Powell: Best Centre at HQ

By Jeremy O'Gorman
September 9 2008

Another trip away to Twickenham at the beginning of the season, rain was in the air, but it was warm and the prospect of two games of rugby to warm us further. Engineering works on the Victoria line meant a twenty minute delay, so we arrived to see Wasps 10-0 down. It was lovely to see them struggle. They are still up to their old tricks however – a blatant take-out off the ball by vanG on Delon Armitage should have merited at least a yellow card. Sackey did the same later in the game – memories of Haskell and Cipriani last year. Wasps had no real idea of how to score, but a stroke of luck by Rees and an ELV assist by Reddin made for a close finish.

Sarries came out and the real thing was under way; typically disaster struck straight from the kickoff. SuperKev ignored Glen’s call from under the posts and they both collided, knock on 10 yards out. Care picked up the ball from the scrum and went blind. The ELVs gave him all the space in the world as Care ran directly at Kemali on the wing; a simple pass to Strettle who went over unopposed. At least they missed the conversion. This was a very similar try to Reddin’s in the Wasps game and I suspect it will not be the last as the ELV changes allow the scrum-half a lot of time and space close to the line

Then the first lineout; at least with Borthwick and Jack in the line, we could not fail there; but no we went long turning over possession. After a long period of aimless kicking up and down field the game seemed to settle down into a familiar pattern. No side seemed to make any significant advantage out of this aerial ping-pong, but it seems this was on the coaches plan, so it must be done. Quins were outgunned up front, so played a canny game; extreme variation at the lineout gave them possession, albeit scrappy. They worked their ball well, but never really seemed to threaten against a well marshalled Sarries defence. Sarries on the other hand struggled to get possession or keep it for long periods. As the first half wore on, they did get more, but seemed to want to do too much too quickly. They also seemed to play two moves consistently; one, get the ball out to Jack wide out who would use his bulk to tie up the defenders and offload in space; two Jacko would kick the ball over to Kemail on the wing, but badly.

It seemed ages before the next score; a good bit of Sarries driving, charging close to the line, but for some reason we came back for a penalty, Jacko slotting over easily. The end of the advantage was in the far corner of the pitch from us, but someone murmured that Cairns knocked on. Quins came back into the game and replied with a penalty of their own – Sarries killing the ball when losing it in the breakdown - this was not the only instance of this from Sarries

Unfortunately for Sarries, any breaks they made seemed to be on the wrong side of the pitch. Several times a potential overlap was worked, only for Frannie Lee to be the winger with the ball. His lack of pace was evident, especially once where he kicked ahead but did not even bother chasing it up. As the half wore on though, it seemed inevitable that Sarries would score. An interesting variation of the rolling maul, moving quickly rather than a lumbering mass, came close. The Jack out wide ploy nearly worked, but he was unable to feed Kemali who was in the clear. Sarries won a penalty just before the break, making the score 6-8 at half-time.

Eddie presumably gave them a rocket during the interval, as the second half performance was markedly better than the first half; we actually looked like scoring. The first try came soon after the break; Adam Powell bursting through well. Running out of support with the defenders closing him down, he waited for Kemali to add distraction before dummying well to take him past Brown and over the line. From not a difficult position, Glen hit the woodwork with the conversion, bouncing out. It ended up being a costly miss at the end of the game. .

Seymour had been struggling with his leg from late in the first half and was replaced. Rather than like for like, Ben Skirving came on, leaving 2 number 8s and a second row against the agile and speedy Care and Skinner. Perhaps emboldened by the substitution, Quins came up with a classic training ground try, from a lineout just outside the 22. The fact that there was a lineout at all, was down to the failure of Sarries to clear up the kick-off effectively. (NB one side effect of the ELV, is the classic return of the kick-off cannot happen. Catch, maul, pass to fly-half and kick back to half-way no longer works) The try was worth the admission money in itself, a long throw over the top, caught on the bounce by Care, who carved open the midfield, before releasing the Moyne on an inside pass. He did make a complete showboat of the touchdown, almost allowing Scabs to punch the ball out of his arms. 11-15.

Then Quins seemed to pull away with a penalty and a drop goal; Sarries unable to get out of their own half as a series of bad decisions and handling errors took their toll. The penalty was stupid and unnecessary; Quins were going nowhere when a ruck was disrupted with no chance of possession. His work seemingly done, Nick Evans departed; the slight winner in the battle of the Kiwi fly-halves. It did seem to me that Glen tried to do too much to impress, taking more risks than normal; too anxious to upstage his rival. There were a couple of disappointments , where simple dropped passes by Kemali and Jack let Quins off the hook from well worked overlaps. In case it seems unfair to single out Jack in this regard, he did drop a fair number of simple passes; Quins were not without blame too – butchering a couple of clear chances with white-line fever by the centres.

Then the classic Sarries try, working the ball both left and right. Finally the Jack on the wing ploy worked as he pulled in all the remaining cover, before popping the ball inside for deKock to run in unopposed. Cue cheering from the “home” support as Glen brought us back to 3 points with the conversion. Then the restart; for the third time of the day, failure to deal with it effectively cost Sarries points. I was not sure who knocked it on (I did think it was Ongaro himself) but the Italian played the knock on from an offside position, giving Quins a simple chance to extend the lead.

Sarries came back again with a good period, leading to Quins transgressing once again. This time it was within range and Glen slotted over 3 points. This was where the missed conversion was crucial, as the dropped goal was now the difference between the sides, rather than the single point; Sarries had to go for the try, rather than a drop goal. With the crown willing them on, Sarries had a 30 / 40 phase passage of play, getting ever closer to the line. Well within drop goal range, Glen found himself in front of the posts with limited support; he kicked to the corner for Penney (badly) and the game was effectively over.

So a loss; but Quins played to their strengths well and never let Sarries settle; they deserved their win, just. At least we did one better than Wasps and got a bonus point.

I reckoned about 6 tactical errors that we could have avoided (on another thread), but all in all we need a bit more time to gel and against another side playing more traditional rugby we would have won.

Plus points include:

·       “Jack out of the Box” which was very difficult to defend against. It was only handling errors that stopped another 3 tries

·       Rolling maul; moving fast and from side to side to stop the collapse. Give it time and it may be a match-winner

·       Adam Powell, looked strong and better than the other centres on display

·       The front five looked tough and a match for anyone

·       Good driving runs from Owen, who certainly did not seem work-shy

Work to do:

·       Restarts

·       Defending against scrums in the 22

·       Restarts

·       Always have a speed merchant at the back of the lineout

·       Restarts

Care should be taken at Set-pieces and Restarts

Discussion started by TheSaracens.com , 09/09/2008 08:30

TheSaracens.com
09/09/2008 08:30

Care should be taken at Set-pieces and Restarts

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Gryff
09/09/2008 08:39

Good report as always Jeremy

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Convex Hull
09/09/2008 08:45

Well written JOG. I didn't go because I have to chauffeur Ms H to her hockey matches on Saturdays, but this is a very clear insight into the match. It sounds less bad than I feared it would be from some of the descriptions on the board.

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AlanE
09/09/2008 09:56

Good review, Jeremy. The title should have been "Care should be taken OUT at set pieces and restarts."

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Neville
09/09/2008 13:56

I enjoyed the report and the puns more than the bliidy game.

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Graeme D
09/09/2008 20:52

Skirving coming on was a no brainer in that we had no other back rows.

Does anyone know why Andy Saull was repalced by a prop on the subs bench ??

Love the puns and the Title.

It thought the final kick by Jacko was aimed at the other guy who spent half his time out on the wing - ie Jack - who as too slow to catch the poor kick.

Graeme

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TonyTaff
10/09/2008 14:24

I'm at a loss to know Ongaro could have been offside from his own knock-on.

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

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