By Bluestreak
September 14 2014

      HARLEQUINS WRITE HEADLINES, SARACENS MAKE THEM! Saracens made it 2 games, 2 Twickenham’s and 2 wins as they brushed aside an unfocused Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop. Tries from Charlie Hodgson, Chris Ashton and Will Fraser reinforced a score sheet kept clean on the Saracens side by a determined defensive display

In selection news both teams made just the one change to their respective XV’s from Saturday’s Double Header victory based excursions, Saracens bringing in Jackson Wray for Kelly Brown at Flanker and amongst the Replacements there were 2 changes with Jim Hamilton and Tim Streather missing out. So Mouritz Botha and Chris Wyles made their first appearances in the 23 of the season.

Harlequins change saw Ugo Monye being replaced on the left wing by Ollie Lindsey-Hague. Monye was the cause of the only disturbance to the replacements too as he dropped out of the 23 altogether with Charlie Walker taking his vacated berth.

In terms of recent history between the two teams, Saracens held the advantage with Harlequins only victory over Saracens in their last eleven fixtures since 2009 was 24-19 at Wembley on 31 March 2012. Also, Saracens had won on six of their last seven visits to The Stoop.

Going into the game, Harlequins had won their last six regular season games in Aviva Premiership Rugby since Saracens beat them at Wembley in March. Secondly, Harlequins had not been defeated at the Twickenham Stoop in the competition since Saracens were the visitors in round 4 last season.

To the game itself and the opening stages were quite evenly contested with the first real spell of possession for Quins culminating in a knock on by Chris Robshaw, this first unforced error would be a theme for the evening with Quins making a series of handling errors and poor pieces of decision making that would scar their game. 

From the resulting scrum came the games next running theme, that being that Saracens had a near domination at scrum time, with Richard Barrington seemingly giving out a lesson in scrummaging to Kyle Sinckler.

 For the next 5 minutes both teams traded blows with both Ollie Lindsey-Hague and Alex Goode deciding that they would see where their respective waltzes into opposition territory could take them but a low level of clinical threat meant that each of the breaks dissipated.

 The game's first points of the night came in the 10^th minute when Quins were pinged for not rolling away, thus giving Charlie Hodgson the opportunity to start the scoreboard rolling. Hodgson scored and Saracens were 3 points to the good.

 A scrappy period followed the aftermath of the penalty with Quins knocking on after collecting their own restart. Saracens then concededed paossession from the scrum for letting the scrum turn 90°. Phases followed but possession was spurned by the hands of Jordan Turner-Hall who gifted Richard Wigglesworth an opportunity to set a base and take Saracens back over the halfway.

Things got worse for Quins in the 17^th minute when Matt Hopper had to leave the field with what looked like a dislocated finger, Charlie Walker coming on as his replacement.

 Saracens line speed and defensive physicality was considerably up on the narrow victory over Wasps of the previous Saturday, and this was noticeable in the 18^th minute when Jamie George raided a Quins controlled breakdown and emerged with the ball, the hunger was back and the Wolfpack looked keen to show it.

 Just a minute later everyone in the ground and the 150 plus watching on the big screen at Allianz Park thought they were going to see the first try of the night. Nick Evans missing touch nearly proving costly as Saracens put the ball through the hands eventually seeing Duncan Taylor running what looked unopposed towards the line, only for Mike Brown to make up the yards and dislodge the ball from the Scottish International's right arm just as a try looked inevitable, a superb piece of defensive commitment.

 Sarries, however, were not going to leave the Quins 22 empty handed as another scrum led to another penalty, leaving the Premiership's all-time leading scorer free to take himself further away from Andy Goode by way of 3 points.

 Hodgson was to move further away from Goode just 3 minutes later when the scrum pressure told on the Quins pack. After winning a scrum, Danny Care played the ball from the base out to Nick Evans who dwelt on his up and under clearance allowing Hodgson the chance to charge down the kick, the impact on Hodgson dropped the ball slightly in front of him, offering a simple pick up and run to the line; providing Sarries with try number 1 for the evening. Hodgson converted and the score moved to 0-13.

 The 29^th minute saw the score increased further when Yarde knocked on meaning Hodgson could punt deep into Quins territory. The resulting kick chase ending in Lindsey-Hague being penalised for holding on, Hodgson kicked the penalty and the lead was extending to 16 points

 Quins were largely the creators of their own demise with a succession of knock-ons losing them possession, territory and ultimately points.

They were, however, given the opportunity to work the home side of the scoreboard when they were given a more than kickable penalty after Will Fraser was deemed to have been too lethargic in his attempts to roll away at a ruck. It wasn’t to be though as Evans penalty fell a small distance wide of the uprights.

 Evans' miss took his season percentage under 50% after he left Twickenham the previous Saturday with an even share of good kicks and missed kicks off the tee.

 Just a couple of minutes later, Quins had the opportunity to get on the board again after Sarries were penalised for not rolling away at a ruck for the second time. This time, conversely, Quins opted not to go for the posts and opted to go for the corner, presumably this was as a reaction to the missing of the first penalty by Evans just a few minutes earlier.

 This started off a pattern in the game where Harlequins were to have 8 penalties and opt to kick for touch inside the Saracens 22 each time, instead of taking the potential 3 points from the tee.

 Harlequins were not successful in coming away with any points whatsoever from these situations. These also included times where Saracens were down to 14 men, but they just couldn’t get the Saracens defence breached and mistakes, on occasion, gave Saracens backs the opportunity to clear their lines and offer the forwards some respite.

 Interestingly, the one lineout Saracens had in the Quins 22 lead to a try from a rolling maul; offering stats of:

 Quins 0 from 8

Saracens 7 from 1

 Anyway, back to that later.

 The remainder of the half was spent inside the Saracens half with the Wolfpack defence being tested, however, the cobwebs of the Wasps game had well and truly been blown off by this point and the line stood resolute to anything that Quins could try and penetrate it with.

 Sarries eventually cleared their lines with David Strettle forcing Marland Yarde to run into touch. The half ended though from this lineout as Richard Wigglesworth knocked on, offering Wayne Barnes the opportunity to call for the Oranges.

 Half time: Harlequins 0 Saracens 16

 The second half began with the news that Nick Evans had picked up an injury late in the first half so he was replaced at the turn by Ben Botica.

 The first thing of note to occur in the second half was 3 minutes in when Charlie Hodgson’s remarkable evening took a slight downturn as he was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock on, having gone for a spectacular one handed intercept; only to drop the ball.

 The resulting penalty led to Quins new kicker, half time replacement Botica, lining up the posts for his first go of the evening. He too though was to not make the steadiest of starts as he saw his strike collide with the post, dropping down into the baying hands of the men in grey. Goode completing the clearance.

 For the first half of their sin bin based numerical advantage Quins played some slightly more penetrative rugby, aided by 3 penalty infringements and resulting trips to the corner. Each time they seemed in with a sniff of getting on the board, the threat was snuffed out by the sensational Will Fraser or the ever commanding centre pairing of Brad Barritt and Duncan Taylor, whose work all over the field was a true testament to the pack mentality the club has created for itself.

Quins eventually gave up their territory and conceded a penalty of their own, just in from the touchline on the right wing, equidistant between 10 and 22 lines. With Hodgson in the bin it was left to Alex Goode to send the ball through the posts. This kick was certainly from a tougher angle and distance than the kicks missed by Evans and Botica previously; this composure in turn tended further to reaffirm that Sarries were on their mettle and nothing was going to stop them on their crusade.

A minute later, and a lacklustre evening for Quins got worse as Charlie Walker had to leave the field with a leg problem and, due to the injuries sustained by Hopper and Evans earlier, the backs' section of the replacements was bare, meaning replacement flanker Jack Clifford had to take to the field as an impromptu centre for the remainder of the game.

The 50^th minute saw former Welsh international Rhys Gill replace Richard Barrington in the 1 berth and on the opposite side of the scrum Kieran Longbottom blotted his evening’s copybook with the referee as he put his hand on the floor at scrum time. Botica once again kicked for touch.

The resulting lineout was disrupted and held up, referee Barnes decreeing that the scrum be awarded to Sarries. From the scrum, Goode miskicked his touch finding attempt and we were back to square one with a Quins lineout on the 22. Before the lineout could be taken, numerical parity was restored as Hodgson returned from the bin.

From the lineout, there was another driving maul, another penalty and yeah, you got it, another Botica kick to touch, leaving just the customary 5 metres for Quins to have to negotiate to the line.

This latest lineout led to one of the evening's more controversial moments, in what was a relatively well tempered game, considering the local bragging rights at stake.

Off the lineout, some phases were played and eventually Saracens thought they had spied a route to the ball and felt they had successfully dislodged it; now, initially, it appeared that Wayne Barnes concurred with them, holding out his arms and calling play on, however, when Saracens skipper Alastair Hargreaves came around the ruck to meet the motionless ball sitting at Care’s feet, Mr Barnes took umbrage at this and promptly gave Harlequins a penalty and sent Saracens' South African leader to the sin bin saying it was only Vunipola coming through the middle who had gained sufficiently reputable access to the ball. All of this occurred after a melee had to be quietened down, caused by Care not being able to understand why he had been bereft of his ball.

So off Hargreaves trudged, still confused, even after receiving word of the official line for his crime from Alex Sanderson on the touchline and Saracens were back down to 14.

More lineouts, more penalties, and a few of these rotations later and Barritt was called to Sir’s office as referee Barnes wanted to provide him with some stern words along the lines of stop giving penalties away or I am going to take a wander under the bar.

The latest lineout bought about some phase play, until the point where Rhys Gill lined up Kyle Sinckler, the ball spilling forward in the impact of the hit, giving Wigglesworth the chance to boot the ball up field and give Saracens some much need territory.

At this point Quins had spent a staggering 50% of the second half in the Saracens 22, but were still losing the half 0-3.

With the pressure on the defence slightly lessened, Saracens found the ball in their possession more readily and a rare foray into the Quins half saw them win another penalty of their own. Hodgson, with the game's points advantage at his back, kicking the 3 and the score moved to 0-22.

Sarries nearly doubled their try count for the evening in the 62^nd minute when another charge down, by Barritt this time, had him away, but Lindsey-Hague did well to cover and roll up the industrious centre. The chasing Saracens runners were not far back, though, and with one phase played Saracens looked certain to score until Rob Buchanan, Harlequins replacement hooker, deliberately killed the ball and won himself 10 minutes in the bin 

Hodgson kicked the penalty and Harlequins looked truly defeated as the score reached an unanswered quarter century.

This was easily visible in the following few passages of play as Botica kicked the restart directly into touch, and from Sarries own restart Duncan Taylor laced through a grubber but Ashton couldn’t quite reach it before it crossed the whitewash.

Hargreaves returned from having completed his time for his supposed misdemeanour and Owen Farrell called time on Charlie Hodgson’s string pulling by replacing him from the bench.

With the break in play complete, it meant that Ashton and whitewash could be married in perfect harmony as the 69^th minute bought about Sarries second try.

It came about through Lindsey-Hague taking his eye off the ball in midfield and spilling it forward to the feet of Duncan Taylor who issued his right foot a take two and this time he made no mistake with a perfectly weighted kick aimed towards the Quins try line. It was then left to Saracens serial predator to sense a potential opportunity. Ashton took off and gave up a 15 metre advantage to Marland Yarde who thought it reasonable to chase back to the ball at a speed more akin to Thomas the Tank Engine with very little knowledge of the Japanese Bullet Train that was about to usurp him and fall on the ball over the line for their second try in as many weeks. Train analogies over, Ashton scored, Farrell converted and the score became 0-32. 

74 minutes led to the moment of irony that was previously alluded too. Saracens earned another penalty after a collapsed scrum, Farrell nudged his men to the 5 metre line and the rest as they say was just left to rolling the pack-based dice. They trundled, probed, splintered, fell and celebrated as Will Fraser capped a monumental game with a tick in the try column. A fitting end to a first full week back in competitive match day rugby, hopefully leaving the ghosts of Season 2013/14 in a closet just next to that suit he wore to his GCSE Prom.

Farrell converted and the score rose to 0-39.

The final 5 minutes saw Sarries go for the bonus point try, but no real opportunities offered themselves up, and the final play of the game fell to Brad Barritt who attempted a grubber in behind the Quins defence, but it was well read and marshalled out leaving both teams to settle with their respective lots.

Recent history suggested Sarries, and it was they who duly delivered a performance of unerring class and precision. A token nod to Quins who put 15 players on the pitch, but not 15 players who seemed to know what they should be doing, and had a real penchant for blowing potential chances before they reached a critical phase.

Saracens in fine fettle and a joy to behold.

You won’t score nothing, poor old, mighty, Quins.

Saracens Team

15. Alex Goode; 14. Chris Ashton, 13. Duncan Taylor, 12. Brad Barritt, 11. David Strettle (rep Wyles 62 mins), 10. Charlie Hodgson (Farrell 66), 9. Richard Wigglewsorth (Spencer 71),1. Richard Barrington (Gill 50), 2. Jamie George (Spurling), 3. Kieran Longbottom (Du Plessis 53), 4. George Kruis, 5. Alistair Hargreaves (c) (Botha  66), 6. Jackson Wray (Brown 50), 7. Will Fraser, 8. Billy Vunipola.

Replacements; 16. Scott Spurling, 17. Rhys Gill, 18. Petrus Du Plessis, 19. Mouritz Botha, 20. Kelly Brown, 21. Ben Spencer, 22. Owen Farrell, 23. Chris Wyles.

Harlequins Team

15. Mike Brown, 14. Marland Yarde, 13. Matt Hopper (rep Walker 17 mins-Clifford 50), 12. Jordan Turner-Hall, 11. Ollie Lindsay-Hague, 10. Nick Evans (Botica 41), 9. Danny Care. (Dickson 63), 1. Joe Marler (C) 2. Joe Gray (Buchanan 59), 3. Kyle Sinckler (Collier 59), 4. Charlie Matthews. (Merrick 61), 5. George Robson, 6. Luke Wallace, 7. Chris Robshaw, 8. Nick Easter:

Replacements; 16. Rob Buchanan, 17. Mark Lambert, 18. Will Collier, 19. George Merrick, 20. Jack Clifford, 21. Karl Dickson, 22. Ben Botica, 23. Charlie Walker:

Scores:- Tries Hodgson (25), Ashton (70), Frazer (75), Cons: Hodgson, Farrell (2), Pens: Hodgson (5) Goode

Attendance  13,102

Yellow cards Hodgson (43), Hargreaves (55) Buchanan (63).

MOM Will Fraser

Referee Wayne Barnes

TOOTHLESS QUINS BITTEN, BEATEN AND BLANKED BY THE WOLFPACK

Discussion started by TheSaracens.com , 14/09/2014 21:08

TheSaracens.com
14/09/2014 21:08

Thanks Bluestreak, an excellent and amazingly detailed debut.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014:10:02:13:25:11 by TonyTaff.

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derbyshire fan
14/09/2014 22:03

Thanks - a great report

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bluestreak
14/09/2014 22:05

On reflection I'm so sorry that it is as long as it is I got carried away. Next time give me a word deadline as 2902 is clearly too many haha

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saracens4life
14/09/2014 23:22

Great stuff & nicely written - thanks

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WheresMeLunch
14/09/2014 23:30

A great first report on a very enjoyable game. Well worth the dash to the Stoop to witness.Would not have missed Friday night for anything.

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Convex Hull
15/09/2014 08:24

Thank you, that must have taken quite a fair chunk of your weekend.

Regardez mon visage. Suis-je bovvered?

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TonyTaff
15/09/2014 08:46

I'm thinking of entering it for the Pullitzer Prize

It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!

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JO'G
15/09/2014 09:01

Brad was right in front of me as he tried his last minute toepoke. I think he tried to kick the ball sideways towards Wyles on the wing, but it went straight on.

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The Bard
15/09/2014 09:38

Very thorough report, well done!
It struck me at the time that Linsay-Hague was very lucky not to see yellow for holding on, but seeing the highlights last night it is quite unbelievable!
How on earth can you get away with that 5m from your line with 4 attackers and a couple of defenders?
Contrast that to the Charlie knock-on when the ball was 30m out and plenty of defenders in place..

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stevieR
15/09/2014 14:40

I watched the replay on BT Sport this morning - it was a full 10 seconds that L-H was hanging onto the ball for....!

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davidthesarrie
19/09/2014 13:21

Great report of a great game.

Well done! and thank you!

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