Harlequins vs Saracens: Five takeaways as ‘sharp’ Marcus Smith returns and ‘wrecking ball in a tailored suit’
Harlequins vs Saracens: Five takeaways as 'sharp' Marcus Smith returns and 'wrecking ball in a tailored suit'
Harlequins fans will be celebrating this evening, as they beat their old rivals Saracens in a thrilling contest at the Stoop to mark their first victory of the season.
Here are our five takeaways:
The Top Line
Harlequins came into this match winless and written off, whilst Saracens arrived unbeaten and expected to roll through. But The Stoop had other ideas, with Player of the Match Marcus Smith returning to change everything. His kicking was clever, his tempo was sharp, and his try was pure instinct as he jinked and dummied to go over in the corner.
Guido Petti made his debut and looked like he had played here for years. He stole a lineout, drove the maul, and gave Quins a platform they had been missing. Quins led 10–7 at the break.
Shortly afterwards, Tyrone Green pounced to grab the key first score of the third quarter, before Saracens came back as Owen Farrell found Lucio Cinti with a perfect pass and Fergus Burke finished with composure.
Ben Earl scored after another Farrell bomb, timing his run and take to perfection and with Tom Willis carrying through contact and cleaning out with venom, they came back. Saracens were sharper and they were faster for that key third quarter, but they were too late and they succumbed to a late resurge from Quins.
Harlequins held firm, and it was fitting that Smith kicked the final points. The scoreboard was close, but the control was not. Harlequins were written off, but they responded with fight, flair and structure and their season starts here.
Harlequins Defence; The Winning Edge
Harlequins won this match not by overpowering Saracens in open play but by controlling every inch of the field through a combination of relentless blitz defence and a kicking game that was both varied and intelligent, recording fifty-eight kicks across the contest, each one a tactical decision rather than a hopeful clearance.
From the opening whistle, the Quins’ defensive line moved with terrifying speed and cohesion, with Evans and Kenningham leading the charge in the first half, flying off the line and compressing space so aggressively that Saracens were forced to play behind the gainline and abandon any sense of rhythm or width.
The pressure was constant and suffocating, and when Evans left the field after fifty minutes, Dombrandt stepped in and maintained the intensity, ensuring that Saracens never had clean ball or time to build phases.
Marcus Smith, meanwhile, was the architect of the territorial dominance, mixing spiral bombs with short chips, cross-field kicks and grubbers that turned Saracens around and forced them to play from deep.
Even when Saracens rallied, with Farrell’s pinpoint cross-kick to Cinti and Earl’s sharp finish, the game had already tilted. Harlequins had built a wall and kicked behind it, and Saracens spent the night trying to climb over it. The stats told the story, but the eyes confirmed it. Harlequins were faster, smarter and more ruthless, and they won this match by owning the space before Saracens could even ask the question.
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Kick Battle
This was a game built on boot and brain. As noted, fifty-eight kicks, not a stat to skim past and indeed both a central theme and a tactical war. And at the heart of it stood two playmakers with very different philosophies. Marcus Smith kicked to create. Owen Farrell kicked to control, and between them, they shaped the rhythm of the match.
Smith was unpredictable. He mixed spiral bombs with short chips, cross-field nudges with grubbers into space. He kicked early, he kicked late, he kicked from deep. He kicked from the line. His attacking bomb in the first half forced a misread from Malins, and Cunningham-South climbed above the pack to regather, setting the platform for Quins’ opening score. Smith didn’t just kick for territory, but he kicked to ask questions, using the sun brilliantly to tantalise the Sarries D.
Farrell was colder, perhaps more precise, and he kicked with intent and structure. His spiral clearance after a scrum free-kick pinned Quins inside their own 22. His box kick variations kept Murley guessing, but the moment that defined his game came from sleight of hand in his moment with Cinti. It was Farrell at his most dangerous, and he’s added another option at 12 for both club and country.
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Argentinian Pulse
There was a South American rhythm running through this London derby, which was impossible to ignore as Guido Petti Pagadizábal announced himself at Harlequins like a wrecking ball in a tailored suit.
His first lineout steal in Quins colours came early, followed by a towering carry that launched the drive for Marcus Smith’s opening try. Petti didn’t just lift Quins; he led by dark art example.
His work was pure Bordeaux, a throwback to his EPCR semi-final performance against Toulouse, where he stole four lineouts and flipped the game on its head. Petti isn’t just a lineout option – stats prove he’s the best poacher in world rugby and there’s little debate that he might just prove to be the signing of the season as he grabbed a couple more.
Not to be undone, Lucio Cinti added the chaos for Sarries. Owen Farrell’s pass to him in the build-up to Fergus Burke’s try was surgical. Flat. Fast. Filthy. Cinti hit the line like a train and offloaded under pressure. Saracens don’t do flair often, but when they do, it‘s lethal. Farrell saw it, Cinti timed it, Burke finished it
Out wide, Rodrigo Isgró defied gravity. His aerial work is elite, but someone needs to remind him that catching is still part of the job description. Twice he soared above Jack Bracken, but twice he forgot the ball. It was like watching a gymnast nail the take-off and forget the landing. Beautiful. Useless. But still worth watching.
Quins dominated possession and territory, and at the heart, Petti’s ruck involvements were off the charts. Isgró’s kick chase numbers were elite.
Three Argentinians, with three different roles. Petti the architect, Cinti the scalpel, Isgró the aerialist. All added flair, fight and a touch of chaos to a derby that needed all three and the rhythm of the match had an unmistakably Argentinian beat.
Back Row Battle
Harlequins won the game, but they had to survive a second-half storm that came roaring out of the Saracens back row.
For fifty minutes, the hosts’ trio were in control. Will Evans was magnificent as he beat Earl to the floor, turned over Farrell in the first quarter, and set the rhythm for a Quins pack that looked sharper, faster, and more connected. Jack Kenningham was relentless, hitting everything in sight, Chandler Cunningham-South added aerial dominance, with Guido Petti acting as a fourth loosie from the row.
Then, as Evans went off and Alex Dombrandt came on, the temperature changed.
Saracens re-found their edge as Ben Earl, quiet early, exploded into life. Owen Farrell spotted space behind the line and dropped a cross-kick so precise it could have been drawn with a compass as Earl timed his run perfectly, took it on the full, and finished in a moment that changed the tone. Tom Willis did Tom Willis things all afternoon with a series of 18 massive and brutal carries, and suddenly Saracens were winning collisions and, importantly, they were dictating tempo.
But Quins held firm. Dombrandt steadied the ship, Cunningham-South kept carrying and Kenningham kept hitting. Cunningham-South kept climbing. The back row battle mirrored the match itself as Quins owned the first half and Saracens owned the fightback. But in the final analysis, Harlequins owned the win.
