'We don't shy away from it, there's no awkwardness'

Rival internationals Elliot Daly and Nick Tompkins have explained why they are currently making such a consistently potent midfield partnership for the title-chasing Saracens. The pair would have been on opposite teams in the recent Guinness Six Nations, Daly starting as the England outside centre in their late February 23-19 Twickenham win over Wales who had started for his country in that hame at inside centre.

Daly returned to Saracens following the championship and started some games at full-back wing. However, ever since their club’s April 24 win over Exeter, Daly and Tompkins have been an item in the Londoners’ midfield. Heading into this weekend’s Gallagher Premiership final versus Leicester, Daly/Tompkins have become the preferred 13/12 axis in the club last six matches – four in the league and two in Europe.

It’s a development that has pleased Daly, a player that more usually plays his games positions at full-back or on the wing. “It has been brilliant this year,” he enthused at a Saracens media briefing ahead of their Twickenham final.

The Breakdown | Sky Sport NZ | Episode 17

The Breakdown | Sky Sport NZ | Episode 17

“We have had a few different centre partnerships this year and then the second half of the season, me and Nick have sort of settled into those positions which is brilliant. The more you play with each other the more you understand each other’s games and what you need from each other – and we are only getting better in that aspect which is good.

“Hopefully, we can rely on each other’s strengths in this game and I’ll give the ball to Nick in no space and he will make space, so that is what I know he can do and he does that in tight channels and bangs people as well.

“It’s one of those things, it’s just brilliant to get that partnership with someone but to be fair we have got the partnership all round. The way we train, we are constantly in and out whether it is Duncan (Taylor) or Alex (Lozowski), whoever is in the centres, everyone is very comfortable with each other which is a great thing for this team.”

Asked for his thoughts on the current Saracens centre partnership, Tompkins initially struck a jovial chord. “He’s all right,” he quipped to much laughter. “He’ll do. For me, Elliot brings everything he does internationally, he is that calibre of player.

“But I like it that we genuinely get on and we can have honest conversions, we are pretty talkative on the pitch. Whatever fix-ups I need to make and stuff like that we don’t shy away from it, there’s no awkwardness. That is what I like about it.”

Up for interview together, the pair continued on for another 19 minutes on a whole myriad of other topics – including the pub session that helped focus minds when automatic relegation for Saracens became a reality. Then when it all ended, Tompkins revered to light-heartedness, exiting the room singing, “I love playing with Elliot.”