Rugby:Peter Stringer made his first start since joining Saracens on a short-term loan deal as the English champions cut leaders Harlequins down to size with a 19-11 win in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham this evening.
The attendance, just shy of the 82,208 that Leinster and Munster attracted to Croke Park for the Heineken semi-Cup final in 2009, was a world record for a regular-season club fixture,beating the 79,842 that watched Stade Francais v Clermont Auvergne in the French Top 14.
Owen Farrell kicked 14 points and David Strettle scored against his old club as Saracens raced into a match-winning 19-3 lead after just 24 minutes. Harlequins attempted a comeback and prop Joe Marler, whose pass had been intercepted by Strettle, scored in a dominant second-half performance from the hosts.
Saracens can play attacking rugby at pace, as the Ospreys discovered to their cost in their Heineken Cup showdown at Wembley. But this was no exhibition game. They were not obliged to play to the galleries just to make this a festive feast of running rugby.
Mark McCall’s men countered Harlequins’ natural adventure by slowing the game down and drawing penalties, which Farrell converted at will.
Elsewhere, London Irish head coach Toby Booth defended a first-half incident in his side’s 29-22 victory over Exeter at the Madejski Stadium which could have landed England star Delon Armitage in more hot water.
Full-back Armitage was on song, with Booth describing his rousing performance as ‘great’ as Irish put themselves into third place in the table.
Centres Joe Ansbro, in the first half, and England ace Shontayne Hape after the break touched down for the Exiles, while young wing Tom Homer, the Premiership’s leading points scorer, added 19 more with five penalties and two conversions.
Exeter were always chasing the game after Ansbro’s try on three minutes, but showed their fighting spirit with Argentinian fly-half Ignacio Mieres kicking five penalties and converting a try from full-back Luke Arscott.
Mieres, though, was left shaken for a few minutes on the touchline when Armitage clattered into him, with an arm around his head, as the outhalf fielded the ball by his own 22.
Armitage only returned to action with Irish this month after a five-week ban for a dangerous tackle on Bath wing Tom Biggs and a concurrent ban for striking lock Dave Attwood with his knee in the same match on October 29th. It was his fourth suspension in 2011.
But Booth said it was something and nothing, although officials may want to see it because of the player’s troubled record.
The Irish coach said: “He went in for a tackle from behind and, as the player has bent down, he has gone up over the top of him. It is a penalty at most in my opinion. But, as always, because of what has gone before, people will have a closer look.”
