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Earlier in the week, Saracens had opened their doors for a wine tasting led by Brendan Venter, their technical director a noted oenophile and all too happy to play sommelier over a selection of reds of outstanding vintage. One needn’t have the nose Venter the vintner to recognise a corked performance that followed on derby day against Harlequins, the kind to be tipped down the sink and yet still leave an acrid aftertaste.
A graphic on the wall on the way into their dressing room at the StoneX Stadium talks of finding the perfect blend, ascribing an area of rugby to the grapes that make up a brilliant Bordeaux. It will have displeased Venter and Joe Shaw, the head coach, greatly that each failed to pass muster here, with their defence and set piece (Cabernet Sauvingnon) matched in mediocrity by an attack that had nothing like the smoothness or silkiness of Merlot. “You can’t sugar-coat it,” Shaw said. “If you come and you play as individuals and you don’t play to the best of your ability, you are going to get punished. We didn’t do what we had planned to do. We just weren’t good enough today.”
For Harlequins, though, this was an afternoon to toast. It is Saracens that have of late hit out at what they feel is undue bad press but the south west Londoners have copped their fair share of flak over these last 12 months. Credit where credit is due, then: this was a real statement performance, starting with a bang and seldom letting up until a professional job was decisively done. Plenty had written obituaries after Harlequins had taken a shellacking at Gloucester in round two but Jason Gilmore’s side had been pleasingly spiky and spunky against both Bath and Sale and unfortunate not to come away with more. This, though, was something of substance to build a fuller body of evidence of hope for the season ahead.
It feels a facile point but what a difference their England stars make. Playing together for the first time, their three contracted internationals Marcus Smith, George Furbank and Fin Baxter were each prominent and potent in an intoxicating first 40 minutes, meaning the game was virtually beyond doubt by the time that Baxter – carefully managed after nearly a year out with a complex foot injury – departed at the interval.
Harlequins had begun fast in their most recent Prem outing against Sale and again registered in the third minute. Smith and Furbank, striking up a productive partnership as magician and his high-class assistant, were prominent throughout a sweeping score finished off by the former, celebrating his 200th appearance with a try. What a difference they make; so, too, Baxter, a most welcome returnee laying on the second for Seb Driscoll with two thunderous carries married to a contrastingly deft offload.
Saracens had conceded the first five penalties of the match inside 10 minutes and soon had more to worry about. Even a fine finish from Rotimi Segun in the left corner hadn’t really got them going, and Harlequins marched up the field again. Ben Earl’s hauling down of a tryline-bound maul earned he a stint a sin bin and the hosts seven more points.
That should have been cancelled out immediately. Segun, the visitors’ bright spark, trod a touchline tightrope with dancing hands and feet and set up Max Malins for a certain score. All the full-back had to do was ground the ball – he dallied and failed, with Smith hustling back to knock the ball from his grasp to rather sum up the two performances. The steak served in the Saracens dressing room as an accompaniment to the bold Bordeaux bottles was excellent; this was butchery of an all together different kind.
“They’re statements,” Harlequins head coach Gilmore said of Smith’s intervention. “Everyone knows Harlequins, when they’re at their best, can play a really free-flowing style of rugby, but we’ve got to have grit on the other side of the ball. If Smithy’s not going to die on plays, we’re in the contest. That was a really big statement in the game that he set for our boys.”
It felt a pivotal moment. Earl returned but Saracens were soon returned to 14 men, Fergus Burke with a double whammy of a yellow card and a failed head injury assessment following a clash with Rodrigo Isgro. Cadan Murley converted the player advantage in the opposite corner to secure a bonus point before half time. To Saracens’ credit, they edged the action thereafter, tries from Theo Dan and Nick Tompkins bettering a fabulous solo scamper from Will Porter. It mattered not, though, as Harlequins retained their defensive shape and strength to banish any thoughts of a proper fight-back, with young Driscoll and Lucas Schmid emergent back-row forces.
A provocative post on social media from Saracens had labelled this derby day as their hosts’ “cup final” – it will hurt Harlequins that it has, in the last few seasons at least, been partly true that they have tended to turn up for this fixture more than most. After beating Saracens last year, they were nilled at Exeter the next week. Their wretched record against their rivals has been decisively overturned but the real challenge is what comes next to build from here. Not that victory will taste any less sweet.
