Perfect Saracens face their bogey team as Harlequins look to capitalise on not-so-secret weapon Paul Gustard

Last week Bath rotated 13 first-team players with the impression that a victory at Saracens was not worth pursuing with big games against Exeter and Toulouse on the horizon. Yet this weekend, there will be no such feeling among their opponents, Harlequins, who very much tick the box as Saracens’ bogey team.

In the last three years Saracens have won both the Premiership and European Champions Cup twice, yet have not won a match at the Twickenham Stoop. No other English club side holds such a record against the reigning champions, yet there remains something about the London derby that seems to fire up not just the Harlequins players, but the fans too.

Sure, Saracens will arrive at the Stoop on Saturday night in perfect form, with five consecutive bonus-point victories in the bag from five outings this season. But there is something about Harlequins that appears to get under their skin, and vice versa, Quins just love to play Saracens.

“We’re London rivals and there’s no love lost between us, in part due to jealousy that they’ve won so much and we haven’t won anything for a while,” said Harlequins’ England scrum-half Danny Care this week.

“So whenever we play them we seem to raise our game. They don’t seem to like us, we don’t seem to like them.”

So far Saracens have looked in untouchable form this season. The side that will face Quins shows six changes from the one that put 50 points past Bath last week, and where names such as Maro Itoje, Brad Barritt, Liam Williams and Sean Maitland drop out, in comes Will Skelton, Nick Tompkins, Alex Lewington and David Strettle, such is the strength in depth that the club possesses.

With Saracens and Exeter already clear of the rest of the pack and Wasps looking handsome in third, it’s down to Quins, Gloucester and the likes – that should have included Bath – to prove that the gulf opening up at the top of the Premiership does not exist. That requires another home victory on Saturday, which would certainly be another step in the right direction for Quins following last weekend’s surprise victory at Gloucester – a first away win since February 2017.

But they might just have a not-so-secret weapon in the ranks. The famed Saracens defence was implemented by Paul Gustard, the current Harlequins head of rugby, and that could play right into the hands of Quins if he is able to unpick any weakness in their opponents. Saracens may be running in tries for fun at the moment, but they conceded three unusually easy tries to Bath last week and that alone is a glimmer of hope for Gustard’s side – and Saracens know it.

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“Gussie knows a lot about us and it is a good challenge,” Alex Goode said last week. “We have had a pretty poor record against Quins, make no bones about it. That is a challenge for us. I think there is a level we can get to and we are not at it at the moment and we are disappointed with that.

“They have got a talented squad and we know that and they get more revved up to play us I guess than most. That is something we have not got quite right in the last few years and it is a challenge for us and it excites us. We know we weren’t at our best today so we have got to take it forward.”

It may not be the biggest or most important clash in Twickenham on Saturday as the day belongs to Rob Horne across the A316, but under the intensity of the Saturday night lights, it’s not one to be missed.