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SARACENS v NRB (Cup) PREVIEW

This strange disjointed rugby season wends its way onward this weekend with a return to the Premiership Cup. You’ll be forgiven for forgetting that we’ve already played R1 (which was back in September with a tryfest 96-42 win over Northampton Saints). This also makes 3 different competitions in 4 weeks! The break for the autumn internationals/Nations Championship means we now have 3 cup fixtures in a row: home to Newcastle Red Bulls and Quins, away to Tigers. Which deluded version of AI thought it would be a good idea to play Newcastle Red Bulls at home on successive Saturdays I have no idea but that is what the fixture computer has given us. A sense of déjà vu? Well maybe but it will be interesting to see how many of the squad who played last Saturday will re appear this Saturday?
Saracens v Newcastle Red Bulls Premiership Report

I would say a fair summary of this game was such - six second-half tries rescued us a bonus point win against a Newcastle side who fought and played hard. I confess I was not in attendance for this game, however had some hopes that it would be an improved performance from the shambles of last weekend (not sure how Quins away could’ve been any worse to be frank). From the first 40, I had my head in my hands again. We hadn’t lost at home to Newacastle in nearly 20 years. Was this going to be the one that broke the chain? Thankfully, it was not. The 2nd half was so much better but still not completely comfortable. We slipped into the old habit of gifting teams tries in the last 5 mins when we knew we’d already secured the win. 39-31 the final score and Newcastle took away 1 bonus point to our 5 match points.
Saracens v Newcastle Red Bulls Premiership Preview

I do like the small ironies in life. Christian Wade needs one try to own the Premiership try-scoring record outright, and this is the game where he gets his chance. He drew level with a former Saracen himself Chris Ashton the other week and he gets the chance to make history at the ground Ashton used to play at. I’d like him break the record somewhere else if at all possible. After 2 shambolic performances in league (v Quins) and Europe (v Connacht), we are back at the StoneX for a pretty vital game against Newcastle. Lose this, and you feel our season really has gone to pot before it’s even got properly going.
Harlequins v Saracens Prem Match Report

“I'm so dizzy, my head is spinning. Like a whirlpool, it never ends. And it's you, Brendan, making it spin. You're making me dizzy”
Harlequins v Saracens Prem Preview

I have never liked the Champions Cup anyway, the league is what really matters!
Connacht v Saracens Champions Cup Report

A rather frustrating game culminating in us taking 0 match points despite scoring 6 tries. Another clang in the time of changing competition style and rules AGAIN. I can’t keep up with the changing rules each year personally. Nonetheless we flew out to Shannon late Friday night and checked into our AirBnB. A restful night meant we were refreshed and raring to go to cheer Sarries on as much as possible. Saturday rolled around and, post coffee and breakfast, headed straight to the Murty Rabbitts for Guinness and the SSA meet up. It was brilliant to see Sarries fans in Galway in such big numbers and a big turnout on the terraces and Clan Stand alike.
Connacht v Saracens Champions Cup Preview

And so the Champions Cup 26-27 returns in yet another different format to the last, this time around with fixtures beginning in October. Not sure how to feel about this, it makes the whole competition very disjointed in my opinion and further disjoints the domestic league/s. Anyway, there seems to be a strong travelling contingent heading over to Galway to watch this one. I have never been to the Dexcom, so this will be another stadium ticked off the list (fun fact – it’s also used as a greyhound racing stadium).
Saracens v Bristol Bears Premiership Report

What a great day out at StoneX to make up for last weekend's shambolic display. Bristol are one of those teams who will either play like prime 1999 Australia or 2011 New Zealand one week, the the following week like a pub team still drunk from their antics the night before. Luckily for us (the bears bogey team) they played like the latter and we could secure a 5 point win and reassurance that last weekend was a blip, not a deeper lying issue. Once I'd caught up with some mates, purchased my chicken george (mango rubicon this week, very tasty too) + pint of guinness, I could sit down and contemplate the teams warming up on a chilly Saturday eve. For Bristol, it was a severely weakened team - no Benhard Janse V-R, no AJ McGinty amongst others whereas we hd gone through a big rotation compared to the side that started agsainst Sale a week ago. No Alfie Barbeary, no Hugh Tizard, no Nick Tompkins etc. They did both seem fired up though and ready to go out and give it their all. As always in our little corner of the west stand we cheered loud as the players ran out and Max celebrated his 100th appearance in red/black. I did notice A LOT of players who appeared either unavailable or injured. Theo Dan in a boot, ditto James Hadfield, Olly H with a sling the list goes on. We need to pay mind to our injury concerns as that's already 2/3 matchday 23 players gone less than a month into the season.
Saracens v Bristol Bears Preview

Saracens managed to perform a miracle last Sunday, they got everyone on this message board to agree! We simply weren’t good enough and Sale took a deserved victory. Suddenly this Saturday’s game against Bristol Bears has become hugely important.
SARRIES V SALE SHARKS MATCH REPORT V 2

well it's 2 for 1 today owing to a mix-up among the eds. Here is a 2nd version of the match. Unfortunately the result is the same. You know how it feels when things aren’t great and you have this lovely dream. Then you wake and for a few precious seconds its like the dream is real. Then reality returns with a band. So last week was a bit like that. After the dreariness of much of last season came the win against Leicester but today the dream was just that, a dream, and we return to grim reality.