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By Sam Tonks
Saracens were the victors on derby day defeating Harlequins 24-11, in the inaugural Aviva Premiership match at London Stadium.
Tries from Liam Williams and Maro Itoje as well as 14 points from the boot of Alex Lozowski moved Sarries above Wasps into second.
Sarries shot out of the blocks as they drove possession deep into the Harlequins 22 and were awarded a penalty, due to blocking at the ruck by England’s Chris Robshaw
Alex Lozowski kicked through the posts to open the scoring for the afternoon and bring cheers from the overwhelming support for his side. 55,329 packed in to see an entertaining encounter.
Despite Quins’ efforts to respond swiftly, Mark McCall’s men were the dominant team. Sean Maitland was a hero for Scotland during the Six Nations and carried that form into this game as his darting run created the first opening.
The ball was recycled well by Richard Wigglesworth, Alex Goode carried down the right wing before Liam Williams finished the move for the first try on 11 minutes, 10-0.
As the away side for the day, Quins were struggling to make their mark at London Stadium until Demetri Catrakilis added points to their side of the scoreline. Two penalties brought the score back to 10-6.
Maro Itoje was coming into the match off the back of poor results with England, yet he was in fine form and scored Sarries’ second try.
The man-of-the-match was given the ball 15 yards out, he superbly held off one tackle and powered past opposition defenders and planted the ball down.
Apart from dangerous runs from Joe Marchant and Tim Visser, it was comfortable for Saracens in the first half. Another Lozowski penalty at the end of the half left them leading 18-6 at the break.
Into the second period, Marcus Smith replaced Catrakilis at fly half and immediately impacted the Harlequins attack. A drop of the shoulder and he was running at the Saracens defence down the left wing, a sign of improvement for them.
Their momentum was gathering pace, but luckily for Sarries, Lozowski was quick enough to deny Visser a run to the line. In an unorthodox run, Visser continued to kick his way towards the try line, only for the scrum-half to stop him dead in his tracks.
However, Quins captain James Horwill wouldn’t be denied on 52 minutes as he soldiered his way over the try line to provide a try for his fans to cheer.
The scrums were largely going in Saracens favour with West Ham fan Jackson Wray amongst the forwards. This was leading to a number of penalties being conceded by Mark Mapletoft’s side and Lozowski was in no mood to turn down kicking chances.
His penalty stretched their lead to 21-11. The quick, incisive exchanges between the backs of Marcelo Bosch, Goode and Maitland was causing havoc for Quins who were still trailing by 10 points in the final 15 minutes.
A moment of hope came as Francis Saili looked to have broken through the Saracens line to bring Quins back into the game, but referee Tom Foley ruled a knock on by Jack Clifford.
With 10 minutes to go, Saracens replacement Max Malins was sin-binned for a deliberate knock on. Following the Quins late comeback win over their arch rivals in their last meeting, lightning couldn’t strike twice surely?
It didn’t, Lozowski rounded off the scoring with one more penalty to showcase his impressive kicking form in place of star-man Owen Farrell and his team moved up the Premiership table to second place whilst Quins remain in ninth.
Image Credit- Matt Impey
