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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Nick Purewal

Saracens desperate to give inspirational Owen Farrell title-winning send-off

Theo Dan has pledged that Saracens will throw everything at securing a Premiership title-winning send-off for Owen Farrell.

England hooker Dan scored twice as Sarries hammered Harlequins 52-7 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday in an ominous display.

The Men In Black want to seal a seventh league crown, before Farrell quits the club this summer for Paris' Racing 92.

Farrell marked his 250th Saracens appearance with a trademark showing of guile and grit, in an eight-try romp to kick-start the league resumption after a seven-week break.

"It’s incredible, it’s not only 250 for the club, it’s the 112 games for England and maybe 10 to 15 for the Lions," said Dan.

"He’s had such an incredible career, sadly for us his time at Saracens is coming to an end at the end of the season.

"So for us we’re just focused on making sure we’re performing as a team, so that at the end of it we can give him the send-off he deserves.

"Because he’s been at the heart of the club and everything good at the club for more than a decade.

"We’ve got 10 weeks left until the end of the season. And with how tight the table is, it does feel like every game’s a bit of a final."

Sean Maitland grabbed a try double to add to Dan's pair, with Alex Lewington, Lucio Cinti, Juan Martin Gonzalez and Alex Goode crossing too, in front of a bumper 61,214 crowd.

Saracens will face leaders Northampton at Franklin's Gardens on Friday night, where the winners will end the night top of the league.

Mark McCall’s men hit full stride on their return to club action and are now fixated on sustaining that strong restart.

Maitland's second try lit up north London, with Dan relishing his side's attacking flair.

"Our attack is very structured, it might seem loose but there’s a lot of method behind what you might see as madness," said Dan.

"When you’ve got Elliot Daly chucking through-the-legs-passes it might seem loose, but on the flip side he’s scanned, he’s seen there’s two guys outside him, so why not?

"It was just one of those days. Obviously we’ve been away for the Six Nations, but the guys have been training for eight weeks, hard.

"I’ve spoken to the guys at the club almost every day and I’ve been hearing how tough their training sessions were over the last eight weeks.

"And it’s no surprise we went out there and attacked it the way we did, because the guys have been putting in the work over the break. We’re just glad it came off."

Harlequins mustered a scant consolation score through Alex Dombrandt. The west Londoners slipped to an eighth straight league loss to Sarries, in concerning fashion.

Amid several social media apologies from players, head coach Danny Wilson insisted that Quins must confront their shortcomings head-on and without delay.

“We've got to front it, face it, then prove it to be a one-off, a bombshell, and respond to the bombshell," said Wilson, with Quins hosting fellow play-off chasers Bath on Saturday.

"You can’t let it linger or brush it under the carpet. The league is so tight that we absolutely have to bounce back straight away.

"We went into that game second in the league with a home European knockout game also secured.

“But this game can quickly remind you that if you’re slightly off, you’re in trouble. We were more than slightly off, and we ended up in trouble."

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