So near, yet so far from 5 Points

By Rupes
January 29 2007

Saracens moved up to 5th in the Premiership table on Sunday, with a converted penalty try and 4 Glen Jackson penalties accounting for our bogey side, London Irish, as well as putting to bed the “we never win on Sky” myth.

In what was probably an entertaining game for the neutral viewer, Irish actually started by far the better team, putting together several decent phases of play through the first 15 minutes and threatening the Sarries line on more than one occasion. In particular, the go-forward of Mapusua and Leguizamon (both of whom had gone off by the start of the 2nd half, one injured and one strangely substituted) plus the space afforded Mike Catt gave Irish some good opportunities. But they came away pointless. But, with one breakaway and an oh-so-nearly try for Richard Haughton (stopped by the classy skills of Catt), Sarries woke up and the game turned.

In the 25 minute period before half time, there were 2 referrals to the TMO, a penalty try after 27 minutes, a very close (but correct) foot in touch call against Kameli Ratuvou before he touched down and some of the best running rugby by the home team seen at Vicarage Road for a while. Nearly a load of tries and 5 points, but not quite. Jackson pulled the strings brilliantly at 10, the pack did an absolute job on their counterparts in the loose and at scrum time (lineout shaded by Irish) and Sarries looked as if they were going to score every time they got into the Irish 22 – the execution will come over time, but no doubt that the opportunities are being created on a regular basis. To go in only 16-0 ahead was actually disappointing – the “try” for Kevin Sorrell called back for a forward pass (lateral, possibly, having only seen the replay once), the aforementioned trips to the TMO, but no doubt that Sarries were the better side.

The penalty try came after the 4th reset; the first two were just pop-ups, no infringements on either side. The third was a penalty, after which Neal Hatley went off injured having been battling against Cobus – the fourth “reset” saw Mr Pearson head to the posts, the Irish front row having completely disengaged from their Saracens opposite numbers whilst in retreat. A tad harsh perhaps and I can imagine some Saracens' fans being not overly happy if that call had been made against us. A big call no doubt, one disputed by some Irish players, but just maybe we are overdue some luck.

After the fireworks of the first half, the second was always going to struggle to hit the heights and that's how it proved. Despite Cobus Visagie having to leave the field at the start of the second half with a suspected dislocated elbow, Sarries never really looked to be in trouble, there was always a feeling of the game being under control. Two moments of magic though; one from Topsy Ojo in defence, when he beat 3 attackers on his own line and then advanced 20m or so, and one from Glen Jackson in attack (a quick 22m drop out, pass to Haughton, to set up a ruck only 15m from the Irish line leading to a penalty) but nothing really special on offer.

Penalties from Flutey (who had earlier missed a shocker) and Jackson left us at 19-3 with only 2 minutes left, just time for everyone's favourite player Delon Armitage to score when the Sarries line was finally breached. 19-8, game over and 4 more points safely banked. Aside from the general positive nature of the performance, Saracens will also be pleased that Richard Hill's rehabilitation continues apace, his game yesterday being far and away the best he has played on his latest comeback.

Irish will be thanking their lucky stars that Mike Catt was released from England duty, he made everything happen for them and totally outshone Riki Flutey who was nominally at 10. The previously mentioned Delon Armitage was in turn outshone by his brother Steffon, who seemed to be mighty fired up on his return to the club and put in a performance to prove it. But, in the end, they were outgunned by a Sarries side who seem to be moving in the right direction, picking up points, putting themselves in game winning and points-scoring positions and who are edging quietly towards a Top 4 spot.

Scorers: Saracens: Try: Penalty try (33min). Conversion: Jackson. Penalty goals: Jackson 4 (21, 28, 40+4, 59). London Irish: Try: Armitage (80+5). Penalty goal: Flutey (50).

Scoring Sequence (Saracens first): 3-0 (Jackson pen), 6-0 (Jackson pen), 13-0 (penalty try, Jackson conv), 16-0 (Jackson pen) HT 16-3 (Flutey pen), 19-3 (Jackson pen), 19-8 (Armitage D try).

Saracens: D Scarbrough; R Haughton (rep: R Penney, 80+5; sin-bin, 80+7), K Sorrell, A Powell, K Ratuvou; G Jackson, N de Kock (rep: A Dickens, 79); K Yates, M Cairns (rep: F Ongaro, 45-53, 79), J Visagie (rep: C Johnston, 42), I Fullarton, S Raiwalui (rep: H Vyvyan, 79), K Chesney, R Hill (rep: D Seymour, 80+3), B Skirving.

London Irish: D Armitage; T Ojo, S Mapusua (rep: N Mordt, 39), M Catt, S Tagicakibau; R Flutey, P Hodgson; N Hatley (rep: T Lea’aetoa, 32), D Coetzee (rep: R Russell, 65), F Rautenbach, N Kennedy (sin-bin, 59-69; rep: J Hudson, 80+1), R Casey, K Roche, S Armitage, J Leguizamón (rep: P Murphy, 41).

Referee: D Pearson.

Attendance: 8,492.