adamant that Care has the quality to compete with either.

“The boys with England have got nothing more than Danny has got – he is getting better and better,” said the Harlequins director of rugby.

“He played extremely well and offers us a huge amount.”

Not that Richards agrees with Ashton that Gomarsall has “lost spark”.

“I don't think he has,” said Richards.

“In training this week I saw a guy who is as motivated as ever. It's been difficult for him, but we picked the side for this match before we knew that Andy would not be with England.

“Competition is a great thing and I have a huge amount of confidence in our youngsters. I'm really pleased with that win – and it was not just about Danny. We showed that if you defend well you can get a buzz out of it and some of our play in the first half was fantastic.”

Saracens director of rugby Alan Gaffney, having also watched a defeat at Newcastle last week, was left seriously unhappy with a second defeat.

“I'm probably as disillusioned as I've been since I joined the club – I can't think of any poorer performances than that,” he said.

“I'm extremely disappointed. We had opportunities, but I'm sick of saying 'opportunities' – I say it every week and I'm getting bored. Either our skill level is not good enough or we don't have the right people playing.”

Saracens were without centres Andy Farrell and Kevin Sorrell, though, and in the warm-up before the match goal-kicking stand-off Glen Jackson pulled up injured.

Jackson's replacement Gordon Ross scored their only points through two penalties.

“In the last month the tries have dried up and we need to understand why it's happening,” Gaffney added.

Olly Barkley caused a stir this week when he announced he will quit Bath to join Gloucester but the 26-year-old fly-half's commitment could not be questioned as he landed two penalties and four conversions in a 34-15 win over Leeds at Headingley.

“I was asked on Friday whether or not Olly might be thinking of other things,” said Bath head coach Steve Meehan.

“But he illustrated his ambition for the club for the remainder of the season and his professionalism was there for all to see.

“He could still feature for England this season and if there were any doubts about Olly then he answered them today.

“I was surprised he made the decision to leave. I don't think his decision can be based on anything that has happened this season. This is the best season Bath have had for some time.”