Full of festive cheer, we arrived at the meeting point, just in time to catch a free beer and see Sarrie the camel lead off the parade around the ground. There were a fair few supporters following the drums. Once inside the stadium front row seats kept us close to the lads carrying out their workout. The warm ups of cross-field kicks and catches by Jackson & Wyles were most impressive.  

Then the match itself; Sarries started brightly following up a bad take from the kick-off by Casey. After a short time, with only a few passages of play, Goode put in a great drop-kick through the posts. Shortly afterwards Sarries worked their way downfield, with Glen kicking behind the Irish backs to find touch close to he Irish line. Hugh had already pinched one Irish throw, but Casey managed to catch this one only for Alfredo Lalanne to have his clearance charged down by the “Huge” arms of Vyvvan. Justin Melck was quick to capitalise and touched down. Glen added the extra points for a 0-10 point advantage.  

Unfortunately from the restart Sarries put themselves under pressure, missing a straightforward catch to give Irish a scrum on the 22. The Irish management have obviously been watching Sarries TV as the try was reasonably similar to the first try by Castres last week; this time it was Stefan Armitage cutting back inside drawing Goode before slipping a pass to Hala'ufia to score an unopposed try. Malone added the extras; a simple kick. The rest of the half was pretty similar from both sides, the only difference being the quality of the final penalty kick. Surprisingly enough, given both of their reputations, the ball was run most of the time. The defences were on top and although no side made any reasonable breakthrough, the pressure did force the defence to give away penalties. Sarries got 3 in kicking range; all of which Glen Jackson slotted over, but although Irish had a similar number, Malone was not as confident and missed 1 of his 2, declining two further opportunities from a similar range.  

Sarries went into the break 10-16 up and all the signs were of a ninth victory. A beer at half-time amongst sombre green clad fans was very pleasurable indeed. After the break, Irish put together a period of extreme pressure, which Sarries seemed happy to soak up. Although territorially, Irish were in the ascendency, they seemed unable to turn it into points. Malone missed another fairly easy kick; opting to kick another to touch. Sarries were defending the lineout well, nicking the odd one and keeping Irish easily at bay; often isolating a lone attacker and turning the ball over. Finally though from another penalty at a scrum on a Sarries put-in; Malone slotted a kick to bring the gap back to 3 points.  

Sarries then made a number of vital substitutions (Brits, Botha and Saull) and came back with a vengeance, dominating play for the next 15 or 20 minutes; pinning Irish back in their own 22 with a series of clever kicks and pressure rugby. They quickly earned another penalty to extend the lead back to 6 points, but could not sustain pressure for long enough to get the vital 9 point cushion their attacks merited. It seemed to me that Sarries gave up on passages of play too quickly; keen to get a drop-goal almost instantly, when another couple of drives may well have earned a penalty or even a try. Sarries seemed content to sit on the six point lead and pin Irish in their own 22. The drop goal attempts were pretty awful; most not even getting to crossbar height.  

Pinning them in their 22 however was working well and Irish started to get a little desperate, often isolating their lone attacker allowing Sarries to double team and turn him over. But returning them to their own 22 seemed the limit of Sarries tactics; Irish changed their own tactics to win the match. They started throwing the ball around, almost in a 7’s way; offloading before the tackle and breaking up the defence. It started to work and in a couple of moves worked their way well into the Sarries half. Then the pivotal moment of the match, when from a fairly innocuous maul, Brits went for a dodgy interception. Personally I thought he made a genuine attempt, nearly catching his own palm into the air. Had he caught it, he was clean away with no defence in sight; Deano thought it was a penalty offence, but to be fair did not produce a yellow card.  

This brought Irish back to three points with only 10 minutes on the clock and I was thinking another draw was beginning to look likely. Irish seemed to have the tactics now though and kept spinning out of tackles and avoiding contact. Elvis, the old professional, made the crucial breakthrough skipping through three attempts at a tackle to go over for a try. Malone rubbed salt into the wounds by getting the conversion (a more difficult kick than both of the ones he missed) to make the gap 4 points to Irish.  

Sarries seemed to have the stuffing knocked out of them and did not really make any serious attempt to get back into the match apart from forcing a lineout just outside the 22 from a straight to touch kick. I think it was Botha who failed to catch it and Irish cleared the danger. It was Sarries now who were under the cosh; Irish just kicking back to their 22 at every opportunity. Sarries made some terrible mistakes; two knock-ons and one wild pass to touch and the unforgivable error of failing to find touch from a penalty with 2 minutes on the clock. Irish wound down time as effectively as we have done to others.  

All in all a loss that could I think have been avoided by a little more pressure when 6 points up with around 25 minutes to go; more ambition than just to keep Irish in their own 22 and perhaps a bit better defence when the ball was being thrown about. However, on the plus side we did get our first bonus point of the season. It was also the first time I’ve ever though that Stefan Armitage was England potential; well done to him.   

London Irish: D. Armitage, Homer, Seveali'i, Mapusua, Hewat, Malone, Lalanne, Dermody, Paice, Ion, Kennedy, Casey, Thorpe, S. Armitage, Hala'ufia. Replacements: Catt for Mapusua (74), Murphy for Dermody (70), Coetzee for Paice (74), Rautenbach for Ion (62), Stowers for Thorpe (58), Roche for Hala'ufia (58). Not Used: Rudd, Lamb.

Saracens: Goode, Penney, Ratuvou, Barritt, Wyles, Jackson, Marshall, Aguero, Ongaro, Skuse, Borthwick, Vyvyan, Van Heerden, Melck, Joubert. Replacements: Haughton for Penney (70), Gill for Aguero (40), Brits for Ongaro (44), Nieto for Skuse (28). Botha for Vyvvan (47), Saull for Skuse (49), Not Used: Rauluni, Hougaard.

Att: 19,734

Ref: Dean Richards (RFU).

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