STOOPED TO CONQUER
By Innings
November 21 2023
The afternoon, for me in front of the TV, began with a desperate attempt by the commentary team to persuade Danny Care and Jamie George that they hate each other. A bit pointless because it is clear that they are actually good friends. However, selling a match on bitter rivalry is all part of the showbiz. More importantly, this was to be Joe Marler’s 200th Prem appearance and Owen’s 150th. That latter figure rather highlights how little we have seen him in the Sarries’ colours during his professional career, because over 40% of his top-level games have been played for England or the B&I Lions. More amazingly, this was to be Danny Care’s 27th Quins/Sarries Derby. How many players anywhere can boast that longevity for a single club against a single other?
It was difficult to know who was actually playing for Sarries at the outset. Late and very late changes saw Daly and Earl unable to start.
It all began with the usual early stages, what used to be called ‘Advance to Contact’ in military studies. A bit of kick-tennis, a few early feelers with ball in hand, but little to indicate how either side intended to play. That gave me a moment to reflect on three head-to-head matches. Esterhuizen and Tompkins was the first; two centres with no similarity in physique or playing style. More the bludgeon against the rapier. The time to consider the less-direct comparison of Dombrandt against Itoje, both critical to their line-out strategies and always prominent in the loose. Then, finally, Smith compared with Farrell, pick-pocket against “Blow the bloody doors off’.
Even as I mulled over these important issues, Alex Lozowski was hobbling off, apparently a leg injury almost in the very first exchange between the teams. With three front-line players down, would Sarries be up to the task ahead? Within four minutes, Quins hade the opportunity of the perfect start, with Andy Christie a bit lazy in positioning himself in the breakdown. 3-0 and hardly started. Hang on, with the easiest conversion in his career, dead in front and 30 metres out, Smith rattles the cross-bar and to the surprise of all the ball falls to Sarries to clear. Score actually 0-0
As we approach the end of the first quarter, another simple Sarries’ error does give Marcus Smith as second shot, which he does take successfully, 3-0 for real this time.
Then, for the rest of the first quarter, bar a couple of minutes, we have two sides ‘evenly matched’ according to David Flatman in the commentary box. I think Sarries must have overheard. Within a minute Quins have collapsed a maul, Owen has kicked the first of several penalties to the corner, dead on the money, and a minute later, we see yet more return from newby Juan-Martin Gonzalez, 3-7. If J-M really is only 23 but already with more than two dozen Pumas caps, we may have signed the steal of the decade.
The second quarter begins with the much-anticipated scrum face-offs. Marler and Collier face Mako and Marco Riccioni. Four props at the top of the domestic game. I cannot say that I ever felt that anyone had the mastery of the other, but there was a lot to appreciate in the tussles. Only three minutes later, Marcus Smith takes advantage of what seems to be an empty back-field, and from half-way seeks to drop the ball into the empty spaces ahead. Cover actually arrives with time to spare, but it’s a poor kick, no-height and no threatening follow-up. The ball rolls, with impetus to spare, beyond the in-goal area. Scrum on half-way, Marler hinges, Owen kicks his second o-t-m penalty into the corner. A bit of sideways action from the forwards, ending with Ollie Hartley claiming his second try for the season in the competition. He used to bounce between Wasps and Ampthill, then Sarries and Ampthill, back to Wasps, back to Sarries, and now with two tries on four Prem games may be said to have finished his professional apprenticeship. 3-12, Owen sliding the kick just wide.
Not two minutes pass before Quin Will Evans, his timing a bit awry this evening, is pinged for not removing himself from the tackle. Perhaps a bit tricky for him to do so, because half the Sarries pack has joined the melée, but he was certainly not looking to be trying. It was almost as though he was looking to give away the penalty, but he was in the wrong place and just hoping that he wouldn’t be noticed. Owen, places the kick right onto the five-metre line, despite the narrowness of the angle with which to work. Quins offside in the driving play, try, inevitably it seems. 3-19
In the 17 minutes since Flats called this an even match, the score has gone from 3-0 to 3-19. I must remember to ask him which Lottery numbers he has called for the coming week, and make sure I don’t use any of them.
Not much happens, in terms of changing dominance or scoreline, although Quins finish strongly, Esterhuizen, in particular, beginning to feature rather more than hitherto.
At half-time, Jamie Roberts, a former Quins player, something of a legend in the environs of The Stoop, makes a telling comment. He thinks that Quins are ‘punching themselves out’. I think he means they are expending great energy trying to batter their way past Sarries, whilst Sarries are riding the attacks, conserving energy and countering brutally efficiently when the gaps half-appear. Indeed, it does look as though a few Quins players are more than glad that half-time has arrived. The commentators agree that even the fabled come-back heroes of The Stoop will find this difficult to manage. It is not about to get any easier, because on 42 minutes we see an extraordinary demonstration of efficiency. Owen has placed another o-t-m penalty into the corner. At the ensuing line-out, from the instant that the ball leaves Jamie’s hand to the instant of Andy Christie’s touch down, the game clock advances fewer than four seconds. Bonus point secured, 3-24 and this not looking like one of Quins’ better days.
No surprise that Danny Care is now brought on. To be honest, it’s only surprising that it has taken until now for the Quins coaches to see that Will Porter has been somewhat overwhelmed by the Sarries’ blitz, and Danny is the right man to right the listing vessel. During the next ten minutes, we see clear evidence that this substitution is correct. Quins are picking up their pace, intensity and efficiency very noticeably. During the period, Quins threaten the Sarries line, seriously, for the first time. A penalty corner, well-placed by Smith, leads to a scrum, followed by several drives at the line. Sarries are penalised, and we now see that Will Collier seems to have taken upper-body damage in the scrum that started all this. Quins opt for the scrum again, and for two minutes we see the first passage of more than five phases that Quins have achieved so far. However, it goes nowhere really, apart from backwards and forwards, for two minutes. It ends with another penalty into the corner, but Quins cannot control their drive, are stripped of the ball, which arrives in Jamies’ hands for a very decent up-field clearance. Quins have it all to do again, but this time an eight-phase passage brings them back towards Sarries’ line, where carelessness turns over the ball for a Sarries’ scrum. A quick change of all three Sarries’ front row brings on, not so much the bomb squad as the parachutists, fast, lighter but fitter and all with carrying and handling skills to complement their fleetness of foot. Their first engagement is successful, quick ball out, easy clearance by Owen.
Within another three minutes a break-down in play sees the real look of a fourth try, but Maro has pulled back the shirt of a Quins player who might have been able to influence the outcome, so no try, penalty to Quins. The TMO now intervenes: before the shirt-pull a Quins players knocked forward into his own player, who then played the ball, so penalty to Sarries. Ivan van Zyl goes off, and Aled Davies, who seems to me to be playing better than ever before in a Sarries shirt these days, comes on. Another line-out on the five-metre line, Clean take, a bit of driving at the line, ball out, a snappy pass from Tompkins to Goode, who delivers a miracle straight-through-the-hands pass to Tom Parton, another arrival from London Irish with Juan-Martin, who has the fifth try in the bag. 3-31
The Quins coaches seem to have sensed that referee Matthew Carley, handling the whistle with considerable mix of authority and sympathetic understanding, has become more than a little irritated by Quins captain Alex Dombrandt, who seems to have taken up residence as an extra referee. We have certainly heard Mr Carley order the skipper to back off, more than once, and it seems that the risk of sanctions has reached a critical level.
On 70 minutes Quins collapse a maul, so we’re back in the old routine. Owen to the corner, another imperious line-out, ball swings wide. Quins’ cover is well up, but all is up, nobody back. Alex Goode threads a little grubber through to the in-goal area, And Alex Lewington is a finger-tip ahead of the defence to poach the try. 3-38. In the build-up, Quins’ James Chisholm has tackled too high and made head contact. A possible red card is given as yellow, it being decided that another Quins player had affected the dynamics of the situation.
The last flourish does go Quins’ way, as they end the game, having scored first, they now score last, with a last-ditch effort to get into double figures, which they do, courtesy of Esterhuizen, at last able to break away from the suffocating defensive wall that has faced him for every moment thus far. 10-38 is a bitter reflection of the fact that Sarries were simply a class above their hosts, in every aspect of play.
A few more thoughts crossed my mind as I was writing this.
Take a Quin first. The team may rely on Esterhuizen a lot, too much in my opinion, a one-man threat is liable to suck in the oxygen that other players around him need. The real heart of this side is Danny Care. He made an immediate impact on arrival, speeded up all aspects of play, gave Smith that second or more that the latter needs in his options selection, and by sheer joie de vivre uplifted the Quins, from 15 to 1. England under-used him in France, and Quins will need to use him more than they expected in this domestic season: an 18-game schedule leaves little margin for error or getting potential starters up to delivery of starting value.
Alex Goode is perhaps the most naturally gifted rugby player, whether reading the game or executing it, whom I have watched. I place him in my very short list of truly inspirational backs who have worn the Sarries shirt. For me, in terms of playing ability and rugby intelligence, he has all that MTC, Timmy Horan, even Michael Lynagh ever brought to us in our nomadic days.
In David Flatman’s vocabulary, a rugby forward can be no more highly praised than when he says they’re ‘horrible’ to play against. In that lexicon, Maro Itoje is one of the most horrible men in world rugby.
When Schaller left us, I wondered whether we would ever see a player with his authority again. Totally differently, Jamie George has become one of the fittest, most technically proficient and productive hookers in the world game, perhaps the best all-round hooker playing today.
Of course, my final thoughts were of the two players wearing their team’s ten shirts today. I concluded that Marcus Smith is capable of being a sublime individual player on his day. During this match he also demonstrated that he still lacks the game management perceptions that would enable him to become one of the greats. He did nothing to manage the game to take the physical load off his forwards when they were clearly in real trouble and tiring, and that is a key part of leadership in any sport, to move the point of attack from weakness into other possible strengths. It was no wonder that several Quins forwards looked exhausted at half-time. His sometimes-wayward kicking, unusual for him, certainly did nothing to ease the burden. In the meantime, Owen Farrell demonstrated one major facet of the many that make him a great member of any team, his ability as 10 to manage the team’s overall resources, to spot weakness in the opposition and exploit it. At the same time, he demonstrated in this game his ability to steal every last inch out of a penalty to the corner. That skill turns any offence by the opposition within sixty metres of their try-line into a scoring opportunity for his side. That in turn causes opposition players to think twice, in a profession where thinking fast and getting it right first time is essential to success.
I read tonight that we may see the last of Maro after the expiration of his present contract. Dare I hope that today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s fish and chips wrapping?
TEAMS
Harlequins: David, Green, Beard, Esterhuizen, Lynagh, Smith, Porter; Marler (Baxter), Walker (Riley), Collier (Lewis), Launchbury, Hammond, Lamb, Evans (Chisholm), Dombrandt (Cunningham-South)
Saracens: Goode (Harris), Lewington, Lozowski (Hartley), Tompkins, Parton, Farrell, Van Zyl (Davies); M Vunipola (Mawi), George (Dan), Riccioni (Cleary), Itoje, Tizard, Gonzales Samso (Willis), Christie (Stonham), B Vunipola
SCORERS:
Harlequins: Try: Esterhuizen, Conv: Smith; Pen: Smith
Saracens: Tries: Gonzales, Hartley, George, Christie, Parton, Lewington; Conv: Farrell (4)
Referee: Matt Carley (RFU)
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023:11:30:11:01:32 by Darraghgirl.
'More amazingly, this was to be Danny Care’s 27th Quins/Sarries Derby. How many players anywhere can boast that longevity for a single club against a single other?'
...an excellent question.
I thought of Calum Chick, but he is too young. I guess Courtney Lawes (with Saints since 2007) is in with a shot but he might have missed too many through injury/international calls. Any true stattos out there?
The delight on Makos face when T Willlis dropped the ball over the line
I get the feeling he'll be hearing about that for a while.
I really like Danny Care. Gosh he can be a pain to play against but hes Quins through and through and both when he plays and when he talks he delivers. On a podcast this week he spoke about Quins being a bit flat midweek and with a number of young players in the team he and some of the senior players talking to them about what was coming. A word for Smith too. He struggled to get Quins playing in the right areas but was denied a platform to do that and we know how hard that makes it. Even so he was game and in defence in particular he continues to put his body on the line.
IMO it was a bit of a perfect storm.
Quins had had a tough, quite bruising game with Tigers the week before whereas Sarries had rested many of the Internationals. Quins created a few chances that they'd normally have finished including the Lynah line break where he held the ball rather than giving it.
That said sometimes (as we know) Internationals returning don't always click straight-away and to lose three key players for the whole game and adapt so seamlessly was perhaps the most impressive thing for me. Also enjoyed every time Esterhuzien got the ball (bar out on the wing) he seemed to immediately be confronted and stopped by a combination of Farrell plus one! In that regard and the drift defence Sarries seemed to have Quins number.
It feels like injury and rotation will deny McCall having to pick a "favourite child" in terms of backrow selections but crikey JMG looks good. I'm already hoping that there might be space for him beyond his initial contract despite the riches we already have in the backrow. Exciting times.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:11:22:12:03:14 by OldMarovian.
After that match even some Quins fans admitting the debate is over for now re Smith and Farrell. And good to hear the narrative on Farrell in the media focusing on his multiple positive angles rather than the lazy journalism that was then compounded on social media this summer and during the World cup.
We often hear from others about Farrells limitations at International level compared to the "artistry" of Ford, Smith etc but the way England has played for a while has inhibited all of those playing style, including in my view, Farrells.
I still think Borthwick will turn out to be a decent England coach but it feels a shame that he went more with Sarries circa 2018/Tigers Premiership win than Sarries 2021/22/23 all of which he had the personnel for and which might have got us over the line in the SF.
In the mean-time I am interested to see how Farrell continues to expand his game and the direction (if the suggestions are true) of how Sarries play along with the coaches. It feels very positive to me.
Indeed , and I have slightly changed my mind about the elder Smith in the England rankings. He has always been a classy runner, but defensively not so much. But in this match he did put heart and soul into the match and made a number of good tackles including a memorable one on Maro.
It’ll never happen, but I think finding a 15/10 is hugely important for us, as that type of fullback has been the backbone of our team for over a decade, and has allowed Faz to read the game so much better than with, say, a more bruising 15 like steward.
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
Quote:The Bard
I’d have been slightly more comfortable with Mako laughing at the ball being dropped over the line if it wasn’t the rival for his brothers shirt. I’m sure that was nothing to do with it but they are very protective of each other as a family.
Mako has form in this area. I can't recall the blooper which was the cause but he has been filmed on TV before in fits of hysterics at some gross mistake by a Sarries player.
Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade
🌻🌻🌻
Quote:Innings
It looked more like laughing in disbelief, and several other Sarries squad were doing the same.
I think Christie and someone else in frame were laughing in disbelief. I also think Mako was laughing in joy at being able to tease Willis BUT that is part of being a tight squad too. Would he have had the same reaction if that was the score to win the game? I doubt it. As it is Willis has probably been reminded of his drop a fair few times this week but all in good spirits I am sure.