Farrell and Saracens give Harlequins first taste of defeat

Champions Harlequins suffered their first defeat of the season to the hands of Saracens in a 18-16 thriller at The Stoop.
After two games where he didn’t perform well, Owen Farrell put on a superb kicking display scoring all his team’s points from the tee.
Danny Care put Quins 13-9 in front at the break with the only try of the game but the 2011 champions dug deep and managed to halt a late charge from the home side.
Saracens played with the ball in hand a lot in the first half to put the Quins’ defensive line on the back foot but couldn’t break away.
The momentum changed in the second half but they showed great character to keep the Champions at bay and clinch another away win.
Quins conceded too many penalties at the breakdown in the first half but defended well to keep Sarries away and showed they can strike with half a chance with Care’s try.
But they didn’t panic and started to get their grip on the ball as the game went on to put their forwards’ game in place and force the decision.
However, with an uncharacteristic four misses from the tee, Nick Evans couldn’t turn territory into points and they had to settle for a losing bonus-point.
Evans and Farrell exchanges penalties to see both team all square at 6-6 after 20 minutes.
Saracens were enjoying most of the possession and Farrell put the 2011 champions in front for the first time with another penalty after Olly Kohn was sin-binned for not retrieving 10 metres on a quick tap.
But despite being down to 14 men, Quins got back in front when England scrum-half Care seized a gap by the ruck to race over and dive under the posts on stroke of half time.
Evans added the extras to see Quins take a crucial 13-9 at the break.
It was more of the same from Saracens at the beginning of the second half and Farrell put the visitors back in front with two more penalties.
Slowly but surely Harlequins started to put their hands on the ball and when replacement George Kruis was sent to the bin for going off his feet at the breakdown, Evans put the home side back in front with his third penalty of the game.
In this very close game, Evans had the opportunity to seal the win with another penalty but it wasn’t to happened as he missed his fourth kick of the afternoon.
Evans must have been thinking about that miss still when his next kick at the reception of the resulting 22-metres restart went backwards.
As the Harlequins players didn’t retrieve, Farrell clinched it for Saracens with his sixth and last penalty of the game.
For Harlequins
Tries: Care
Conversions: Evans
Penalties: Evans 3
Sin Bin: Kohn
For Saracens
Penalties: Farrell 6
Harlequins: Brown; Stegmann, Hopper, Turner-Hall, Monye; Evans, Care; Marler, Gray, Johnston; Kohn, Robson; Guest, Robshaw, Easter.
Replacements: Buchanan, Lambert, Collier, Matthews, Fa’asavalu, Dickson, Clegg, Lindsay-Hague.
Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Tomkins, Barritt, Wyles; Farrell, Wigglesworth; Gill, Brits, Du Plessis; Borthwick (capt.), Hargreaves; Brown, Fraser, Joubert.
Replacements: Smit, Vunipola, Stevens, Kruis, Saull, Spencer, Hodgson, Strettle.
Referee: Andrew Small
Attendance: 14,224
Star man: Owen Farrell – Saracens
NICK VERDIER