Harlequins vs Saracens match report: Quins end 12-match unbeaten run

The baker’s dozen did for Saracens. After an unbeaten run of 12 games this season, the 13th, an epic in mud and rain, saw the champions reduced to 14 men for the final 15 minutes and some possible preconceptions about England selection overturned.

Rhys Gill, the Wales prop, was sent off for a dangerous tackle on George Lowe but even then victory for Saracens could not be ruled out. With three minutes remaining, they were attacking deep in the home 22 only for a stray boot to loosen the ball. Jack Clifford made 65 metres and suddenly Harlequins had a penalty, a close-range line-out and a clinching try for James Horwill.

Since Horwill had spent 10 of the first 12 minutes of the game in the sin-bin, it represented a complete volte-face. The Australian received a yellow card for the swinging-arm tackle which terminated George Kruis’s involvement after only two minutes. The player, who has been arguably the form lock in England, was carried off after a seven-minute delay suffering from concussion. He will now undergo the normal protocols which could impinge on his Six Nations involvement.

“George is fine, there’s nothing wrong other than the concussion for which he will do the usual,” Mark McCall, Saracens’ director of rugby, said. Nor did McCall have any complaints about the loss of his side’s unbeaten record – which can become a millstone – or the dismissal of Gill that proved the turning point in a tremendous seesaw struggle.

“We gave away an unbelievably soft try, but in general I don’t think we deserved to win,” McCall said. “Our discipline wasn’t good enough on the day, all the fifty-fifty battles we’re good at, we weren’t.”

This, too, after forcing a penalty count of 9-0 in the first quarter in the absence of Horwill, during which the Harlequins pack was shot backwards over its own line for Neil de Kock to score a simple try.

But Harlequins, playing in front of the watching England assistant coach Steve Borthwick, rode the storm. Their speed into the tackle disrupted Saracens’ rhythm and they caught the visitors napping at a line-out 20 metres out: the gap in the middle was telegraphed but Charlie Matthews made the catch, Danny Care nipped through the space and Rob Buchanan scored the try.

The work of Matthews and Luke Wallace suggested that some of the plaudits extended to Maro Itoje and Will Fraser this season should have been aimed elsewhere. Still, Billy Vunipola extended the Saracens lead with a try from a scrum before another ambitious youngster made his mark. Clifford was still recovering from a mighty hit by Vunipola when he was required to finish a wonderful flowing movement which featured Marland Yarde heavily.

Three penalties by Owen Farrell restored the advantage to Saracens but the departure of a limping Nick Evans did not affect Harlequins. Ben Botica replaced his fellow New Zealander and played with admirable aplomb, knocking over three penalties and scorching past Farrell to expose the England player’s occasional impetuosity in defence.

Gill departed but Saracens worked their way into a position where either Farrell or Charlie Hodgson could pop over a winning drop goal. But they left it too long, Chris Robshaw put boot to ball and Harlequins, despite being shorn of four injured props and the veteran Nick Easter, who is contending with family illness concerns, found themselves in control of the ball, and the match.

Harlequins: M Brown; M Yarde, G Lowe, J Roberts, R Chisholm; N Evans (B Botica, 53), D Care (capt); J Marler, R Buchanan (D Ward, 62), A Jones, J Horwill (sin-bin, 2-12), C Matthews, C Robshaw, L Wallace, J Clifford (D Ward, 40-41).

Saracens: A Goode; C Ashton, M Bosch (C Hodgson, 75), D Taylor, M Ellery (N Tompkins, 27); O Farrell, N de Kock (R Wigglesworth, 51); M Vunipola (R Gill, 62; red card, 65), J George (capt), P Du Plessis (T Lamositele, 75), J Hamilton, G Kruis (M Itoje, 2), J Wray, W Fraser (J Burger, 54), B Vunipola (M Vunipola, 75).

Referee: C Maxwell-Keys (Staffordshire).