Saracens claimed the two points necessary to keep their league ambitions alive on Sunday in a match their opposition believed should never have taken place.

For Harlequins, beaten 25-16 in dour encounter at Vicarage Road, had already asked for the match to be called off due to their burgeoning front row injury list.

After the game, their director of rugby, Andy Keast, already embroiled in the row over England captain Will Carling's retirement, said: "We were waiting for ERP to give us a decision as to whether the match should have been played.

"I don't believe this game should have gone ahead, on medical grounds. But we have gone ahead and we have lost, but that is the game."

In the end, Harlequins proved a real handful for a Saracens side experiencing a heavy dose of mid-season jitters.

A crowd of more than 10,500 witnessed a gruelling first 40 minutes, where both sides gradually shut down any form of invention out wide and satisfied themselves with pummelling each other up front.

Not surprisingly, the half ended with all the points coming from the boot, with "foreign legion" fly-halves Thierry Lacroix and Michael Lynagh claiming three penalties apiece.

With Newcastle winning easily against London Irish, the half-time talk was severe in the Saracens dressing room.

Director of rugby Mark Evans later told how his side's strategy had switched to a fully confrontational forward attack method, saying: "It wasn't pretty, but it was pretty effective."

But keeping the ball in tight almost backfired for the Men in Black, as they began to offer pockets of valuable space out wide.

Quins full back Scott Stewart pounced on the opportunity, running a mark out of his own 22 and setting up a move which sent newly rejuvenated wing Dan Luger (great name!) off on a searing run to touch down for five points.

Lacroix doesn't miss many conversions in front of the posts and, true to form, the Frenchman was on target to leave Saracens trailing by seven points.

But it was there the scoreboard stopped turning for Quins.

The home side gradually built up a head of steam, their back row, particularly the wonderfully skilful Tony Diprose, starting to exert pressure.

It was this constant battering which eventually saw them camped on Quins' line, grinding out aborted scrum after weary scrum until referee Brian Campsall could take no more.

A penalty try was the reward for Saracens' persistence and some fairly cynical defence from a weakening Quins forward line.

Together with three second half penalties from Lynagh, it was ultimately enough to seal victory for the home side, but not before Quins squandered a strong position through some ill-discipline from Gareth Llewellyn.

Two points in the bank, but with the Newcastle fixture looming large on the horizon, Saracens will have to rediscover the try-scoring magic of the past few months in order to stay in touch with a powerful Falcons side.

With sides doing their homework on Sarries, the sharp attacking moves which caused such havoc earlier in the season seem to have been blunted.

It is up to Saracens to add some new weapons to their armoury to regain the keen edge which has garnered such success this year.

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