Oh well I thought, early days and glanced up at the scoreboard. It seemed to say 0-8 from where I was sat and I only breathed a sigh of relief when the announcer said it was 0-6; I need to get my eyes tested. Perhaps Sarries were waiting for me to arrive before they got started because we were soon on the attack and Worcester conceded at the breakdown. Jackson slotted over the first of six penalties and we were on our way. 

Shortly afterwards Jackson slotted over another and we were back in touch at 6-6. Now I missed Pennell being held up over the line (allegedly) before I arrived, but I could see that Sarries were having trouble with Tuitupou in particular. Our long kicking game wasn’t very effective at pinning Worcester back; not least because kicking directly to Latham in space and time is a pretty stupid thing to do. He might be semi-retired but he still knows what to do with a rugby ball and giving it to Tuitupou to wreck havoc on Sarries defence was a good option. He avoided contact skipping and dancing everywhere making telling offloads when finally caught. He was by some distance the man of the match.

Worcester pressed forward with a good Latham kick and from the resulting lineout despite playing pat-a-cake with the ball NdeK finally got his hands on it for a clearance kick. Neil, please a word of advice; if you are going to make a clearance kick inches from your own line, make sure it is an over the shoulder variety or pass it back to Glen. Do not lean backwards and toe-poke it just over the ruck in order to maximise the distance. A tall bloke like Horstmann is bound to knock it down and a fast bloke like Wood will probably pick up the rebound. Walker will probably add the conversion to add insult to injury.

Glen added a third penalty to reduce the arrears to 9-13 at half-time, but Sarries definitely looked under the cosh as they trudged in for a roasting from DrV. There were some bright spots; Kameli got the ball quite a bit in his hands instead of chasing up kicks, but we looked short on penetration. Shalk had a couple of runs in space and we were not dropping passes like we did against the Dragons. Anyway a couple of tinned Guinness inside me at half-time made the second half more hopeful

Glen brought the scores to within a point with his fourth penalty shortly after the interval, but Worcester then piled on the pressure. A great run by Benjamin saw him pile over line but with Goode around his waist. Personally from 70 yards away it looked like a try and watching the replay on the screen didn’t really change my mind, but Mr Pearson was not quite on hand and ruled him held-up. Worcester had a five-yard scrum and their forwards cranked up a gear. I must have seen this pantomime played out a number of times over the years and the script seldom varies. The home side try to avoid a shove and give away a penalty. From then in, it doesn’t matter who does the dropping or the wheeling or the standing-up; we have two more penalties and on the third a front-row player on the defensive side is binned. Then we wait for a replacement prop to come on and on the next play a penalty try is given. In all the same period in a live game involving Sarries I’ve never actually seen a try scored from the same position; normally the number 8 manages to lose control or the scrum-half knocks on, or the defending scrum-half gets in and touches down first. So why on the first scrum don’t we simply not push and allow a surprised #8 to muck it up.

So Nieto was off and we were 12-20 down (sound familiar) and only 14 men on the park. However, we must have learned something from last week as the 14 performed manfully to get us back in the match. We were able to get another kickable penalty from a breakdown offence; or was it offside; Worcester were committing so many of both all game that it was difficult to remember. 15-20 was not a bad position with a man down and then the play of the match. I think it was Latham who chipped over Goode’s head and a couple of forwards were hounding him down as he failed to gather the ball on the first attempt. Now if caught I am sure Goode would have been turned over, but unfortunately three forwards against a speedy full-back is a different contest in a chip and chase. Goode gathered his own kick and passed inside to a speeding Wyles in support; his offload to NdeK in support whilst on his backside was excellent and Neil made up for his earlier error touching down under the posts. Glen added the extras and we were in the lead for the first time at 22-20

Worcester at that point seemed to have all the stuffing knocked out of them and they never really looked in touch, huffing and puffing, but not really looking likely to get a drop-goal let alone a try. Even Tuitupou looked subdued. There was a terrible stop in play as Nieto, who had come back on after the 10 minutes were up, got hit by a flying challenge from a Worcester player. It was a big hit, and normally would have been fine but his ankle got caught up and is now broken. He looks out for the rest of the season. Glen slotted another penalty to make it 25-20 and in the last plays Rawlinson was yellow carded for a bit of handbags. It was a pity Ches wasn’t on the pitch, that’s when I miss him. Right at the death, with under 2 minutes on the clock, Sarries were awarded another ruck related penalty just inside the Worcester half. Glen took the attempt as much to waste a minute as to deny Worcester a losing bonus point. Worcester decided that was enough for them and after mucking about for 20 seconds or so to wipe all the time remaining, put the restart straight into touch.

To be fair Sarries definitely controlled the second half, in the same way that Worcester controlled the 32 minutes I saw in the first. Despite the penalty-try nonsense, they looked likely to win as Worcester looked incapable of defending without giving away penalties. The line-out was pretty well perfect despite Gillies best efforts and we even managed to pinch a couple of theirs. The scrum apart from the one instance looked ok. The ball went through the hands more often although I thought Barritt had a pretty quiet game; Kameli was the one making the hard yards in midfield. Its difficult at Wembley to get a proper view of the game as I seem to be too far away, but we can’t complain about the outcome and Wembley seems to becoming a fortress, although the matches are too tight to be comfortable about. Can the Quins score be similar to that against Glaws this weekend please         

Saracens: Goode; Tagicakibau, Ratuvou, Barritt, Wyles; Jackson, de Kock; Lealamanua, Brits, Skuse, Smith, Ryder, van Heerden, Saull, Joubert.

Replacements: Marshall for de Kock (63), Gill for Lealamanua (41), Nieto for Skuse (41), Botha for Ryder (51), Burger for van Heerden (59).
Not Used: Reynecke, Hougaard, Cato.

Sin Bin: Nieto (47).

Worcester: Latham, Pennell, Rasmussen, Tuitupou, Benjamin, Walker, Arr, A. Black, Fortey, Taumoepeau, Rawlinson, Gillies, Wood, Sanderson, Horstmann.

Replacements: Gear for Pennell (71), Jones for Walker (71), Powell for Arr (71), Sourgens for Taumoepeau (69), Cracknell for Wood (58).
Not Used: Gilding, Lutui, Kitchener.

Sin Bin: Rawlinson (78).

Att: 40,163.

Ref: Dave Pearson (RFU).

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