Streetwise Sarries End The Dream

Another pulsating game which was set up for a traditional Quins finale - sadly it was not to be. Sarries were as efficient as ever and in Premiership Player of the Year Ben Earl they had a hat-trick hero as they ran out 34-17 winners at the StoneX.

For once it had been Quins who got off to a flyer with Marcus Smith bursting through and finding Danny Care on his inside shoulder, followed by Alex Dombrandt going over from a line-out.

However ,Ssrries were prepared to tough it out. Excellent defence kept them in the game and provide a platform for Ben Earl and Nick Tompkins to give them a narrow 15-12 lead at the break

Jack Walker had gone to the bin after 33 minutes for a challenge on Owen Farrell and it was to cost Quions 14 points.The hosts scored soon after the restart with Earl going over in the corner followed by Aled Davies.

Sarries also lost men to the bin in the second half in the shape of Elliott Daly and Billy Vunipola allowing to capitalise with Smith racing over.

Quins rallied and Sarries then lost Lozowski to a yellow with his side ten points ahead. Quins set themselves up for the late scoring splurge  only for Maro Itoje to turn the ball over. A relieved Sarries made the most of it - eventually sending Earl over for his hat-trick after a penalty kick to the corner.

Tabai Matson told the media: "We struggled gled to make inroads in that first half in attack. We were only three points down and we were pretty happy with that but a couple of errors after half-time put the game away from us.

"We rallied a little bit, but against a side like Sarries you're not going to break that wall, even when they went down to 13 and 14."

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