England’s struggle this season has, as ever, generated debate about the fault line in the professional game in a country where the first loyalty of players is not to their national team but their employers, the clubs. Eddie Jones has been accused of flogging his squad in training but the only time he has control over his charges is during international windows, and a couple of camps outside. On the evidence of this stop-stop encounter, it is nowhere near enough.
Every round of the Premiership supplies evidence that the club game, lacking the fluidity, pace and intensity Jones believes will be required to have a chance of winning the World Cup, is not serving England. It was not set up to nor will it, as the Saracens chairman, Nigel Wray, who has been involved since the onset of professionalism, reminded those who read his programme notes.
“I can see a time when people, as in football, are more interested in the club they see every week than they are in the national side when they can’t anyway get tickets to watch them at Twickenham,” said Wray, who pointed out that the extra load on players had come through an increase in Test matches. “What is absolutely clear is that Premiership Rugby will as a body have to be the leading party to the future development of the game.”
Wray scoffed at the notion of central contracts, saying that at the rate England called up players, the cash-rich union would soon find itself stretched. His point about potential spectator alienation has not been lost on the Rugby Football Union which intends to play one international a year outside Twickenham, but despite the agreement between the clubs and the union, their games continue to run on parallel lines.
There was little for Jones to take from a match that even before it started showed how the club game had advanced in the last 23 years: commercially. Neither side played in their traditional jersey, the ground was a football stadium, hired because Wembley was unavailable, and the majority of the crowd were not Premiership regulars, hushed for long periods when little happened. The rugby itself can wait.
Maro Itoje, one of eight returning England internationals on display, stirred himself. The second row reacted to suggestions that he had looked tired during the Six Nations by lying down and simulating sleep after scoring Saracens’ second try. Little had appeared to be on when Sarries moved the ball from a scrum that had been cleverly won by Liam Williams who took out Tim Visser in the air while getting a hand to the ball, but Itoje clattered through James Chisholm before leaving James Horwill wondering what had run over him. Tackling was not the strongest part of Harlequins’ game. Kyle Sinckler’s weak attempt to halt Sean Maitland after nine minutes set the tone and the prop was equally ineffective trying to halt another back, Alex Goode, later. That did not cost his side, but Maitland, who had come into midfield from his wing near halfway, got to within 20 metres of the opposition line.
He rejoined the heavy traffic to ensure there was space on the open-side which Saracens exploited to send in Williams, who extended his side’s lead to 10 points after Alex Lozowski’s early penalty. Quins eventually stirred, taking play through endless phases without varying their approach. Were Itoje and his England colleagues tired or bored with the repetitive nature of training and playing? Two Demetri Catrakilis penalties, on another day when contesting for possession at the breakdown was given little latitude by the referee, cut the lead before Itoje’s try and Lozowski’s second kick gave Saracens an 18-6 half-time lead.
Quins showed a hint of dynamism after the break, sparked by Catrikilis’s replacement, Marcus Smith. A jinking Smith break established the platform for James Horwill’s try, but it summed up the erratic nature of his side when his clearance kick from the restart was charged down by Nick Isiekwe and a Lozowski penalty made the lead 10 points again.
It stayed that way until two minutes from the end when, with Max Malins in the sin-bin, Saracens had the final word through the boot of their outside-half but their voice will need to be louder when they face Leinster in the Champions Cup next weekend, a match for which Owen Farrell is rated touch-and-go.