Smith inspires Harlequins to victory over Saracens

Marcus Smith scored all 10 of Harlequins' first-half points against Saracens

The Prem

Harlequins (10) 20

Tries: Smith, T Green Cons: Smith 2 Pens: Smith 2

Saracens (7) 14

Tries: Burke, Earl Cons: Farrell 2

England fly-half Marcus Smith marked his Prem return with 15 of Harlequins' 20 points in a narrow victory over local rivals Saracens at The Stoop.

Smith's early try set Quins on the way to their first league win of the season, while the 26-year-old's kicking game troubled Saracens throughout.

Fergus Burke's superb score ensured Sarries trailed by only three points at half-time, but that deficit was stretched to 10 points when Tyrone Green went over in the first minute of the second half.

Owen Farrell created and converted a Ben Earl try to give Saracens hope but, after starting their campaign with two bonus-point wins, they fell to a first Prem defeat of the season.

Smith, making his first club appearance of the season after touring Australia with the British and Irish Lions in the summer, needed less than nine minutes to make an impact.

After Saracens failed to cleanly gather Smith's high kick into their defensive 22, Quins eventually worked the ball to their talismanic number 10, who burst through two tackles to touch down in the corner.

Quins pressed to extend their advantage, but it was Saracens who scored next with a sensational team move started by Farrell's excellent short pass to Lucio Cinti, who broke clear and set up fly-half Burke to stroll over unopposed.

Smith, denied a second try following intervention by the TMO because of a scrum infraction, kicked Quins three points ahead after Saracens were penalised at the reset scrum.

Almost immediately after the restart, home full-back Green contested another high Smith kick, booted the loose ball ahead, and won the foot race to ground the ball near the posts to make it 17-7 after Smith's conversion.

A spell of Saracens attacking pressure ended with Farrell's kick across field picking out the unmarked England and Lions back row Earl to touch down, again bringing the gap between the sides to three points with Farrell kicking the extras.

But a comeback from the visitors failed to materialise in the final 15 minutes, and after Quins debutant Boris Wenger had a try ruled out by the TMO for a double movement, Smith sealed victory by knocking over another penalty with the clock past 80 minutes.

Before kick-off, there was a minute's applause in memory of former Harlequins academy coach Warren Abrahams, who has died aged 43.

"Coming in this morning, I heard the news about Warren," Smith told TNT Sports.

"He coached a lot of us coming through the academy and this one meant a lot to us. May his soul rest in peace."

'Quins were by far the better team' - reaction

Harlequins senior coach Jason Gilmore:

"Marcus is a Lion. His job in our team is to give us game management and to put us into good field positions.

"We've probably struggled with that in the last two weeks, which cost us both of those games."

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:

"I'd say we got what we deserved, but we didn't because we got a losing bonus point. We were lucky to get that. Quins were by far the better team.

"They dominated territory and had a very strong kicking game, and we didn't cope well with it. That affected the rest of our game and the rest of our energy and intent.

"Marcus kicked beautifully and put us under pressure. We probably didn't prepare the team in the way we should have for what came and that's obviously my fault.

"But we expect the playing group to react better to that than we did. We then lost intent in all the important things. It's not a performance we can be proud of."

Harlequins: T Green; Isgro, Beard, Benson, Murley (capt); Smith, Porter; Baxter, Walker, Williams, Petti, Treadwell, Kenningham, Evans, Cunningham-South.

Replacements: Turner, Wenger, Delgado, J Green, Carr, Dombrandt, Townsend, Kerr.

Saracens: Malins; J Bracken, Tompkins, Farrell, Cinti; Burke, Van Zyl (capt); Carre, Dan, Riccioni, Isiekwe, Tizard, Onyeama-Christie, Earl, Willis.

Replacements: George, Mawi, Clarey, Wilson, Sodeke, Gonzalez, C Bracken, Jackson.

Referee: Adam Leal.