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Saracens dig deep to see off Harlequins and reach Twickenham final Saracens dig deep to see off Harlequins and reach Twickenham final
(about 2 hours later)
Saracens scored 20 unanswered points in the second half to set up a Premiership final with Northampton on 31 May and a potential double, with Toulon next up on Saturday in the Heineken Cup final at the Millennium Stadium. A play-off between two sides matched by intent more than playing strength never seemed to replicate the atavistic ferocity of the bout at Northampton on Friday, but the two London rivals had a go in a first half of thrills and spills, the latter taking the form of players being dumped on the ground in tackles.
Harlequins, who qualified for the play-offs on the final weekend of the regular season, led three times but had faded by the final quarter. Saracens, at the point when a repeat of their home semi-final defeat to Northampton last year was far from unlikely, took their game to a level their opponents could not match and the Premiership season will end with a tussle between the top two sides in the table. Harlequins sensed an upset after leading by six points at half-time against a side chasing the league and Heineken Cup double. They had unsettled the seemingly imperturbable, winning the breakdown, hustling Saracens into making errors in the midfield and even taking an axe to the home side's totem pole, Jacques Burger.
If it seemed futile for Saracens and Harlequins to attempt to replicate the atavistic ferocity of the previous night's semi-final at Northampton, they had a go: the first half produced two yellow cards, a rebuke for Danny Care by the referee Wayne Barnes for unsportsmanlike behaviour, a flare-up and a confrontation in the tunnel immediately after Chris Ashton had tried to put off Nick Evans as the fly-half attempted a conversion. When Burger, the man of the match in the Heineken Cup semi-final against Clermont Auvergne after making a series of thumping tackles that blew the wind out of the previous season's beaten finalists, was hit hard and fairly by the visitors' tyro prop Kyle Sinckler, it seemed as if it would be a seminal moment.
Saracens had finished the regular season 20 points ahead of Harlequins, having done a comfortable double over their London rivals, but anyone indulging a belief that it would be routine for the Heineken Cup finalists were reconsidering a few minutes in as Quins made it evident they had come prepared. Owen Farrell kicked his second penalty from the resulting ruck after Sinckler, who had conceded the first, again offended, but the prop summed up his side's defiance by going for Saracens at their strongest point. Burger shook himself down and smiled at his opponent, but the home side became disoriented: Marcelo Bosch was sent to the sin-bin for lifting Nick Evans off the ground in a tackle and dumping him – Schalk Brits had earlier not been punished for doing the same to Sinckler because the prop had jumped in the air before contact –and Matt Stevens quickly followed him for a deliberate knock-on.
Care, who received early treatment for an injury to his left ankle that required bandaging, conned Billy Vunipola, his England colleague but club rival, into throwing him a pass as the No8 charged away from a scrum. Barnes waited for a break in play before telling Care that he expected better of him. Harlequins took advantage by working a try for Ugo Monye, but at the point when they looked vulnerable, Saracens found strength and regained the lead with 13 men after boldly taking play through phases following another break by Billy Vunipola. They surrendered it on half-time when Barritt and Alistair Hargreaves messed up a move on halfway and Mike Brown chased Chris Robshaw's hack to the line.
Sportsmanship was not a concern of either side. After Mike Brown's try had put Quins in front with the last play of the first half, the fourth time the lead had changed hands, Ashton kept shouting miss it to Evans as he attempted not so much to charge down the conversion as get close to the fly-half and make sure he was within earshot. But for all their strategy and cunning, Quins could not overcome the greater strength of their opponents nor an unfamiliar surface that, in the heat of the warmest day of the year, sapped energy when they most needed it and they conceded 20 unanswered points in the second half.
Ashton received an earful from Evans's team-mates as he left the field but both teams played on the edge. After Evans had given Quins the lead with a sixth-minute penalty, Farrell kicked two from three, both for offences committed by the prop Kyle Sinckler at the breakdown. Sarries seemed to have taken a measure of control but they were struggling at the breakdown and under pressure in midfield. The referee, Wayne Barnes, was not quite as overworked as his colleague JP Doyle at Northampton, but it a few minutes into the game he found himself lecturing Danny Care about the virtues of sportsmanship. The scrum-half had ended a Saracens move by yelling for the ball as his England colleague and club rival, Billy Vunipola, made a break. Care duly found himself in possession, and if he had not broken one of the game's myriad laws, he had fractured its spirit, so Barnes decreed.
The game turned on the half-hour. Schalk Brits had escaped without punishment for a tackle on Sinckler that caused the prop to land on his head because he had not lifted his opponent off the ground but Marcelo Bosch saw yellow on 24 minutes for a tackle on Evans. Care's colleagues seemed to agree with Barnes because they surrounded Chris Ashton at half-time after the wing had attempted to put off Evans as the Harlequin ran up for the conversion of Brown's try by shouting "miss it". It showed the game had an edge, maybe not as sharp and pointed as in the first play-off, but one that ensured the gap between the teams was nowhere near as great as the 20 points that separated them in the regular season.
He had barely had time to sit down when he was joined by Matt Stevens. The prop, drifting back from an offside position near the Quins 22, tried to deflect an Evans pass behind him but succeeded only in knocking it on so extravagantly that it was deemed deliberate. Quins led 17-11 at the interval, their two tries supplemented by an Evans penalty. The normally reliable Farrell was more wayward off the tee, kicking two penalties but missing a third and failing to convert Brown's try, while Bosch was wide with a long-range penalty.
Saracens had to play with 13 men for five minutes and Quins set about stretching them immediately. Charlie Matthews wasted one overlap before Evans committed defenders and gave Ugo Monye an unopposed run-in. Both kickers missed opportunities at the start of the second period, but it was Care's missed drop-goal after 50 minutes that marked the turning point. The scrum-half has scored some opportune drop goals for England this season and attempted one from 35 metres on the left of the field. The ball appeared to be going over, but seemed to wobble at the last and hit the right post.
Saracens then showed the hallmark of champions by scoring less than a minute after the restart. Billy Vunipola launched another attack from a scrum and when Farrell switched direction, Kelly Brown had enough space to ride Matthews's tackle and score. It would have given Quins a nine-point lead and it gave Saracens the jolt they needed. The home side started to get on top in areas where they had struggled, they gained a number of penalties at the scrum and Harlequins were harried into unforced errors. A third Farrell penalty quickly followed Barritt's try and the coup de grace was applied by Brown, not Mike for once this season.
Bosch returned to the field to narrowly miss a penalty from inside his own half but, as Sarries contemplated a team talk based on how to build on their lead, another Brown, Mike, chased Chris Robshaw's kick to the line after a mix-up between Brad Barritt and Alistair Hargreaves, a late replacement for Maurice Botha who was injured in the warm-up, in midfield. Mike Brown did, though, go for an intercept on halfway that would have brought him his second try moments after Bosch's claimed try had been ruled out because the television match official decreed the centre was offside when picking up the ball following Farrell's chargedown of Care's kick.
Quins held on to their lead until 12 minutes into the second period, Farrell and Bosch wayward with penalty attempts, but the heat and the artificial surface came to tell on the 2012 champions. They conceded a soft try when Barritt wriggled out of three tackles to score under the posts and Sarries were by now on top up front, vulnerable only to long-range sniping. Brown just missed the intercept and watched his namesake Kelly catch the ball and show such a turn of speed that when he passed the ball to Ashton, all the wing had to do was catch the pass to score his 19th try of a mixed season.
Farrell found his range to put Saracens four points ahead after Luke Wallace was blown for a dangerous tackle and Quins started to fragment. Bosch was denied a try after Care's kick was charged down by Farrell because he was ruled to be a metre off-side by the video referee but Ashton made the game secure on the hour. Mike Brown, worringly for England, limped off with a hamstring twinge 12 minutes from the end, shortly before Farrell kicked another penalty to confirm that Saracens and Northampton are, by some measure, the strongest teams in the Premiership this season. The final promises to be a thunderous affair.
Mike Brown went for what would have been a try-scoring interception on halfway but the ball landed in the hands on his namesake Kelly, who set up Ashton for the wing's 19th try of the season and a nine-point lead.
Worryingly for the England head coach, Stuart Lancaster, Mike Brown left the field with a leg injury 12 minutes from time having tried to play on after treatment. Steve Borthwick followed him, substituted not to receive an ovation on his last home appearance for Saracens but because he had a shoulder injury, and Farrell kicked his fourth penalty before being replaced.