Saracens’ Owen Farrell fresh in mind and body to regain Premiership title

It is a long old road to the Premiership grand final but it is the last 80 minutes of the season that shape everything. This is the 20th edition since the playoffs were introduced in 2002-03 and it remains striking how many past winners have had to endure bleakly dispiriting days before graduating to the English domestic game’s highest prize.

Between 2005 and 2013 Leicester were in the final every year but lost three of their first four and could not always instantly adjust to the more urgent rhythms of sudden-death rugby. Remember, too, Saracens being beaten in extra time by Northampton in 2014 only to win four of the next five domestic crowns? It is the setbacks en route that define teams as much as the cool sensation of sprayed podium champagne.

Which is why this season’s finale already means such a massive amount to both sides. So low had the Tigers fallen a couple of years ago it seemed they might struggle to regain their old snarl. And Saracens? Their salary cap defrocking is a matter of historical record but it is their resurrection, they believe, that is revealing the club’s true character. No one, certainly, can accuse them of having taken the easy route back.

Step forward, then, the man around whom so much invariably revolves on these major occasions. Owen Farrell was a teenager playing like an old-timer the last time Sarries and Leicester collided in a Twickenham final, in 2011, kicking soaring touchline conversions and fitting seamlessly into a side captained by Steve Borthwick, the current Tigers’ head coach. Now, at 30, he is an old-timer seeking to regain some of that youthful energy.

On the evidence of recent weeks, he is succeeding. If ever there was an example of someone using an injury lay-off wisely