Smith stars as Quins beat Saracens for first win

The Prem

Harlequins (26) 33

Tries: Smith, Driscoll, penalty try, Murley, Porter Cons: Smith (3)

Saracens (10) 15

Tries: Segun, Dan, Tompkins

A Marcus Smith-inspired Harlequins registered their first Prem victory of the season with a convincing win over ill-disciplined Saracens in the London derby at The Stoop.

Smith shone throughout and marked his 200th Quins appearance with the opening score as Seb Driscoll, a penalty try and Cadan Murley's ninth London derby try secured rock-bottom Quins a bonus point before half-time.

Sarries stayed in touch with tries from Rotimi Segun and Theo Dan before the turnaround, but two yellow cards made their task harder.

The second half was a tighter affair but Quins extended their lead through Will Porter and despite Nick Tompkins' consolation score, the hosts recorded a third straight home Prem win over their rivals, who could have gone second with victory.

Quins stay bottom but are now only one point behind Exeter and Newcastle with Saracens in fifth, five points behind early leaders Gloucester.

England fly-half Smith set the tone inside three minutes, darting through after some quick handling down the left flank and then converting his own try.

Saracens gave up a series of penalties in the opening stages, allowing Quins to pile on the pressure, and Driscoll burst through Tomos Williams for the second score after 15 minutes following a bulldozing run and quick pass from England prop Fin Baxter, who was making his first start in 10 months after recovering from a foot injury.

The visitors pulled one back four minutes later when Segun jinked to the line in the corner after a quick pass from Max Malins, but Quins were undeterred and were awarded a penalty try on 24 minutes when a rolling maul from a line-out was dragged down on the line, with Ben Earl shown a yellow card.

Sarries thought they had closed the gap further when Malins scampered over the line after Segun brilliantly kept the ball in play, but Smith stole in from behind to slap the ball away before the unsuspecting Malins could ground it.

Moments after Earl returned to the fray, Fergus Burke was sin-binned for a head-to-head tackle on Quins' Rodrigo Isgro as he surged towards the line.

The hosts made Sarries pay within 60 seconds as Murley gathered a long pass on the left flank and dived into the corner.

Saracens did reduce the arrears with the final play of the half, Theo Dan touching down following a rolling maul from his line-out.

Burke was not allowed to return from the bin after failing a head injury assessment, with Angus Hall coming on in his place and Malins switching to fly-half before Sarries made five changes in the pack just seven minutes into the second half.

Porter pounced on a drop from Segun and then strong-armed his way to the line to extend the lead on 55 minutes, with Smith slotting the extras.

Tompkins bounced his way over after a maul on 62 minutes to reduce the arrears but Hall hooked his conversion attempt wide and Sarries were unable to conjure a late bonus point in the face of some solid Quins defence.

Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore:

"Danny Care is the quintessential Harlequin but I think Marcus [Smith] is number two because of the work that he puts in and the care that he's got for the club.

"He's only 27 years old and has played 200 games for us. We're so lucky to have him and we're so proud of him.

"Everyone knows Harlequins – when we're at our best, we can play a really free-flowing style of rugby, but we've got to have grit on the other side of the ball as well.

"If Marcus isn't going to die on plays, then we're in the contest. That was a really big statement against Max Malins that he set for our boys."

On the return of Fin Baxter and a potential England recall:

"I'd certainly back him after the way he came back. He showed his quality right from the get go.

"We'll bang another game into him against a big Exeter pack next weekend. Hopefully we can push him to 50 minutes, 60 minutes then.

"Whether he comes off the bench or starts, that's up to [England head coach] Steve Borthwick.

"We just don't want to be too greedy with Fin because we haven't had him for a while. He came back and played a really strong game.

"We've just got to make sure we don't overload him too much too early because he's such a good player."

Saracens head coach Joe Shaw told TNT Sports:

"You can't afford to come here and make as many errors as we did in the first half, around our roles, understanding what we're trying to do. We were off it, it's really disappointing.

"We prepared well this week, off the back of our performance against Connacht.

"We know that we've got brilliant players in the room and brilliant coaches but you've still got to turn up and perform and we'll look at why that didn't happen."

On the team rotation system being used for the first eight games:

"We believe that if you are good enough to play in training, and you're good enough when you play games, then you deserve to play a role in these early games.

"Then, when it gets to the back end of the season, when things get tough, when people go down [injured], you can just be replaced by the next person in.

"But you've still got to perform in training and games to have a seat at the table so we're going to have to have a good look at that and get ready for next week."

Harlequins: Furbank; Isgro, Northmore, Bradley, Murley (c); Smith, Porter; Baxter, Riley, Streeter, Dun, Treadwell, Kenningham, Driscoll, Schmid.

Replacements: Staples, Hobson, Delgado, Williams, Browne, Evans, Friday, David.

Saracens: Malins; Bracken, Cinti, Tompkins, Segun; Burke, Williams; Carre, Dan, Street, Itoje (c), Martin, Michelow, Onyeama-Christie, Earl.

Replacements: George, O'Driscoll, Clarey, Tizard, Isiekwe, Gonzalez, James, Hall.

Sin-bin: Earl (24 mins), Burke (36 mins)

Referee: Hamish Smales