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Harlequins end Saracens’ perfect start with battling victory

By PA

Harlequins ended Saracens’ 100 per cent record in this season’s Gallagher Premiership by defeating their London rivals 17-10 in a bruising encounter at the Twickenham Stoop.

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Sarries, who had won their first three games of the campaign, put Quins to the sword in both of the league fixtures between the two last season, but they found their hosts far more resilient this time around.

Match Summary

1
Penalty Goals
1
2
Tries
1
2
Conversions
1
0
Drop Goals
0
104
Carries
177
3
Line Breaks
3
10
Turnovers Lost
16
7
Turnovers Won
7

A try from young centre Lennox Anyanwu proved crucial for the hosts, who tackled themselves almost to a standstill as their visitors piled on the pressure for long periods of the contest.

Saracens suffered an early injury blow when openside flanker Andy Onyeama-Christie had to be stretchered off with only seven minutes played, not long after a strong carry deep into the Harlequins 22.

Harlequins then lost James Chisholm to the sin bin in the 11th minute when he tackled Nick Tompkins without the ball near his try line after the Wales centre had chased down Elliot Daly’s kick ahead.

The hosts held firm with 14 men, however, spending most of the 10 minutes while a man light in possession, but unable to make any real dents in Sarries’ defence.

But they took the lead after Chisholm returned to the field in the 28th minute, when the No.8 was tackled within a metre of the line, with loosehead Fix Baxter following up to barge his way over.

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Marcus Smith added the easy conversion and it almost got better for Quins off the final play of the first half when Irne Herbst was held up in-goal after Jack Kenningham and Will Porter had brought their team within striking range.

Eight minutes into the second half, Saracens finally broke through the hosts’ resolute defence and it took a former Harlequin to do so as Hugh Tizard crashed over following a strong carry from Tom Willis.

Alex Lozowski’s conversion levelled the game but parity lasted just four minutes as Harlequins restored their lead in typically swashbuckling fashion.

Smith glided through a gap inside his own half and got an off-load away to put Porter into space and the scrum-half timed his pass to put Anyanwu, who was having an impressive afternoon, in the clear down the right.

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Quins were continuing to have a stormer out of possession and the gap remained at seven points when Lozowski sent a penalty wide after Joe Launchbury went off his feet at a ruck.

Smith, however, moved the hosts closer to a memorable win when he sent a kick of his own through the posts with nine minutes left.

Lozowkski quickly moved Saracens back within one score after Joe Marler could not stay on his feet at another ruck, but Harlequins doggedly held on in the time that remained.

Harlequins v Saracens - Gallagher Premiership - Twickenham Stoop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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