Leicester win popularity contest in narrative shaped by Davies’ card

This was popular. The most well-supported club in English rugby, so far from their customary place at the top of it for so long, have retaken the podium. They took it courtesy of a last-minute drop goal by one of the most popular players in English rugby, so long of career that it came as some surprise to learn this was his first Premiership final. And, boy, did it go down well.

And they did it all against … well, we can safely say, fairly or not, Saracens are not the most popular club in English rugby.

There was something inevitable about the way they hung around in this one, riding the 12 points they conceded during a spell in the sin-bin for their scrum-half, Aled Davies, in the first half, before waxing noticeably in the final quarter, when all the best champion teams make their pedigree tell.

They might even have scored the try that could have won them the game with five minutes to go, had Wayne Barnes, the most popular referee in English rugby, not found himself caught between Billy Vunipola, on his umpteenth charge into the heart of the Tigers defence, and those self-same defenders. Saracens were swarming on the Leicester line, just as they gathered to attempt their customary thrust into the heart of a defence in the last minutes of a final. And they had to stop for a scrum. Moment gone.

Them’s the breaks, as they say. They came away with just the penalty from that visit, which set up a finale to die for. Blink, and Saracens let the latest of a seemingly eternal bombardment of kicks go unsecured, and suddenly it was Leicester swarming at the death. Freddie Burns assumed position, strangely to the right of the posts and actually some way further back than he needed to be. No matter. His drop goal was good – the