Seconds Out.....Round Three

24 hours before the celebration of St Valentine’s Day and the ritual flexing of credit cards in the name of love (for the record Mrs Jonny and I don’t “do” Valentines as we both have very imminent birthdays, plus, being a good daughter of the White Rose, Christine thinks it’s a waste of ******* money)  many of us will be making our way to StoneX on Sunday, while others, more sensibly some might say given the weather forecast for the weekend, will settle down in front of the TV*,  for a not quite so romantic encounter, i.e. Round Three of the season’s clashes with our friends from South West London in the "iconic" multi-coloured shirts.

Recapping on the the two games the clubs have played so far in 2021/22:

At the end of October, we won 29-22 in the Premiership game at the Twickenham Stoop, to give it the correct name – a game which we could see very little of due to the, shall we say, carefully thought-out  seating arrangements for Sarries fans that day which found us located us between two support posts and right behind a corpulent TV camera operator, although did we did manage to get a glimpse of the tries from Dom Morris and Jackson Wray that, after Alex Lozowski had kept us in touch in a tough first half, which had included an early try  by the young and impressive Sarrie-to-be Hugh Tizard, took the game away from Quins and almost made up for the heavy beating we’d taken in January 2020 during the dark days when relegation and Covid-19 loomed.

Two weeks later, we welcomed Quins to StoneX for a Premiership Cup tie where both teams, inevitably, featured somewhat different squads and Sarries prevailed 28-21 in something of a reverse game to the first match, with us dominating the earlier part of the game and running in at half-time 21-7 to the good with tries from Richard Barrington, Dom Morris and the rapidly emerging cult hero that is Theo McFarland, while a much closer second half which, after the teams had exchanged tries (a second for McFarland) to take the score to 28-14, caused palpitations among the home crowd as we feared another late collapse a la London Irish as Quins threw on their devil-may-care youngsters and pounded our defence in the latter stages.

The Premiership season so far for Quins, as they defend the Premiership crown they snatched from Exeter in such dramatic fashion last June, has been steady rather than spectacular – they currently sit fourth in the table on 43 points, 6 behind Sarries in second and 3 ahead of Northampton, who have a game in hand with 40 points earned.

Quins have recently hit something of a wobble in the league, with back-to-back defeats – 21-17 to Bath at the Rec and then at home, 14-36 to Sale – following a decent run of form.

In Europe, they’ve fared very well, winning all of their Pool matches so far, beating Castres 20-18 away and 36-33 at home, while Cardiff (no longer Blues) were dispatched 36-33 at the Arms Park and a thumping 43-17 at home.

Looking at Sarries and Quins head-to-head this season, we’ve proved to be more prolific in attack and meaner in defence, amassing 480 points scored compared to Quins’ tally of 353, while our defence has yielded 254 points, 60 points fewer than Quins.

Sarries are not surprisingly ahead on tries scored with 57 (which also makes us the highest scorers in the league thus far) compared to Quins’ 51 (placing them second in the rankings).

Quins’ highest points scorer is Marcus Smith, with 58 points from six games played, while their top try scorers have been Luke Northmore and should-have-been-Sarrie Louis Lynagh on 7 each with Cadan Murley on 5 - with a wider threat to opposition try lines coming from the likes of Andre Esterhuizen and Tyrone Green.

At the time of writing the Sarries squad hasn’t been announced although I’d anticipate it’ll look pretty much like the line up that put Bath to the sword last week – Aled Davies may rotate with Ivan Van Zyl, but the game may perhaps be a bit early for Jackson Wray to make his comeback although I’d like to be wrong about that; you’ll also be aware that we’ve signed a tighthead, the reportedly huge Alex Jefferies from Scarlets on a short term deal as injury cover, with Alec Clarey having joined Marco Riccioni on the injured list although I'm not sure he’ll feature on Sunday.

In terms of our opposition’s squad, there’s no doubt that Quins have quality in depth, despite at the time of writing having lost to Eddie Jones’ squad for the Italy game the services of Alex Dombrandt, Louis Lynagh, Joe Marchant, Joe Marler and Marcus Smith, although Luke Northmore and Tomasso Allen will be available on Sunday having not been picked for their countries, so I’d anticipate a squad similar to the 23 that lost to Sale last time providing a strong challenge to our boys with longtime Sarries fan Danny Care pulling the strings.  

In other not so good news for those who believe referees do bear grudges (I couldn’t possibly comment) - Jackson Wray’s “bestie” Luke Pearce will be officiating on Sunday.

My prediction is that if we play the running rugby we displayed against Bath, weather permitting, we’ll prevail by 7 points – and don’t bet against a high-scoring game.

Wherever you’re watching the match, be it at StoneX or remotely – enjoy!

*BT Sport will be covering the game live, although you will be able to watch it later on ITV's highlights programme on Sunday night and also the Premiership website. 

Jonny Browne