Saracens beat the world record attendance of a club match in their 39-17 Aviva Premiership clash at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
A clinical first-half display from Saracens saw them go in at half time 27-10 up, through tries from Chris Ashton, George Kruis and Owen Farrell, with Karl Dickson’s try and Nick Evans’s penalty keeping Quins within touching distance.
The second half was a more low-key affair, with Sam Smith’s converted try putting Harlequins within 10, but Jacques Burger and Marcelo Bosch sealed the victory for Saracens.
The game had a staggered start as David Strettle was on the receiving end of a swinging arm from Maurie Fa’asavalu, leaving the winger unconscious for a lengthy period of time, forcing him to be carried off on a stretcher.
Soon after, Nick Easter tried to make the most of a poor pass, but could only palm it into the path of Ashton who, after fending off Ugo Monye, dived over to score a 70-metre try, with Farrell converting.
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Harlequins were awarded a penalty inside from 20 metres out, with Evans successfully converting to close the gap.
Sarries hit back with a penalty of their own as Farrell scored from over 40 metres out, re-establishing their seven-point lead, before scoring again shortly after as Kruis powered through Nick Kennedy to touch down under the posts.
After a good period of possession near the Saracens try line, Dickson squeezed through a gap in the Sarries defence to touch down and close the gap, with Evans converting.
Both sides could have counted themselves lucky to still have 15 men on the pitch when Joe Marler held down Richard Wigglesworth, who swung an arm in retaliation.
Farrell plucked Evans’s careless pass out of the air to score under the posts, before converting his own try to go in 27-10 up at the break.
Quins immediately made use of the numerical advantage as Steve Borthwick was sent to the sin bin, and Smith went over in the corner just seconds later.
Saracens secured a bonus point as Berger powered over the line after good movement from Schalk Brits, before Bosch found space to go over under the posts with Farrell converting with the last kick of the game.
Final Score: Saracens (27) 39 / 17 (10) Harlequins:
Scorers
Saracens:
Tries: Ashton, Kruis, Farrell, Burger, Bosch
Cons: Farrell 3, Hodgson
Pens: Farrell 2
Yellow card: Borthwick
Harlequins:
Tries: Dickson, Smith
Cons: Evans 2
Pen: Evans
Match Officials:
Referee: JP Doyle (75th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Roy Maybank and Andrew Pearce.
TMO: Sean Davey.
Teams:
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 David Strettle, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Schalk Brits, 3 James Johnston, 4 Steve Borthwick (Captain), 5 George Kruis, 6 Jackson Wray, 7 Jacques Burger, 8 Ernst Joubert
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 Matt Stevens, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 Kelly Brown, 21 Neil de Kock, 22 Charlie Hodgson, 23 Duncan Taylor.
Harlequins: 15 Ollie Lindsay-Hague, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Karl Dickson, 8 Nick Easter (Captain), 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Maurie Fa’asavalu, 5 George Robson, 4 Nick Kennedy, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Dave Ward, 17 Mark Lambert, 18 Paul Doran Jones, 19 Joe Trayfoot, 20 Tom Guest, 21 Sam Stuart, 22 Ben Botica, 23 Sam Smith.
So they got their record in the end, well done to the fans of both teams, great to see such support for rugby. The gate takings from such a huge crowd for a club game will be massive, not sure what tickets cost but even taking a minimum of £10 (am sure they would have been more) a ticket bearing in mind not all attending would have been paying, concessions etc and that Saracens season ticket holders must surely have already had the ticket for this game covered by their season package, anyway at £10 a ticket this means on current exchange rate more than a whopping R15 million just for one Premiership game! No wonder they have the resources to buy in so many top players.
On top of the gate takings there would be all the money spent by the crowd at the stadium on food etc and the revenue from TV broadcasting so all in all a very successful commercial outing for English rugby and a bonus for Saracens getting the win.
Just to compare with the numbers north of the border; the boxing day derby between Edinburgh and Glasgow got a crowd of 10 thousand one hundred and something at Murrayfield which has a capacity of around 67 500.
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