PURE CLASS OF AVENGER EARL
BEN EARL gained sweet revenge on Harlequins to dethrone the champions and send Saracens back to the Premiership final. A year after being on the wrong end of Quins’ miracle semi-final win while on loan at Bristol, Earl got his own back with a brilliant hat-trick.
In a fierce all-london semi, which saw four players sin-binned, Earl kept his head to book his club a Twickenham date next Saturday against Leicester Tigers.
The Premiership player of the year said: “This means everything to me, especially after what I went through last year.these guys gave me sleepless nights for four months. It’s just nice to get one over them.”
Saracens had to work hard to reach an eighth final in 13 years, after Quins scored two tries in the opening quarter through Alex Dombrandt and a Danny Care beauty from Marcus Smith’s inside pass.
Earl responded with a peach himself, evading three tackles in little space to dot down.
Jack Walker’s head-to-head contact with Owen Farrell left the England skipper bleeding and Quins down to 14 men.
The home side capitalised ruthlessly on the extra man to build a 22-12 lead as Nick Tompkins scored, then flanker Earl bagged his second after Dombrandt spilled the second-half kick-off.
Aled Davies added a fourth Sarries try fromvincent
Koch’s eye-catching assist but Quins fought tooth and nail to get back into the contest.
Sarries had Elliot Daly, Billy Vunipola and Alex Lozowski binned in the space of 15 minutes for dangerous hits and Cadan Murley pulled a try back only for Earl’s third to put the game to bed.
He said: “We said all week that Quins are never going to go away and, trust me, I’ve learned that the hard way so we’re really happy to get it done.”