I was in two minds on the journey down; part of me was thinking all the build up predictions were probably right, Irish to win by 10 or so. But the other part of me felt a quiet confidence; Ventner seemed to think we were as prepared as we could be and Irish might be a little rusty, given they thought this might be a little easy.

So I arrived at Twickenham, slightly later than intended, having just missed the 11:50 at Waterloo; I made my way to the inflatable Fez only to find that I had missed the march. Still two tins of beer and a couple of very nice samosas were ample compensation. It turned out I wasn’t the only ones to miss the march as the team decided that coming in through the other empty gate was better than being cheered by the 200 or so gathered to celebrate their entrance from the bus. I gather Edward G was “spitting blood”, if you pardon the pun. Only Saracens could organise a cock-up so well. Back at the giant Fez, the green shirted officials moved everyone from the gathering area into a huddle to park cars. Only 6 quinwagons had arrived for spaces by the time I went into the ground; jobsworths.

Then the new song; “Stand Up”, not a comedy but a catchy little bit of euro-pop. I liked it, but that may have something to do with the fact I had a few beers, we were winning whilst it was played at every opportunity in the match and the opposition supporters were all getting a bit annoyed with it. I am sure it will be played ad-nauseam at Wembley next week; I hope so, I want Saints supporters to know just how infuriating certain songs can be. Anyway the match was upon us, which ended up a real game of 2 halves; not just in the 40 minutes of play but in the 2 outside-halves; one of whom showed why he is the best English qualified #10 in the game and the other why he was let go by Gloucester.

The match finally started with Sarries pushing forward and a quick penalty awarded from a just about kickable position; Glen had his boots on, the Fez magic worked and Sarries were 3-0 up. Irish came back strongly and after a wonderful Lamb ground kick to a big hole in the Sarries defence, they had a kick from a similar position, if not a slightly easier one. Lamb sliced it wide, not his only miss of the day, four in total; two of them shockers at this level. Sarries were unable to clear their lines effectively though and Irish had another penalty right in front; this one not missed; 3-3.

Sarries then settled down into a good period of clever tactical play, which worked well until half-time. They simply kicked the ball over Irish heads landing on or around the 22, which Irish seemed unable to respond to. Initially they tried to run the ball back into play, but great defensive work from Sarries saw them pinned back in their own half and going nowhere. Kicking back wasn’t working well either as often players forgot the 22 rule and Sarries had more than a few lineouts inside the Irish one. Now normally Irish would not be a team we would want to compete lineouts against; but Steve Borthwick seems to have given us some good lessons in the summer. Hugh Vyyvan was jumping as well as that New Zealander we had last season, and Borthers was cleaning up against Kennedy. I think we only lost one lineout all day, with Irish losing about 4 or 5; even ending up throwing short to the prop at the front, normally a sign that a team are under the cosh.  

After about 10 minutes of this stalemate ping-pong; Sarries had a penalty on half-way, which NdeK took quickly, getting an advantage for not retreating. Unfortunately, the advantage was short-lived as Pearson’s arm came down immediately the ball came back to Glen Jackson and he tried a speculative cross-kick to Wyles. Nothing came of the scramble on the far side, except an Irish line-out, rather than the 3-pointer I was hoping for. Never mind, as at the line-out Irish resorted to a bit of scull-duggery. The net result was a Sarries penalty around 15 yards out and a lecture for one of the Irish forwards. Glen started throwing bits of grass around and Irish trooped back under the posts as the lecture was over. Far from taking the points, Glen realised that nobody was looking at him, so he tapped and ran in for an easy try. With a successful conversion, it was Glen 10, Irish 3.

Sarries continued the same tactic afterwards, with another penalty from a scrum making it Glen 13 - Irish 3. Ten minutes later Sarries were driving into the Irish 22, after a great mazy run from Alex Goode and having switched play to the left, Andy Saull was all alone on the right touchline. Glen spotted him and with a perfect cross kick, a second try was scored. Unfortunately, he had to dive on the ball, so Glen’s conversion attempt from five yards in was missed. These were heady times and there was hasty talk of a bonus point. Sarries continued to keep up the pressure and another direct kick into touch set up Sarries with a drive into the middle of the Irish 22 as the clock ran down. Glen tried a drop-goal, but it was pulled left; the only real criticism of a half that Sarries dominated with Irish looking very second-rate.

So half-time arrived and the beer and “Stand up for the Saracens” never felt so good. But of course, we are all Sarries supporters and second-half collapses are not unknown. I listened to Noah Cato on Sarries TV and he said we had one and a half minutes attacking with the ball in hand for the second half; that seems about right as Irish came out fired up. They responded well to Sarries kicking game, Lamb striking the ball especially well from hand, pinning us back in our 22 for most of the second half. Peter Richards was looking very sharp too, jinking and making holes in the defence and it wasn’t long before a penalty was given in a kickable position, but Lamb seemed to have forgotten how to kick from the tee and it went wide. A further penalty, five minutes later as Sarries started to creak in the scrum was also pushed wide, this one from a position far easier than the one he slotted in the first half; a lamentable miss that probably cost Irish the game.

Shortly afterwards, Irish brought on 5 players together, bulking up the scrum; then the fisty-cuffs. I am not sure exactly what happened, but an Irish kick from defence, seems to have been a late tackle with Pearson wandering around just outside the Sarries 22 for the exact spot to give the penalty from. Brit Shalks was wandering back surrounded by about 5 or 6 Irish players when something was said and a few pushes were exchanged. Brit was pushed to the floor and a wade of black shirts jumped in. When the dust had settled, Pearson sent a couple of players to the bin; one was Brit Shalks and the other (and I was extremely surprised here) was Dylan Armitage. I mean his record against Sarries is so exemplary on the discipline front. It ended up with a scrum on the spot of the punch-up so that seemed to be alright.

The loss of Brits seemed to have a negative effect on Sarries as the scrum started to creak further and Irish were driving in the loose with purpose. A break on the far side seemed to be setting up Irish with a two on one, when the ball seemed to be killed by Joubert. A penalty and 10 minutes in the bin; he seemed to have no dispute with it. With Lamb’s kicking record, Irish went for the line-out option, but Sarries weathered the storm. However, Sarries were under the cosh and swapping Vyvvan for Botha, seemed to lighten up the scrum further and it only seemed a matter of time, arries looked dead on their feet. A clever switch of play after a good crash ball had a three man overlap clear, but a terrible, pass well forward left frustrated players and supporters alike. From the resulting scrummage, Irish wheeled Sarries around and on their put-in Stowers powered over from around 10 yards out. I did think initially that he ended up just short, but Irish were well worth the try whilst Sarries only had 13 on the park and looked like they were going to fall apart.

Lamb however missed the conversion; it was pretty simple, any fly-half would have fancied it. Even Ben Broster would have gained the extra 2 points. It did seem to deflate Irish somewhat and Lamb was substituted for Howat shortly afterwards. With Sarries now just 7 points ahead, it seemed a draw was looking possible as Irish were taking control. I then saw a rather unsavoury bit of play as Irish pushed ahead just outside the 22 again. Their power-play of driving on from an inside pass from the centres were punching holes in the Sarries defence, despite some sterling tackling from Glen Jackson. From one such drive the ball was switched towards the west stand, and with 4 men against just Wyles it seemed another try was likely. As Barritt moved across to close off the position, one of the Irish players ran towards him and grabbed hold of his shirt. The “referee’s assistant” must have seen it, but did nothing. Rugby seems to be going down the footie path. Justice was done as a wayward pass went straight to touch.

From the next play, with around 8 minutes remaining, Irish had a penalty bang in front. Would they press for a try or take the points. Sensing they would score eventually, they decided to reduce the arrears to 4. With no Lamb to muck it up, Delon Armitage stepped forward and just scraped it over the bar; leaving a tense last few minutes. Irish pressed forward again, with a jinxing Richards to the fore; I though he was the Irish man of the match despite only playing for the second half. It was getting very tense now, as Sarries were back to a full 15 and playing a little better. They even managed a rare surge into the other half; we were hoping for a penalty to ease the pressure but it came to nothing. Irish pressed again with no more than 2 minutes on the clock and seemed to have worked an overlap on the far side when another pass straight into touch left Sarries with a lineout and ninety seconds on the clock.

They duly won the lineout and tried to wind the clock-down. Typically Sarries the next pick and drive became detached and a penalty was awarded to Irish. All of Lamb’s misses (including that simple conversion) meant they could not kick it and win the game. Instead they tried to run the ball in for the try. The last minute defence from Sarries was as strong as it had been all game and there was no way through; eventually Pearson gave a penalty for not releasing. Hougaard put the ball into the west stand and Sarries had won. A win, a win, a win.

It was the first game of the season and dropped passes and wrong choices were abundant; more on the Irish side to be fair. There were a number of positives from Sarries; stout defending all the way through especially from Jackson and Ratty, both of whom have been suspect in the past. The line-out was very good, especially given the quality of the opposition, Borthers looked very good against Kennedy and it was only when Casey came on in the second-half that Irish gained parity. We took our chances well even if our attacks were limited, we did what we had to do well. On the negative side, we looked a little lightweight in the loose and not great in the scrum but Irish are a beefy side and our bad period coincided with the period we were down to 6 in the scrum.

After the flag waving, cheering the players off the pitch it was time for a beer before the wind-down game of Wasps v Quins. I was interested to see if the fans were going to make anything of “bloodgate”, but everyone seemed think it was time to stop gloating and not one amusing comment was heard by me all day. I do gather that some supporters dressed up as vampires, but I did not see them.

The match realistically ended in the 46^th second when a stupid George Robson head-butted Simpson and earned a red card. Quins played well with 14 men for the first half, when a great break by Strettle from a cross-kick, finished off by Moyne was countered by a Varndell try. The jury is still out on Varndell, despite his two tries; he only had to give a simple inside pass to a two-man overlap but passed to the players ankles. I also though that “boy wonder’s” behind the body pass for Varndell’s first try looked forward. Care kicked well into Camacho hands for Quins second try just after half time and at times Wasps looked ponderous. Finally, tiredness undid Quins. They nearly re-took the lead with 10 minutes to go, but a missed penalty attempt from in front saw their heads go down. A penalty try with a few minutes to go was the nail in their coffin. Both defences looked stretched with plenty of holes although they both tried to attack more than Irish or Sarries. I certainly fancy our chances at the Stoop in two weeks, purely because I don’t think we would have conceded any of the 5 tries scored.    

Saracens: Goode; Cato, Ratuvou, Barritt, Wyles; Jackson, de Kock; Gill, Brits, Nieto, Borthwick, Vyvyan, van Heerden, Saull, Joubert.
Replacements: Hougaard for Jackson (73), Marshall for de Kock (69), Mercey for Gill (64), Botha for Vyvyan (61), Ongaro for van Heerden (53).
Not Used: Skuse, Owen, Haughton.

Sin Bin: Brits (53), Joubert (59).

London Irish: D Armitage; Thompstone, Seveali'i, Mapusua, Tagicakibau; Lamb, Hodgson; Dermody, Coetzee, Ion, Perry, Kennedy, Danaher, S Armitage, Hala'ufia.
Replacements: Richards for Seveali'i (41), Hewat for Lamb (64), Rautenbach for Dermody (69), Buckland for Coetzee (53), Murphy for Ion (53), Casey for Perry (53), Stowers for Hala'ufia (53).
Not Used: Lalanne.

Sin Bin: D Armitage (53).

Att: 67,684

Ref: David Pearson (RFU).

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