Premiership semi-final: Saracens 34-17 Harlequins - Ben Earl hat-trick helps Sarries dismantle Quins

Ben Earl's hat-trick took his tally to seven tries in his last five Premiership appearances for Saracens

Saracens overcame a nine-point deficit and survived three second-half yellow cards to beat champions Harlequins 34-17 in the first Premiership semi-final.

Alex Dombrandt and Danny Care tries put Quins nine points up after 20 minutes, but Saracens edged the first half with tries from Ben Earl and Nick Tompkins.

Earl got a second 28 seconds after the restart before Aled Davies went over.

Despite having 24 minutes with at least one more man, Quins only had Cadan Murley's try to show for it.

Saracens put the icing on the cake in the final minute as Earl - the Premiership player of the season - went over from a close-range line-out to get his hat-trick and add to a superb second-half defensive display.

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The win was Saracens' first top-flight play-off game since they beat Exeter at Twickenham to win the 2019 Premiership title.

Having been found to have breached the Premiership's salary cap rules in 2017 and title-winning campaigns in 2018 and 2019, they were relegated to the Championship in 2020.

They won an abridged second-tier season, losing just one game, and carried that momentum on into this season where they won 17 and lost six of their regular-season matches to end the campaign in second place.

The victory means Saracens reached their sixth final in their last eight Premiership campaigns - having won four of those trips to Twickenham.

Saracens edge breathless first half

Marcus Smith's break set up Danny Care (left) to put Harlequins 12-3 ahead midway through the first half

Dombrandt went over from a maul for an early try, the Quins number eight rewarded for pressure he put on Davies' box-kick that saw Saracens' scrum-half send the ball out on the full.

The game continued at a ferocious pace and Sarries had a great chance from close range to equalise the try count five minutes later, but had to settle for an Owen Farrell penalty after good Quins defence.

The visitors had the better of the early territorial battle but Saracens' defence was excellent as they repelled a number of close-range chances, until a moment of brilliance from Marcus Smith saw him beat two defenders before putting Care in for his side's second try.

The hosts did not have to wait long to finally break Harlequins' defence as Earl superbly blasted through three Quins forwards to go in from six metres out for his 11th try of the season.

Joe Marchant had a third Harlequins try chalked off for a knock-on after 32 minutes and the visitors saw hooker Jack Walker sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Farrell during the build-up.

Saracens made the extra man count when Tompkins went over from close range a phase after Maro Itoje had been held up as they took the lead for the first time.

Quins fail to take advantage of Saracens ill-discipline

Ben Earl's final try added gloss to Saracens' second-half display

In the build-up to the game, Harlequins coach Nick Evans had spoken of the danger of having players sin-binned, and his 14 men conceded again straight from the kick-off.

Dombrandt knocked on Farrell's restart, allowing the hosts to set up a chance for Earl to go over in the right corner against a disrupted Quins.

That score seemed to break the visitors as Vincent Koch burst through the defensive line and allowed Davies to stroll over five minutes later, extending the lead to 15 points.

But soon after Sarries appeared to give their opponents a lifeline as Elliot Daly was sin-binned for a high tackle on Smith and tempers flared between the sides.

A second yellow followed for the north Londoners as Billy Vunipola was penalised for a shoulder into the neck of Andre Esterhuizen, which left the hosts down to 13 men for more than three minutes.

Murley took advantage with a try down the left after some neat passing, but Smith made a mess of the conversion before Daly returned to the field.

Quins continued to test Saracens but Nick Isiekwe held up Tom Lawday over the line with eight minutes to go in what proved to be a crucial moment.

A third Saracens yellow card for a high tackle followed as Alex Lozowski went to the sin-bin for a challenge on Joe Marchant, ensuring the hosts would end the game with 14 men.

But Harlequins ran out of gas and Saracens took their chance in the final moments as Earl completed his hat-trick, mauling over from a close-range lineout to put the seal on the game.

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:

"We played some good rugby and defended well when we had to. We spent the last 20 minutes with either 14 men or 13 men.

"To be down a man against an attack as good as Quins for that length of time is tough and showed the level of resolve, resilience and fight we have. We scrapped for everything and that's the thing that always pleases us the most."

Harlequins attack coach Nick Evans told BBC Radio London:

"If it had stayed 27-17 it was probably a fair result, I know they got the try at the end, I just thought we were a little bit inaccurate at times today and they put us under a lot of pressure.

"I thought we struggled 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 out of 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."

Saracens: Goode; Maitland, Daly, Tompkins, Malins; Farrell (capt), Davies; M Vunipola, George, Koch, Itoje, Swinson, McFarland, Earl, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Pifeleti, Mawi, Clarey, Isiekwe, Christie, Van Zyl, Lozowski, Taylor.

Harlequins: Jones; Green, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Murley; Smith, Care; Marler, Walker, Collier, Symons, Tizard, Lewies (capt), Evans, Dombrandt.

Replacements: Gray, Kerrod, Louw, Jurevicius, Lawday, Gjaltema, Allan, Northmore.

Referee: Luke Pearce

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