Report: Saracens triumph over Harlequins 36-24 at The Showdown 3

The Showdown 3 saw Saracens defeat Harlequins 36-24 in an end-to-end game that gave the 55,105 people at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium good value for money on their ticket.

Tries from Alex Lozowski, Nick Tompkins, Andy Christie, Sean Maitland and Maro Itoje capped off a brilliant performance from Sarries. For Quins, two tries from Cadan Murley and scores from Alex Dombrandt and Joe Marchant were ultimately in vain.

The result means Saracens stretch their lead at the top of the table to 11 points while Harlequins are in 8th but only eight points outside the playoff spots.

It was a match worthy of the almighty pyrotechnic show that met the players as they ran out of the tunnel. The residual smoke was settling for the first 10 minutes of play.

Indeed Quins were not waiting around for the air to clear. Inside the first minute, they fielded the kick-off, kicked back into the Sarries 22, won a penalty and took the quick tap for Dombrandt to score in the corner.

Saracens followed suit just eight minutes later. They turned the ball over in the Harlequins 22, forced a turnover, and from the resulting maul, scored through Lozowski, led under the posts by a beautifully lifted offload from Ben Earl.

The North London club scored soon after, as was the trend in this back-and-forth game with minimal defending and, this time, off a perfectly executed set play.

Ivan Van Zyl fed the ball out the back to Owen Farrell, who put Lozowski through a gaping hole in the Quins defence. The centre was brought down seven metres out but popped the ball off the floor, giving Tompkins a walk-in.

The next major event of the game was not so satisfying. Van Zyl grubbered down the side-line and dipped to regather the bouncing ball, only to be met with Danny Care’s glancing shoulder.

Some may say that the Harlequins scrum-half could have received a card for dangerous play, but he escaped punishment for foul play. That is until he was sent to the sin bin by Luke Pearce moments later for inexplicably slapping the ball out of Van Zyl’s hand whilst offside.

As a result of the sin-binning, Marcus Smith was sent to play scrum-half, which went well initially, only for the South-West Londoners to lose a bit of their attacking structure and end a long phase of play in the Saracens red zone without scoring.

The pace that the scoreboard was ticking over slowed as the sides closed in on halftime, only for Saracens to go over the whitewash via Christie.

Andre Esterhuizen’s thunderous carry through the efforts of Farrell took him away from his support, resulting in a turnover, and Saracens pounced. They broke clean through the short side and then spread the play all the way to the other wing, where Christie was waiting to flop over in the corner unmarked.

As a result, the score was 22-7 to Saracens at the break, and Harlequins needed to change something.

Luckily for Quins, the second half started the same as the first, with Saracens knocking the ball on in their own 22.

After a few phases and another midfield scrum, Murley was fed in at the corner by a beautiful flat pass from Smith. Harlequins were back at the races, and the score was 22-14.

Clinical in attack and heroic in defence, Murley saved what looked to be a walk-in by dumping Max Malins on his back just minutes later after Harlequins were split open by some lovey phase play orchestrated by Farrell.

But the Harlequins dam eventually broke in the 57th minute. Malins dabbed through and only didn’t score himself because of a flying ankle tap from a scrambling Quins defender.

As the ball was recycled, Christie got away down the left wing and produced a no-look offload to put Sean Maitland over the line uncontested.

Then, as expected, Quins scored almost immediately as the sides struggled to keep each other out. Murley, with his second, managed to keep the ball from brushing the touchline to score by the finest of margins.

Harlequins then received their second yellow of the game as Luke Northmore was sent to the bin as his stray arm connected with Farrell’s face. There was a suggestion from the TMO that it could have been red, but Pearce thought otherwise.

From the resulting line out, Itoje went over after a pick and go.

Then, almost instantly, Nick David looked to have a try for Harlequins as he beat four Saracens defenders, only for a last-ditch covering tackle from Malins to force a knock on over the line.

Quins won the ball back in the Saracens’ 22, and Christie was sin-binned for not retreating 10 metres from a penalty as Care took it quickly.

Care then produced a glorious cross-field kick which Marchant plucked out of the air to score in the corner. Smith missed the conversion making the score 36-24 with six minutes to play.

Harlequins would have to pull off one of their famous comebacks if they wanted to upset the crowd at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but no such comeback came, as Saracens managed to close the game out and win a manic London derby.