Pre game flares

By saracensfan62
October 4 2026

The feel-good factor from that excellent 5-pointer win at Welford Road lasted precisely one week and today brought us crashing back down to reality. Today’s game was flat and error-ridden that Sale Sharks exploited with ruthless efficiency. Sale are definitely bottom 3 (if not 2nd worst) team in the league and SOMEHOW the team once again delivered a horribly underwhelming show at home to secure 1 losing bonus point and nothing more. This report is naturally a short one as I somewhat lost interest about 60 minutes in and started cooking dinner instead! I should note I was not in attendance at StoneX today, couldn’t get out of plans made months ago and was forced to watch from the tv. Saracens ticketing office have made it impossible to try and transfer tickets over to anybody with their ridiculous and dysfunctional App (why do we even need an app anyway?)  so, I couldn’t even give my own ticket to a mate who wanted to go. Grr grumble over.

First Half

The game didn't get off to an ideal start, with Sale opening the scoring inside the first few minutes. Nathan Jibulu was the beneficiary, dotting down from the driving maul for an early lead from a well-worked catch and drive. Fair enough it did look pretty unstoppable. 0-7, 5 or so mins in and the already-empty looking 

A yellow card for Alex Lozowski and a 20-minute red card for Jacques Vermeulen, both for high tackles, kept referee Joe James and TMO Hamish Smales busy. This gave Sarries the platform to do some real damage but they failed to do so. It looked as though we did get a score halfway through the first period after Nick Tompkins crashed over from short range under the sticks but the try was ruled out for an earlier infringement. So, so frustrating and we were back to stage one.

After 15 further minutes of banging on the proverbial door, Sale finally cracked. Eroni Mawi crashed over for the first Sarries try of the game. However, Burke’s previously excellent goal kicking seemed to abandon him this week and the conversion fell just wide of the posts, meaning Sale took a slender two-point lead into the break. 5-7 the half time score and that more reflected how poor Saracens were then Sale good.

Second Half

Sale started the second half in similar fashion to the first, scoring early on into proceedings. George Ford's up-and-under kick was collected (totally uncontested by the way?! shocking...) who worked his way through some very, very poor defence to score. Ford had clearly identified that the Saracens back three were vulnerable under the high ball and went straight back to that well after the restart. O'Flaherty's footwork to beat the covering defenders Fergus Burke and Alec Clarey was excellent (did anyone else notice Jack Bracken’s ‘dodgy’ hamstring as he pulled up??) but it was Ford's game management that was the real story. Two minutes into the second half and the platform Saracens needed to build their comeback had already been knocked away. Normally we’d need a Jamie George or an Owen Farrell to come in and steady the ship, but both these 2 are seemingly injured or unavailable at the minute.

The game fell into a very cagey rhythm. With both sides struggling to string phases together without unforced errors, however, as Sale had the scoreboard on their side, the visitors were happy to allow the game to slow down heading towards the hour mark. Herein lies Sale’s playbook in its purest form – they strangle any tempo the opposition side develop and win ugly. Sound familiar?...
Sanderson's side executed it to perfection and Saracens, without the ball and without momentum, had no way through.

A late score from Charlie Bracken kept sarries in the fight late on however, it wasn't to be and Sale ground out the game and got the win.

Conclusion

Quite a few players really need to be looked at and their spots in the 23 questioned. I saw a lot of anonymous faces today who either seemed disinterested or not at the races. I shan’t name any names but I think we all know who I’m thinking about.

Joe Shaw will have a short week and a long list of problems to address before Bristol come to town. We need to bounce back against Bristol and do it fast. Cannot have a repeat of today again at StoneX, or else what was a poor attendance today will only get worse. Come on Sarries.

Photo Credit - Darren Stephens. Many thanks :)