What a game of 2 halves. Absolutely inspirational first half leading by example, injecting pace into the attack, rounded off with a try-saving turnover on our own line at the end of the 1st half. For me, the game turned when he elected for the kick at goal that hit the posts (a decision that seemed to confuse some of the coaches too). You could hear the crowd audibly deflate with the decision, which surrendered all initiative to Sarries. We then stopped playing our ball-in-hand attacking rugby that has served so well in the past 12 months and tried to outplay Sarries at their own kick and chase tactics and went into our shells. I felt the energy levels dropped significantly (understandable in Danny's case from the effort he put in in the 1st half) and Danny should have been substituted by our other international scrum-half with about 20 minutes to go to inject some much needed urgency. I'm sure the lessons are obvious to coaches and players alike and I'm certainly not blaming Danny for the loss - but the coaches probably should have seen he was tiring and replaced him - especially as club captain Lewies was already on the pitch to lead the team.

Ah yh I agree! We are now out of the play offs, have lost nearly all of our games and are barely scoring tries. Dismal viewing.

Don't know why I'm feeding the troll.

Surely Lewies took over the captaincy when he came on?

I think you will find that Care was over-ruled on the field by Lewies in relation to kicking for goal rather to the corner

With regards to substituting Care … Quins made that mistake against Sale when they took Care off when they were 2 pts ahead and failed to see out the game with Scott Steele orchestrating a painful series of “pick & gos” inside Sale’s 22 which resulted in an inevitable sequence of turnovers & penalties which gave Sale the field position they needed to win the game … no attempt to go for the 4th try and the bonus point win

Same issue again today … a more positive approach and an attempt to get the 4th try plus BP might have been the better choice

I think you will find that Care was over-ruled on the field by Lewies in relation to kicking for goal rather to the corner

Fair enough, I didn't recall Lewies being on the pitch at that point, but if he was, I stand corrected ! I wonder who was responsible for the change of tactics to box kicking possession away - was that also Lewies or a message from the coaches ? Either way, it surrendered the initiative and cost us the game

Be AMAZED if Lewies had much sway on on-pitch decisions when he came on...surely Captaincy doesn't work like this???

I had always thought that in those situations the club captain would “take over the armband” as soon as he came onto the pitch … having watched the game again on BT when I got got home you can see that around 62:00 Edwards was poised to kick for the corner before Lewies intervened

Quins success in 2021 has come from “ high risk / high reward” rugby … this decision yesterday was reverting to pragmatic rugby … and it didn’t pay off … there was a 6-point turnaround in a couple of minutes which swung the game in Saracens favour

It unnecessarily exposed an inexperienced 3rd choice fly-half to a high pressure situation which may damage his confidence going forward … we will almost certainly need him to start against Wasps as Tommy Allan is unlikely to be cleared to play having suffered 2 concussions already this season

Actually, contrary to my post above, I just looked at the recording and it appears to be Care who made the decision. Lewies was there but he seems to talk to Care afterwards. Maybe he disagreed - who knows.

I think you’ve got this the wrong way round … Edwards is poised to kick for the corner and Lewies steps forward to tell the ref “we’ll go for the posts”

I thought that at the time and that's what the commentary team said but Care approaches Edwards first while he's preparing to kick for the corner.

I think you’ll find after Care has opted to kick to the corner Care then steps forwards to tell Edwards that Lewies has changed the decision … Lewies then informs the ref

My information is based on pitch-side conversations with certain players after the game