Harlequins 13-16 Saracens
Harlequins won a monumental victory in Limerick last weekend but stopping Saracens is harder than halting Munster at the moment. Hertfordshire's finest are finishing the season like a runaway train. This was their 11th victory in succession.
Saracens may not be pretty to look at, but they are brutally effective, personified by the Namibian flanker Jacques Burger. With his straggly hair Burger looks like a heavy-metal guitarist. He is a heavy-duty tackler, too, and he and his forward colleagues squeezed the life out of the game.
Outside The Stoop there was traffic chaos before the game, some bright spark having decided that it was OK to host this game at the same time as the Army v Navy game across the road at Twickenham. There was a snarl-up on the pitch, too, with few try-scoring opportunities. The one that mattered came 10 minutes after the interval. Quins lost their own scrum in their 22 and Neil de Kock fed his fly-half, Owen Farrell, who battered his way over.
With Nick Evans injured, Farrell's duel with the young Quins stand-off Rory Clegg was always going to be an interesting sub-plot to the match. But being named Clegg was probably a bit of a burden recently and it was the 19-year-old Saracen who had the better of the battle of the young English No10s, converting his try and stretching Saracens' lead with a penalty.
Mark McCall, the Saracens head coach, said: "It's hard to remember sometimes that Owen is only a year out of school. What he does for us week in, week out is amazing. He's such a calm influence on the pitch."
Clegg kicked a couple of first-half penalties when Harlequins looked the better side but failed to translate their territorial dominance into points and by the time they scored a try from a breakaway by Chris Robshaw two minutes from time it was too late to stop that runaway try. With Stade Fran�ais to play in the Challenge Cup final on 20 May, there was concern over Ugo Monye leaving the pitch near the end with a thumb injury.
Harlequins: Brown; Camacho, Lowe, Turner-Hall, Monye (Chisholm, 78); Clegg (Urdapilleta, 70), Care; Jones (Lambert, 70), Cairns (Buchanan, 70), Johnston (Andress, 58), Kohn (Browne, 61), Robson, Fa'asavalu, Robshaw (capt), Easter.
Try: Robshaw. Con: Urdapilleta. Pens: Clegg 2.
Saracens: Goode; Strettle, Wyles (Mordt, 63), Barritt, Short; Farrell (Cato, 74), De Kock (Wigglesworth, 52); Stevens (Gill, 45), Brits (George, 66), Nieto (Du Plessis, 61), Smith (Borthwick, 45), Botha, Burger, Saull (Melck, 60), Joubert (capt).
Try: Farrell. Con: Farrell. Pens: Goode 2, Farrell.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/07/harlequins-saracens-premiership
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