Farrell stars in Sarries win
Teenage fly-half Owen Farrell kicked 16 points in Saracens' hard-fought 26-14 victory over Harlequins at Vicarage Road.
Last Updated: 05/12/10 6:10pm
Teenage fly-half Owen Farrell starred in Saracens' battling 26-14 victory over London rivals Harlequins at Vicarage Road.
Farrell, the son of Sarries coach and former dul-code international Andy, kicked 16 points to add to tries from David Strettle and Schalk Brits.
But it was Harlequins' winger George Lowe who drew first blood when he grabbed a loose ball and ran in unopposed. Nick Evans, however, missed the conversion.
Still, Sarries remained composed and on 11 minutes Farrell pulled three back after Chris Robshaw was pinged for not rolling away.
Blazing run
And six minutes later the 19-year-old had a hand in his side's first try when, receiving the ball from Chris Wyles, he spotted Strettle blazing through off his wing.
The young number 10 delivered the perfect pass to the former Quins man, who collected the ball at full pace and neatly sidestepped Will Skinner to touch down under the sticks.
Farrell added the extras to take the score to 10-5 before adding another penalty on 26 minutes to further extend the hosts' lead.
Harlequins suffered a further blow two minutes later, when former England centre Ollie Smith was stretchered off with a leg injury. But just a minute later, Evans pulled three back to make it 13-8.
Saracens took just two minutes to hit back though; winning turnover ball setting up a driving maul that carried hooker Brits over for his fifth try of the season.
Pressure
Farrell slotted the conversion but Evans again cut the deficit with a 37th-minute penalty to keep his side in touch going into the break.
Saracens piled on the pressure from the restart but it took 17 minutes of the second half before Farrell made it 23-11 with a fine kick when referee Andrew Small spotted Quins going in from the side.
Evans proved again he was no slouch, drilling a 40 metre effort between the sticks to take the score to 23-14 and restore the visitors interval points margin.
But it was Farrell who would have the last laugh with a close-range penalty 15 minutes from time after Ceri Jones was caught offside.