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As loathe as I am to relive this match, it has to be done. In their wisdom the PRl/RFU placed the local derby weekend diectly after the 6 Nations. That meant each team had to make a choice about whether they included their international players, well, England players anyway. Player welfare doesn’t seem to matter for those playing for the other countries! WIth this being the big shop window game for Saracens they were always bound to pick as many of their top level players as possible, with the only notable name missing being Ben Earl That, I believe, backfired for the ‘home team’. Harlequins were missing their talismanic Fly Half, Marcus Smith, Chandler Cunninghamd South and Fin Baxter.

I decided to trave via a different route than the last 2 years, and rhat back fired for me too! But, I had a good day, I met some lovely people and sat next to Andrew, A Bath fan, who was taking the opportunity to visit the spectacular Spurs Stadium. He like me, is a rugby enthusiast first and foremost, a good job for me on a day like yesterday!

Im only 2 minutes into the TV coverage and alreadu want to take issue. ‘The animosity is real’. Between the 2 teams apparently! There was a particular moment when a Quins player was injured for a while and the players from both teams were chatting with each other, with smiles on their faces! This is rugby, it’s rarely played with animosity!

Right, to the actual game, I don’t think I’ll be able to find stats for the number of forward passes, but a good attack was halted by one such from Saracens. Nick David had to leave the pitch after 2 minutes after a stray boot caught him in the face, Tyrone Green had 14 minutes on the pitch while David was patched up. Saracens did get on the score board early however as Theo McFarland muscled over after 4 minutes, Alex Lozowski added the extras. That opportunity came after Dombrandt passed to Ivan van Zyl who kicked ahead for Tobias Elliot, Quins were penalised and Jamie George took a quick tap, McFarland is hard to stop at the best of times, especially that close to the line. TNT went back to an accidental offside by Nick Tompkins in the build up to the try, but none of the 4 officials had spotted it, so the try stood.

Nick David returned in the 16th minute but Saracens lost Rotimi Segun 2 minutes later, a player who’s had terrible luck with injury, here’s hoping this one isn’t too serious, it was a bit mad that he played on with what looked like a Pec or Shoulder injury for 2 or 3 minutes. Another promising attack by Saracens was again halted by a forward pass. As play slowed down, Dombrandt pointed out the Tompkins offside in the build up to the try, clever by the Quins captain.

Fergus Burke put in a big kick looking for a 50/22 but the ball went off the end of the pitch, taking play back into the Saracens half. He chased the ball and wasn’t far away from touching it down, but he also took the Quins defender as he slipped, happily he was ok.

We had a fairly turgid 20 minutes of rugby, with neither team getting hold of the game, not a great advert for the newbies in the stadium. I confess to fast forwarding to Saracens 2nd try as I write. Quins had 62% of the possession in the first 36 minutes., but hadn’t managed to get on the score board. Saracens were awarded a penalty which saw Burke kick to the 5m line. The ball was passed out quickly and a beautiful flick out the back by Alex Goode to Burke saw him speed towards the corner, his pass was perfectly timed to Tobias Elliot who scored. Leigh Halfpenny had to hold as Burke progressed which meant his tackle wasn’t quite enough.

There was some excitement early in the 2nd half when Tom Willis charged down a kick from Porter, he had McFarland outside him, but passed to Jamie Benson, on for Jarrod Evans at Fly Half, the 22 year old was to make his mark as the half progressed, things really started to come alive for Quins once he was introduced.

A great pass from Maro Itoje saw Juan Martin Gonzalez storm down the pitch, he passed to Burke who had van Zyl in front of him, but the Quins defence and Will Evans in particular saved the day for Quins with some excellent defence. The excitement levels were raised in the stadium as Benson drove a Quins attack from close to their line moments later, a sign of things to come.

A big hit from Will Evans on Nick Tompkins saw play pulled back for the TMO to have a look, there seemed to be a clash of heads, but Evans had tripped as he tackled and there wasn’t deemed to be any foul play. It wasn’t great to see Tompkins reaction, the TMO pushed for head contact but the referee insisted that it be fully checked. Tompkins went off for an HIA and didn’t return. Andy Onyeama-Christie came on, and this is one of the occasions when the mix on the bench proved to be unwise for Saracens. Before his injusrry Onyeama-Christie wouldn’t have looked out of place as a Centre, but coming back from a horrific injury probably wasn’t an ideal time to be there.

Quins scored a lovely try as the hour approached, Andrew and I both felt Oscar Beard should have passed before he did, but he proved us both wrong as he stepped out of one tackle and evaded another, his pass to Ben Waghorn was perfectly timed and he ran in with clear space in front of him. Bensom added the extras. Some entertainment at last in the second half!

Lozowski had an uncharacteristic miss with a penalty kick going to the left of the posts, Saracens would not add to the 12 they scored in the 1st half.

Saracens gave away successive penalties, one on each side of the pitch and Benson kicked both over effortlessly, in spite of the 2nd being close to the halfway line, that put Quins in the lead by a single point, a 3rd penalty stretched the lead to 4. I was almost glad when Quins scored their 2nd try with 78 minutes on the clock, I’d rather my team were beaten by a team with ball in hand. Nick David who’d also shone in the 2nd half took a pass from his prop after Quins had been awarded a penalty in their own half, he popped a ball to Will Porter who ran in to score. Jamie Benson converted the try and the game was done, the final score was Saracens 12 Harlequins 23. Jamie Benson was the deserved Man of The Match, I’m looking forward to seeing how he develops!

Harlequins first away win against Saracens for 13 years, they were deserved winners, they had 65% of the possession. Saracens picked up a couple of worrying injuries in Segun, Tompkins and Brantigham, the rest of the season could be challenging, Quins moved into the Top 4 and Saracens dropped to 7th by the end of this round. Both teams will have big decisions to make on playing time for their England players over the next couple of games.