Saracens
Saracens Turn Carnivore
By Innings
December 22 2013
After two weeks of feasting greedily on fillets of zebra, Sarries returned to the bread and butter of the Aviva Premiership yesterday. They were to welcome a large contingent of Leicester Tigers’ typically passionate and knowledgeable supporters to Allianz Park for the first time. With atrocious weather throughout the day, it was natural that conversation tended towards thoughts of a very low-scoring game, perhaps decided by a single score and probably as a result of a single error in a key part of the field.
After heated argument on various threads, That Song was abbreviated to a single chorus, perhaps a concession to the weather, perhaps to the needs of BT Sport, and perhaps a compromise offered to those Sarries faithful whose dislike of the song verges on the pathological. Stirring music followed, and then a gap as the Tigers delayed their appearance for some moments. A few changes, some expected and enforced by injury, one enforced on Tigers with the resting of Dan Cole under the EPS agreement. For Sarries, Marcelo Bosch was a late withdrawal through sickness, giving new boy Tim Streather a game opportunity.
Playing into the very strong and rain-laden south-westerly wind, Tigers set out their stall early on, and it seemed, even from their team sheet, that Plan A was to play a tight, forward-controlled game suited to the wind, rain and muddy conditions underfoot. As it was their first visit to AzP, they were wrong-footed, often literally, by the lack of mud anywhere near the playing surface. Sarries seemed to have forgotten their history as ‘Boring, boring Sarries’ and set out to play as though Saturday 21 December was a delightful spring afternoon with the sun on their backs and only the slightest of breezes to distract them. In the stands we felt that they needed a minimum margin of 20 from the advantage of the wind and rain behind them if they were to turn round ready to withstand the Tigers’ charge after the break.
The early exchanges went Sarries’ way. A threatening Sarries attack started by Richard Wigglesworth after the first of many aimless Tigers’ kicks into Sarries’ territory, quick ball, and Jack Wilson was over in the corner, to maintain his record of scoring in every game he’s started. Owen Farrell converted a most difficult kick from wide out, drifting the ball across the face of the posts and allowing the wind to carry it through. Minutes later, a sharp and well-weighted kick-through by Streather gave him a chase through, and the subsequent melee gave Farrell a much simpler chance to go to 10-0. Farrell and Lamb traded penalties; Lamb’s being a remarkable kick. Straight in front of the posts and 45 metres out sounds routine, but taking these points in the face of the slanting wind and rain was a good effort.
At 35 minutes, it really did not feel that Sarries were doing enough to buy the cushion they’d need when Tigers would have the weather conditions in their favour. 13-3 was a margin, but probably inadequate. Then came a critical moment, with a frankly lazy clearance by Farrell giving Tiger Graham Kitchener an early Christmas present as he found himself behind the Sarries line, ball sitting up nicely for him and only a couple of paces needed for a score under the posts. This was an easy conversion for Lamb and Tigers needed to hang on for fewer than four minutes to turn around with only a 3 points deficit. The cameras cut to the beaming face of Richard Cockerill in the stands. However, if what had happened under the Sarries posts a moment before was critical the next action was simply desperate. Sarries put in a threatening attack after turning over, Farrell passed wide and Kitchener arrived put in a tackle on him that seemed to come from a different time zone. There was prolonged discussion between the TMO and Wayne Barnes, resulting in a yellow for Kitchener. Sarries eschewed what seemed like easy points on offer, and took a scrum. The ball came out to the right, and Farrell checked his run, threw a long pass to his right, taken by Chris Wyles, who drew his defence and passed to Chris Ashton, who touched down cleanly in the corner. We now endured one of the longest TMO reviews ever seen in the professional game. The decision could have gone either way, and few Sarries supporters would have cavilled at the call of a forward pass. However, after endless replays on the big screens Mr Barnes called the try. Farrell could not convert and moments later the teams were heading for the tunnel, the score 18-10. This was less than half the margin we felt was needed, but somehow we also felt that Tigers were not here to win. Tigers had Plan A, but the only Plan B in evidence seemed to be needle Farrell into disciplinary indiscretion. But that young man is a grown-up now and was not obviously tempted.
Tigers started the second half with the weather gage, but to play several more minutes without Kitchener. As he had been one of the more effective Tigers players until his departure, this was a handicap that might negate their weather advantage. Up until now, Billy Vunipola had been playing a curate’s egg of a game, causing havoc with some bull-dozing on the grandest scale but spilling two restarts to give Tigers scrums deep in Sarries’ territory. With Kitchener still absent another charge took Vunipola over the line and gave Farrell another straightforward conversion. In the space of 8 minutes either side of half-time Tigers had gone from 13-10 down to 25-10.
It is difficult to state exactly when we realised that the unthinkable had happened: Tigers simply gave up. Having replaced their second choice front row with what many thought should have been their starting one at 45 minutes, and bringing on Thomas Waldrom for Pablo Matera at 54, we presumed that the master-plan was to be effected with the Tigers bench strength expected to make the difference. Sarries had exchanged the increasingly well-regarded Richard Barrington with Mako Vunipola at half-time, and Matt Stevens for James Johnson at 54 minutes, so perhaps the Tigers plan to dominate the later exchanges up front had a fatal flaw. Admittedly, Marcos Ayerza did cause problems for Johnson at their first couple of meetings in the set-piece, but the combination of the Vunipolae, Johnson and Hargreaves until replaced by Kruis on 54 minutes, led on by the indomitable Borthwick, was simply over-powering the rapidly-losing interest Tigers.
At 67 minutes we suffered the always-anxious sight for any rugby crowd, whomever they support. Back board, neck splints and all the bits and pieces needed for serious injury were brought onto the field and a prolonged stoppage saw Farrell carried of the pitch. Charlie Hodgson replaced him and carried on as though he had playing in the Sarries No. 10 armchair all his life. Later on, the sight of Farrell walking out to join the other players on the bench attracted some of the loudest, probably relieved, applause of the day, to his bemusement.
The period after the injury saw a little cameo played out between the two sides back row replacements. Jackson Wray had come on for Ernst Joubert. The score-line of this cameo reads Wray 5 – Waldrom 10
Immediately before the hold-up, a Ryan Lamb penalty kicked to the corner from inside his own half had over-cooked and gone beyond the corner flag, so we re-started with a Sarries scrum inside Tigers’ half. Neil de Kock, replacing Wigglesworth, showed clean heels, and Wray was on hand to touch the ball for the first time, strolling at pace but untroubled by any defence for an easy 5 points and the four-try bonus point. Very soon after, Sarries were pressing hard at the Tigers’ line. Waldrom flopped about a bit, ineffectually, and eventually flopped once too often, earning himself 10 in the bin. The difference between the two back row players’ contributions rather summed up everything by this stage.
At 42-10 Sarries were once again in sight of the 50 point scoreline, for the second week in succession. Ashton took his second of the day, his third in the last two matches, Hodgson took the extras and Sarries ended the day with six tries, 49-10 and a thoroughly good day at the office.
Wigglesworth was MotM, but it could in truth have been any one of many Sarries players. Tigers will look back on this as one of the most disheartening performances ever seen by those wearing that proud shirt, and Ryan Lamb in particular will be aware that his 150 or so appearances in the professional game have probably never produced so lacklustre a game as this one.
As we left the ground, we were asking ourselves how Cockerill would explain this. Clearly not his fault, would Wayne Barnes be the main culprit, the weather or the pitch? We under-estimated the man. The culprits were the IRB, Barnes being merely a pawn in their hands. His tactical plan, his team selection, his team’s lack of motivation, were none of them the reasons for Tigers’ greatest-ever defeat in the professional leagues. You couldn’t make him up if he didn’t exist. And now, on top of all his worries, Cockerill had to reveal that his only adequate 10 at this level, Toby Flood, has decided to move on to pastures new at the end of this season.
Some key facts emerge at the end of the day. In four Aviva Premiership games played that day, a total of ten tries were scored, six by Sarries, four shared between the other seven teams. The four winning teams scored 96 points between them, of which Sarries scored 49 and the other three 47 in total.
Summing up the day, which I described at the beginning of this write-up as the bread and butter of the Premiership, I need only three words. This was not bread and butter, it was:
Tigers on Toast.
Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Streather, Wyles, Wilson; Farrell, Wigglesworth; Barrington, George, Stevens; Borthwick (capt), Hargreaves; B. Vunipola, Brown, Joubert.
Replacements: Ransom for Goode (69), Hodgson for Farrell (66), de Kock for Wigglesworth (53), M. Vunipola for Barrington (41), Johnston for Stevens (53), Kruis for Hargreaves (56), Wray for Joubert (66).
Not Used: Brits.
Leicester: Tait; Morris, Goneva, Smith, Benjamin; Lamb, B. Youngs; Stankovich, Briggs, Balmain; Slater, Kitchener; Gibson, Matera, Crane (capt).
Replacements: Hepetema for Smith (41), Mele for B. Youngs (65), Ayerza for Stankovich (45), Schuster for Briggs (45), T. Youngs for Balmain (45), De Chaves for Kitchener (74), Waldrom for Matera (53), Thompstone for Hepetema (46).
Sin Bin: Kitchener (38), Waldrom (70).
Att: 9,999
Ref: Wayne Barnes (RFU).
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Stumbleupon22/12/2013 16:03
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2014:01:02:13:12:22 by TonyTaff.
But I'm not sure if I'd least like to be Tigers in training this week, or the team that gets to face them at the weekend.
"Saracens played very well, they deserved to win and their power was the key for them and we couldn't cope with it. We weren't good enough."
It's a general perception on most non-Tigers boards that Cockerill is passionate about Tigers but sadly unable to accept that his constant seeking excuses for any Tigers shortcomings doesn't always have to include an attack on the referee or in this case an indirect dig at Barnes by attacking his employers. Given that general perception, which may even be exaggerated, would you expect a piece written for Sarries supporters, written with his comments in mind, would say anything different? If you want a fair and impartial take on the game, listen to pundits on the TV, if you can find any.
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
Not much point in you writing anything if you are not even going to attempt to be fair. I certainly know now that there's no point in reading anything you write.
"The risk was picking the same side we played against Montpellier after two massive games and just hope to battle it out," he said.
"But I felt that we had to keep guys fresh because we have two home games coming up and then we are back into Europe. We can't keep putting the same side out.
"With the injuries we have got, we have to rest guys and then we had to rest Dan Cole too because of the EPS (Elite Player Squad) agreement with England.
"But it didn't work. I picked the team, I got it wrong, I am to blame."
Typical. Blaming everyone but himself. Oh...
Quote:Shhh
Not much point in you writing anything if you are not even going to attempt to be fair. I certainly know now that there's no point in reading anything you write.
you may be right, as ever; but this board struggles for contributors to keep it going.
i used to write for this site a fair amount & it's enough of a time commitment for comments like yours above to be uncalled for and quite off-putting for the writer.
thanks for the report Innings
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
It was a Cocky selection, and he'll have the last laugh if they get up to fourth on the last day of the season, and then win the final.
I don't find his plaudits to us to be credible. He threw this game, in the interests of resting his players, though he really should have left Ayerza and Youngs (T) at home. He's not going to admit that he threw it, of course.
It's only just dawned on me that we didn't move into AzP until late winter, so this is the first time that we are playing on the surface in the deepest grip of winter. The contrast between the action, over the weekend, at other grounds and at AzP is stunning. I hope our lads can adjust when they find themselves running out onto a mudbath.
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Quote:Innings
The new all-singing, all-dancing ads at the foot of each thread seem to be focussed on my health, particularly my digestive tract, pains in the joints and blocked nose.
Thank you for the report Innings. You should worry, most of the ads that I get, nowadays, encourage me to save for my funeral.
Regardez mon visage. Suis-je bovvered?
Quote:Shhh!
Touched a nerve did I?
Not much point in you writing anything if you are not even going to attempt to be fair. I certainly know now that there's no point in reading anything you write.
Then Don't
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