Malins double helps Saracens avoid Ospreys upset to reach quarter-finals

For the first time in three years, Saracens are back in the latter stages of the Champions Cup. If they are to add to the three titles they secured in the 2010s, they will have to do it the hard way – with a quarter-final at the home of the champions La Rochelle on Easter Sunday.

They were hardly at their best here in seeing off a feisty Ospreys challenge, but an opportunist try by Duncan Taylor, with the replacement centre’s first touch, broke the back of a match the visitors had led for the most part. Saracens have already confirmed a home playoff in the Premiership, such has been their form, but as notable as any characteristic in the panoply of their qualities is the ability to secure a result when they are a little off.

Which is to make it sound as if this was a far less compelling match than it was. That owed much to the Ospreys’ energy and muscularity. And Saracens, even if they struggled to find their rhythm, were constantly trying to, swinging the ball this way and that with those wicked loops and misdirections. It’s just that they kept dropping the ball.

They suffered for it on the scoreboard. In a first half that was something of a triumph – well, apart from his yellow card before the break – for the young centre Keiran Williams, Ospreys rattled their hosts, taking a 14-3 lead midway through it. We would hardly be the first to compare Williams to Scott Gibbs, but he can never have looked so barrel-chested and explosive than when he burst through Saracens’ defence in the 11th minute to set up the first try of the match, for Mike Collins.

That was more or less the Ospreys’ first attack, Owen Farrell having kicked Saracens into an early 3-0 lead with a successful penalty at his second attempt. Morgan Morris paved