Thanks PNH

By Chingy
September 21 2014

  Is a bogey team fact or fiction? A few seasons ago, some Sarries supporters would say away to Worcester was the one match to watch out for. Is away to London Irish becoming the most recent episode of Sarries’ bogey teams?      

To complete a round of matches against all of the “London” teams, a last minute win against Wasps and a very convincing performance against Quins set up this lastest match against London Irish well.

Sat high in the South Stand, Azp_jim and his old man were the company for the day and Sarries got off to the perfect start with quick hands from Billy V and Faz setting up Tim Streather to score with barely 48 seconds on the clock. “Great, this should be a bonus point win by half time and we can all go home early”. This may have been a thought a few sarries supporters may have had, but massive credit to Irish for their reply.

A chip over the Sarries’ defensive line was collected by an Irish winger and fast recycled ball and a great angle by Cowan had Irish on the board with their first try. Still 10-7 to Sarries.

The match was starting to flow end-to-end with tactical and high up-and-under kicks. A Saracens ruck out wide saw Wigglesworth snipe up the blind-side and dot down in the corner unopposed. Add a Faz penalty and Sarries were 20-7 up. Whether the player’s heads turned off or not, but our defence was very suspect for the rest of the match.

An almost carbon copy of the first try occurred for Irish’s second with Lewington racing away to score. A cross-field kick after a few Irish phases resulted in another, and third, Irish try. “What was happening?” A Faz penalty was added and halftime came and went with Sarries 23-19 and a 14-point margin wiped out in a matter of minutes.

London Irish’s short kicking game was smart and was reaping rewards for the Irish wide players. And rewards they got. After some shoddy tackling from the Sarries back three after yet another grubber kick, Lewington collected the loose ball and got his hat trick alongside the try bonus point. Irish now leading 29-23

Both sides traded penalties and both had chances to claim the win. Shane G was kicking well but was unfortunate, to say the least, with some long range efforts that really let Sarries out of jail. A poor missed pen kick by Goode didn’t help matters in terms of the heart palpations. Sarries worked a line-out on their 5m, which was botched and it seemed Irish just had to scrum it out with merely 2 mins on the clock to claim a well-deserved win.

Yet, when it comes to sport, it doesn’t always seem to work like that, and a penalty at scrum time gave Sarries one last chance for points. Captain Brad made a call and stuck to it – into the corner. (I personally don’t think I would have had the nerve to make that call). A driving maul was well set. I fail to comprehend why Sarries didn’t use the maul more at lineout throughout the match, which was successful and effective at drawing in Irish defenders when used.

The pack drove, even Brad and Duncan thought they would lend their weight to the cause, and over went big Billy V. We went mad.

Two last minute tries to win the match in three matches. Really need to sort out this leaky D whether it’s a sweeper to cover any short kicks, grubber or chips, and help out the back three or drop the winger back further from the advancing defensive line. Over to AzP and the visit of Sale Sharks.

London Irish: Fenby; Lewington, Mulchrone, Geraghty, Short; Noakes, Steele; Court, Paice, Aulika; Skivington (capt), Sinclair; Cowan, Treviranus, Narraway.

Replacements: Ellis, Parr, Halavatau, Leo, Low, Guest, O'Leary, Sheridan.

Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Streather, Barritt (capt), Wyles; Farrell, Wigglesworth; Gill, George, Longbottom, Hamilton, Smith, Joubert, Burger, Vunipola.

Replacements: Spurling, Barrington, Johnston, Botha, Wray, De Kock, Hodgson, Taylor

• Half time 19-23

• Attendance
6,665

  Referee
 Luke Pearce

   

   

PHEW!

Discussion started by TheSaracens.com , 21/09/2014 14:18

TheSaracens.com
21/09/2014 14:18

Thanks Chingy and also PotNoodleHorn for the photo



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014:10:03:09:06:24 by TonyTaff.

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WheresMeLunch
21/09/2014 17:12

A good report on the match. Brad's call was an extremely brave one. Hayden Smith getting the ball back to MoBo so quickly seemed to catch Irish off guard as they seemed to be expecting us to get the ball to the front of the line out to get the maul going.Talking to some Irish supporters after the game it was not just the Sarries fans that were thinking that it was going to be a whitewash. Our defence was extremely lacklustre throughout the game.

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#wolfpack
21/09/2014 19:26

No one likes a leaky D

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FezUnite
21/09/2014 19:33

Think Brad made a great decision. No excuses if we lost as we weren't good enough but had the bottle to
Go for it, moments like that will hopefully give is the confidence for decisions in big matches.

Thanks for the report.

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The Bard
21/09/2014 21:30

Did brad Decide on the exact play? Having just watched the highlights it was an extremely risky move that could easily have gone wrong. All credit to Hayden and MoBo for executing it under massive pressure.

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saracens4life
21/09/2014 22:30

Thanks Chinjy

As said above, big Kudos to Doss for executing a difficult lineout move in his 1st Prem game in a long time!

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TonyTaff
22/09/2014 13:47

Thanks Chinjy

It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!

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davidthesarrie
25/09/2014 17:59

Great review Chingy, thank you.

What a finish and listening to the commentary was unbelievable when they said we had got the ball down.

Phew! Says it all.

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