Harlequins 17 Saracens 10
It’s been 1700 minutes since Quins won theLondon bragging rights.
On a weekend of no Premiership or Championship football the schedulers showed commendable planning by making this a rugby union Premiership derby weekend.
We Quins fans view our north London neighbours as playing fast and loose with the rules whilst they doubtless regard us as toffs.
Such descriptions are not totally correct: after all, Quins had its ‘Bloodgate’ disaster when – against Leinster in the Heineken Cup – a false blood capsule was used to create an apparent injury that allowed a critical substitution to take place, which “crime” the Leinster doctors soon discovered.
On the other hand, there is nothing of the toff about the likes of Jason Leonard, Joe Marler or the South Africans André Esterhuizen, Inre Herbst and Stephen Lewies.
Certainly, in a match where no quarter was given nor asked, there was little evidence of softness by Quins who tackled tigerishly. The only sign of Quins’ traditional bravura came at the end of the first half (in extra time) when Marcus Smith could have ended proceedings but instead kept the play active and Finn Baxter – who had a tremendous match – nearly scored.
Quins left Danny Care, Joe Marler, Chandler Cunningham South and Will Evans on the bench but Jack Kenningham, James Chisholm (albeit yellow carded) and Will Porter more than stepped up to the plate.
This tight but exciting victory was not just about bragging rights.
With only one victory over whipping boys Newcastle Falcons and defeats by Sale Sharks and Northampton Saints Quins were too close to the relegation berths for comfort.
Next Saturday we entertain high-flying Bath Rugby in another no doubt testing encounter.