One turnstile was in operation; fortunately an enterprising car-park attendant “took the right money” and let most of us in. I did not get a programme though so was a little unsure of a few Storm players. By the time I got to the stand and sat down, the ball came to Adam Powell who was carving through some weak varsity tackling in midfield to touch down close to the posts. Farrell at fly-half added the conversion 

Storm were pretty much in control, not surprising really with their best players on. The front row of Mercey, George and our new Samoan / Kiwi were making hay; Moses was whipping the ball out to Powell and Sorrell in midfield. Don at #8 looked a different class altogether, better than Michael Owen to be honest. Unfortunately, they kicked a fair bit of possession away, but Cambridge were unable to make anything of the ball in their 22, so Storm had enough attacking options in good field positions to run in another 3 tries in the first half.

The second came from a number of drives and quick ball out wide saw a two man overlap. Kruis the flanker dummied the last defender and then ran round under the posts. Then another set of phases saw Jamie George cross on the far side. It was a tricky conversion but Farrell managed to make it count. Just before half-time, Powell coasted through a big hole from a set-piece to make it 28-3 at the break. Cambridge had only two real sustained attacks in the first half; the first ended in a penalty which was kicked, the second in a series of driving mauls. Storm seemed to be unable to cope with the students drive and power; former Australian international Dan Vickerman to the fore. There were three penalties in quick succession all kicked to the corner; all resulting in driving mauls. In the second of these I think it was Mercey who was yellow carded for bringing down the drive. However, the students could not make their extra man count and Storm first halted the drive and then when it was switched outside, stole the ball.

At halftime, Moses and Powell were replaced by Barrett and Casson; the first of a number of substitutions. Cambridge seemed to get back in the game and Storm were unable to break beyond halfway, although the students did not look like scoring either. After Storm then changed their entire front row, with George I think moving to back-row the students seemed to pick up the pace. Certainly up front Storm were struggling, despite Don Barrell performing like 3 men. After a stolen lineout, the varsity flanker broke free from a maul on the Storm side with 10 yards to go and crashed over. 24-10.

More replacements, including Baldwin at scrum-half made matters worse and an appalling defensive line up; there were 6 Storm backs defending against 2 Cambridge backs. Unfortunately, the Storm backs were entirely on one side of the pitch and the fly-half was left with a gaping diagonal hole to run through. During this time, any Storm ball was being needlessly kicked away or the new scrum-half needless darted into trouble. The only ball the backs got was that kicked by Cambridge and Casson with two and Short had mazy runs that Goode would have been proud of, only for the final offload to the supporting players going to ground. It should also be said that the referee was certainly not doing Storm any favours.

Finally Storm did connect up and a number of phases saw Short run round two defenders for Storm 5^th try. Farrell converted for 35-17. The students were not to be denied, with Greenwood (I think) – vocally supported from the students on the touchline ran through or round Short, kicked ahead and collected himself to close the score to 35-24. The students sniffed a potential comeback and attacked well; coming very close through Greenwood again. I agree with the howling crowd, he was taken out a bit late when chipping through for what would have been another try.

All in all Storm played well with good performances from those you would expect. Don Barrell was easily man of the match, with Kev Sorrell putting a number of trademark tackles Powell looked class and Casson was a more than adequate replacement. He looked a bit like Lol Smith going forward. Both second rows played well, lineouts were good and the pack dealt with a good set of varsity forwards 

There were a few players who did not seem to meet the mark. Neither replacement scrum-halves were as good as Moses, nor indeed as good as their opposite number. Farrell looked clunky at 10 although he did not any real mistakes and has his dad’s long pass  

On that performance I would quite fancy the light blues in the Varsity match

Saracens Storm vs Cambridge University

15 Jamie Hearn 14 Michael Tagicakibau 13 Kevin Sorrell 12 Adam Powell 11 James Short 10 Jake Sharp 9 Moses Rauluni
1 Kas Lealamanua 2 Jamie George © 3 Tom Mercey 4 Harry Spencer 5 Hayden Smith 6 George Kruis 7 Jackson Wray 8 Don Barrell

16 Charlie Hughes 17 Alex Brown 18 Aaron Tawera 19 Kevin Barrett 20 Owen Farrell 21 Tom Casson 22 Luke Baldwin   

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