Who needs Marcus Smith, England fly-half? Who, for that matter, needs Jarrod Evans, Wales fly-half? Jamie Benson is a 22-year-old who made his Premiership debut in November. He came on at half-time for Evans and kicked three long-range penalties in the last 10 minutes to set up Harlequins for their first Premiership away win over Saracens for 13 years. And with it they leapfrog their hosts into the top four for now.
“I had full faith,” said Benson, only just graduated from Cambridge University, where he won three Blues, “that if [Alex Dombrandt, his captain] asked me, the kicks would be going between the sticks.” He also converted both Harlequins’ tries, the second at the death. Score when he came on: 12-0. Score at the end 12-23.
So, another talent seemingly uncovered. But how Saracens fell away in front of 54,000 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. They were hardly brilliant in the first half, although Alex Goode’s flicked pass to set up Tobias Elliott’s try, their second, just before the break touched the heights of genius. The suspicion, though, that their era is, if not at an end, at least on hold, hardened as Quins, without any of their England internationals, overhauled them in a slow-burning second half that, by the end, was definitely aflame.
Quins did not score a point until the hour mark, when Oscar Beard set up his partner in the centre, Ben Waghorn. It was an excellent try. Quins had stolen another Saracens lineout, a feat they would accomplish three times in the second half, and were meandering this way and that when Beard made a beeline for the wide outside. He broke the tackle of Elliott and turned the ball inside for Waghorn. Two more young talents there.
Then came the three Benson penalties. Saracens were in freefall mode, notwithstanding the influence of England captains past and present and a host of other full internationals readjusting to life in the Premiership. The referee was ruthless towards them. Saracens were awarded their last penalty of the match just after Quins’ first try, which Alex Lozowski missed from long range. Thereafter, all the penalties went the way of the visitors, five of them.
Quins’ scrum also enjoyed the edge throughout. A penalty at one of them gave Benson his first shot, in the 70th minute. Then came the one for the lead, two minutes later, some 45 metres out. Nerves? Not a hint of them. Another sailed over. And again, five minutes after that. None of them were gimmes, or anywhere close to them.
Suddenly, Saracens needed a try, and they looked at sea. Instead, it was Quins who struck. Nick David streaked clear in the penultimate minute and found Will Porter on his inside shoulder to deny Saracens even a bonus point.
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What a far cry from this time last year. What a far cry from this time last week. The calibre of stadium was familiar to those who had come straight from the Six Nations, as was the scale of attendance. But not much else. Where Quins had rested their England players (although Evans was deployed straight from the Wales camp), Saracens played as many as they could. Their big day, after all. They burst into the match with all the intent you might expect, Theo McFarland finishing from close range in the fifth minute.
Not that it inspired them to repeat their rout of the same opposition here last year, when Quins sank meekly to the tune of 50-plus points. This time, Quins stayed in the game in a scrappy first half. But Goode, the maestro on early for Rotimi Segun, rescued the match from its misdirection when he delayed and flicked a pass over his shoulder to the looping Fergus Burke, who put Elliott over in the corner.
The feeling then was that Saracens would kick on. But there were Quins young and old, heralded and unknown, who had other ideas.
