By Nev
December 12 2004

In the end, it was easy. After losing the first leg in circumstances that baffled" those abed in england", and after nearly conceding a breakaway try minutes into the home leg, Sarries forward power ensured a comfortable eight-try, 52-6 win to make the aggregate score 50-25 to the Men in Black. With worthy but limited opposition, Nikcy Little starting at 10, Sarries were never
going to blind their opponents with science. Our ascendency in rolling
mauls must have caused alarm bells in the Parma camp well before we set up a
futher maul after winning a Parma line out deep in theit territory,
resulting in Matt Cairns going over for our first try after 15 mins.

Parma's pacy, intelligent backs have little chance to shine and six
points missed by the boot of Roland de Marigny couldn't have helped our
opponents' cause.

On 28 minutes our by now totally dominant pack pushed Parma
off their own ball and Morgan Williams duly obliged. Nicky converted, 14-0
and match over?

Parma got their first points on the board after 30 minutes, but after
34, they were dead and buried when a first phase move from the lineout
resulted in Ben Johnston galloping through a disorganised midfield, leaving us
21-3 in front and clear.

On 41 minutes, De Marigny slotted his second penalty, but that was all
she wrote for Parma.

Their tighthead Staibano, who'd been having trouble with his shorts throughout
the first half saw, his misery compounded by being unjustly sinbinned for the second time in consecutive games forallegedly killing the ball. All he did, in my view, was dive forward and prevent our scrum-half from passing the ball. He walked off, a dejected man, to cries of 'Bye Bye Shorts!' from behind me. After another session of upper body dominance, Mark Bartholomeusz, nipped over in the corner, and an excellent conversion by Nicky made it 28-6 at half time.

The second half began with Ches for Fullers, and Big Dan for Jonno.
Never can the difference between semi pro and pro forwards have been better
illustrated than when , shortly after the restart Sarries pack drove
Parma's back from our 20 meter line to just in front of Parmas posts. You had
to feel sorry for the Italiens. A couple more phases of play anf Kev went
in. 35- 6 and it's show time

Vyv off for Axe, Po-po off for Nick LLoyd. 50 mins gone. Next thing you
know he's spinning under the posts 42-6
Only now did Parma begin to tire but they never gave an inch. Spikey
and committed they fought hard, at times literally.

Tevita began to dominate and after several bullocking runs he got a
well dererved try on 59 mins, thundering through tired tackles into the left
hand corner.It's hard to tell against this opposition but he seems to be
learning the game!! Missed conv 47-6

On 65 mins Axe is binned for the same "offence" as "Shorts". Call me old
fashioned, but if the ball is in the scrum half hands and you are not
offside can't you stop him passing. Anyway the loss of Alex perhaps
slowed us down a little because despite being camped in parmas ha;lf there was
only one futher try, for Kevin Yates who'd returned to spell the destructive
Cobus, from yet another catch and drive.

By the end we were playing high tempo fluent rugby but whether wed
achieve that against better opposition we just dont know.Parma were gutsy but
that's all and our forwards nicked most of their line out ball, shoved 'em
around in the scrums and mullahed 'em in the mauls. There was little chance to
get turnover ball because Parma simply didn't have it that often.
Jackson or Bart to start at 10 against Falcons and Harris and TC in the
centres if hes fit.
Our pack is a formidable unit, and may well impose themselves on better
opposition in the weeks to come.