English club rugby has had better seasons but there was nothing wrong with this compelling finale. For the first time since 2019, Saracens are domestic champions and able to smile again after their well-publicised salary-cap travails and painful last-ditch defeat to Leicester last year. They also had the contest’s dominant character in the form of Owen Farrell, who once again bent a big game to his considerable will.
Saracens needed every ounce of resilience at their disposal because a gloriously sun-splashed occasion, briefly interrupted by a few Just Stop Oil protestors flinging their orange powder around, contained numerous twists and turns. They had been ahead 20-13 at half-time but entering the final 15 minutes it was Sale who led 25-23.
