By Whaley Shark
January 2 2011

Well, the pressure is beginning to mount now. Leeds’ win yesterday has suddenly taken a big bite out of the cushion we had and after the turmoil of the last few weeks, culminating in Monday’s loss to Tigers, we could really do with some stability. So who’s visiting today? Saracens, third in the table and with ambitions, and a newly signed dancing outside centre. Just what we needed.......

Well, away at Leicester it took us quarter of the match and three tries conceded before we realised we did know how to play this game. Today, we got going much more quickly and, after going behind to an early penalty, we won possession, built an attacking position on the left, and Paul Williams slid a delicate grubber through the Saracens defence. Captain Cueto just had the pace to scrape the bobbling ball up and cross for an unconverted try. Five minutes later, after a pretty even midfield battle, we strung together several phases and, with Kyle Tonetti making good ground, put the Saracens line under pressure. Eventually, James Gaskell scrambled over in a heap of forwards, to be given the try by the TMO. 12-3 after 15 minutes looked OK to me and my neighbours.

A combination of Sarries errors, lively sniping by Dwayne Peel, and some pinpoint Charlie Hodgson kicking kept Saracens under the cosh for the next 15 minutes and yielded three successful penalty kicks for us. At 28-3 up with just over half an hour played, I looked back in my notebook to see what the score was at the equivalent stage of the Tigers game on Monday (21-7 since you ask). From the restart, a rampaging piece of forward play from deep in our half and featuring Gaskell, Fearns and Marc Jones, shredded the Sarries defence, leaving Chris Bell to outpace the cover and cross for a try which Charlie converted. Although they were clearly rattled, Sarries managed to recover in the last few minutes of the half and our indiscipline gave them a couple of penalties. They kicked the first one to the corner, but were kept out by robust defending, eventually being given another, which they were happy to kick. Finally, with the clock running down, they won and kicked another penalty to go in with the score at 28-9.

We started the second half with strong running from Mark Cueto, Paul Williams and Kyle Tonetti, and a lovely touchfinder from Charlie which tied two defenders, neither of whom was more than ten feet from the ball, in knots. We also built a good attacking position and Chris Bell set Rhys Crane loose down the right, but he was caught by a last ditch defender. So in spite of creating some good opportunities, we didn’tconvert any of them and then Sarries, with massed substitutions, changed the balance of the game. First they kicked a penalty then, from a lineout on half way, they gained possession from a scrappy piece of play, ran the ball left and created a 2-on-1 for their left wing, Short, to score. With more than ten minutes still to play, and Sarries very much back in the game at 28-19, we started to lose cohesion, frittering away a decent attack in a failed drop goal attempt and conceding penalty after penalty. Although most were beyond kicking range, they allowed Sarries to keep the pressure on and, with almost five minutes to go, Sarries kicked another penalty to bring the score to 28-22.

We could feel game slipping away, and nobody around me understood why we didn’t just run the clock down with up-the-jumper rugby. But we didn’t- we had a go at Sarries, knocked on on their ten metre line, then gave them a penalty which they kicked deep into the corner. Fortunately they overthrew and Charlie cleared to touch on our ten. As they started to build from the lineout, Sarries knocked on, our scrum was solid and Dwayne Peel whacked the ball into touch for our first Premiership win since October 22^nd.

And now my heart rate has returned to near-normal, what do I make of all this? A decent crowd saw a good game and, for the first time in ages, seemed to really get behind the team. It’s a long time since I came back from EP with a sore throat! The promise which was evident against Leicester last week was there again. For an hour or so we played like a team, moved the ball freely, and were rewarded. Under pressure, nerves started to show and all our hard work could have been wasted. That it wasn’t is much to the credit of all involved, and you could see how much the result meant to the team. In my view, this is a big win and gives us something to build on, but I do realise we have a long way to go. I wish the team and coaches the very best for 2011!

My Man of the Match- Pete Anglesea for making such an obvious difference so rapidly. Many, many thanks and more of the same please.