Harlequins clinched their first win against their London rivals Saracens since January 2020 thanks to a gutsy show of defensive defiance and tries from Fin Baxter and Lennox Anyanwu. They inflicted a first defeat of the season on Saracens – who were decided off colour – in the process and rounded off the Premiership’s derby weekend in thunderous style.
Saracens were left to count the cost of a trying afternoon in which they also lost Andy Onyeama-Christie to an awful ankle injury. They had plenty of the ball and more than enough possession but could not make it count in the face of fearsome pressure from Harlequins.
A scoreless opening quarter was notable only for Onyeama-Christie’s horrific-looking ankle injury. The Scotland flanker, who has enjoyed a fine start to the season after overcoming two broken arms in recent years, carried hard close to the Harlequins line but went down in a heap after he was tackled. The reactions of teammate Marco Riccioni and opponent Stephan Lewies – both of whom were visibly shaken – said everything about the severity of the injury.
There ensued a scrappy period, both sides guilty of kicking away possession, or knocking the ball on when they tried to keep it in hand. Harlequins lost James Chisholm to the sin-bin when he cynically played the ball on the floor as Saracens threatened but the hosts held firm while down to 14 in a demonstration of their defensive resistance. Their inside centre Anyanwu caught the eye in that respect, with the ball in hand too, carrying hard and determined to make himself a mainstay of this side now that André Esterhuizen has left.
With 25 minutes on the clock Harlequins were awarded a penalty that was within Marcus Smith’s range. Given how scrappy things had been hitherto, you suspected he would take aim at the posts but that isn’t the Harlequins way and to the corner they went. The maul didn’t get very far but after a number of forwards bashed away at the Saracens line, Baxter was over for the opening score.
Compounding matters for Saracens they lost another back-row, Juan Martín González, to an arm injury before the half was up. That meant the introduction of the bench of Hugh Tizard, a former Harlequins second row and academy graduate. There was not much sign of an “away end” forming at the Stoop but in a nod to the bad blood that does exist between these two sides, there was a smattering of some of the more polite booing you are ever likely to hear from some Harlequins supporters.
The ultras of suburbia had their say, too, when Tizard reached out and forced the ball on to the line for Saracens’ first points of the match, nearly 10 minutes into the second half before Alex Lozowski’s conversion levelled the scores at 7-7. It came as little surprise considering Saracens’ dominance in terms of territory and possession but soon enough they found themselves behind again after a moment of magic from Smith. He jinked his way through the Saracens defence near halfway and if he could not quite wriggle free he had the wherewithal to find Will Porter, who fizzed a pass wide for Anyanwu to score in the right corner.
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A missed Lozowski penalty with 15 minutes to go suggested Saracens were both running out of ideas and still unable to find the accuracy that had served them so well so far this season and with nine minutes to go Smith decided it was time to go for the posts when Harlequins earned themselves a penalty on the visitors’ 22. A more straightforward effort for Lozowski brought the draw into the equation but ultimately Saracens had to settle for the losing bonus point.
