If ever there is a team who specialise in making their own luck it is Harlequins. The question is whether the Houdinis of English club rugby can once again conjure enough of it to ensure another stirring chapter in their eventful modern history. Because if Saracens go 28-0 up in the first half of Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership semi-final, as Bristol famously did at the same stage last year, a magical comeback is simply not going to happen.
It does not require a genius, either, to sense how motivated Saracens are to re-enter the winners’ circle after three years of tumult. Which puts the onus on the defending champions to respond accordingly: all the usual crowd-pleasing tricks and sleight of hand but allied to the consistent control and bristling physicality that the best sides display. An acid test of the champions’ mettle, in other words, is coming over the hill.
