Nosebleeds aplenty as Sarries scale the heights

2 assists for Scabs
By Jeremy O'Gorman
March 27 2007

Altitude sickness was the order of the evening; courtesy of some complementary tickets (thanks very much GreaseBalls), only to find ourselves about 6 rows from the top of the stadium. What a view. And what a first 10 minutes! Sarries blew Irish away on their way to a bonus point, 22-7 victory.

Irish started positively with a kick-off away from the forwards, Sarries a bit at sixes and sevens. Then the first set-piece; Scabs looped in the centre, making the extra man; a long flat pass to Ratty up against Delon Armitage on the wing. There was one of those 7’s moments before Ratty skinned Armitage for pace on the outside; also outpacing a covering Armitage before touching down in the corner. Glen missed a tricky touchline kick.

Irish kicked off again to the wrong side and seemed to be playing well. Sarries gave a number of penalties away allowing Irish to progress inside the 22, where another penalty gave Geraghty the opportunity to close the gap. He hit the posts and although Sarries gathered the ball, the clearance kick was charged down and Geraghty had a lame drop-goal attempt.

Irish kept coming back with a good attack on the far touchline, but knocked on; Scabs kicking on three times before gathering and slipping the pass to TC (where did he come from) to score close to the posts. Glen made an absolute howler of the conversion, scuffing his kick badly, only to see it hang on, hit the crossbar and bounce over.

It did seem to be Sarries night. Sarries were in a fair bit of control now, with Irish just winning line-outs and Sarries giving away penalties. Then Glen got the ball about 35 yards out, gave the trademark show and go, but was brought down about 10 yards out. Cencus picked it up and battered towards the line, and from the resulting possession, Glen again dummied the defence and crashed over in the corner. He got up hobbling and insisted on taking the kick, but it was well wide.

0-17 and with still 30 minutes on the game clock. Irish came back strongly and seemed to have the rest of the half in possession. Unfortunately, they did not seem to do anything with it as Sarries defence was rock-solid. Irish had the wrong tactic – which was to get a big centre - Mapusua - to try and run through Kevin Sorrell and young Powell; lads, it’s a waste of time. The blitz defence around the scrum edge worked well too, with Irish often getting caught 10 yards behind the previous maul. A Ratty interception almost came off, as he took a pass intended for Ojo, kicking ahead and doing him for pace, before the ball ran into touch.

Half time came and went; excellent bars and with a very thin crowd service was prompt. We are Sarries supporters after all, and we still expected somehow to lose the game in the second half. Irish started strongly and had long periods with the ball, between our 22 and halfway, without really doing anything with it.

Then the first break, a three man overlap was worked (not for the first time – I counted at least 3 others that were ignored, the man in the centre going for glory) and this time the ball was thrown wide. Thrown being the operative word, not to a specific man; but to all 3 who managed to knock on. Then Geraghty showed us why he is so fancied, with a wonderful break carving open acres of space, almost making it to the posts. Luckily for us, there was no support to take advantage of it and to rub salt in the wound, he limped off.

Irish kept on trying and eventually broke through; Armitage running an excellent line to cut inside a stationary TC and run under the posts, he converted his own kick. I really am impressed with Armitage, he has pace and guile. Unfortunately, I was not impressed with anyone else on the Irish side apart from Casey who put himself about with customary abandon. There was a lot of huff and puff, but not much else and you wonder how much the hard match against Wasps on Sunday took out of them.

There was one long range penalty attempt (wide on halfway) from Armitage, but although he had the legs, the direction was off. The clock continued to count down and with about 10 minutes to go, Sarries seemed to get more possession. About 5 phases of play saw Sarries up to the Irish 22 and Glen put Powell through with two men outside him. I do think he should have passed, but had a bit of white-line fever being brought down just short.

Then came the substitutions; Hugh Vyvvan had come on for Fully earlier on, but a number of players were now limping, TC, Hilly and Cencus were replaced by Darth Vader, Seymour and Mercey. Cairns replaced Mullet. The fresh blood seemed to galvanise the team into more possession, as the hunt for the bonus point went on. Persistent use of the blind side paid off as a chip through found Scabs and DeVedia chasing for the ball in the corner; the Argentinean winning the race. Glen again missing a difficult kick.

This finished the game off, and was the signal for most of the crowd to go home. At the final whistle most of the remaining customers, seemed to be decked in black not green. The team came out again for quite a long time; they seemed to be very happy. They aught to be; that win pretty well seals up Heineken Rugby next season, as well as he dizzy heights of third place in the league. You could not miss Sarries supporters outside either; they were the ones with big smiles on their faces.

It was difficult to pick out a man of the match, I thought a number of players performed brilliantly, but I suspect that Scabs would get my vote. The spell at full-back has taught him that he can come off his wing and he could / should get a Saxons place this winter.

As the team came off, the last two players were limping; Richard Hill and Cencus Johnston. I could not help feeling that one Sarries legend was passing the baton to another.

Scorers: London Irish: Try: Armitage (49). Conversion: Armitage

Saracens: Tries: Ratuvou (3), Castaignede (12), Jackson (15), de Vedia (77). Conversion: Jackson.

Scoring sequence (London Irish first): 0-5, 0-12, 0-17 (half-time) 7-17, 7-22.

London Irish: D Armitage; T Ojo, S Mapusua, R Flutey, S Tagicakibau; S Geraghty (rep: N Mordt 43), P Hodgson; N Hatley (T Lea’atoa 74), R Russell (rep: D Paice 57), T Lea’atoa (rep: M Collins 57), J Hudson (rep: N Kennedy 57), B Casey (capt), K Roche (rep: D Danaher 74), O Magne, J Leguizamon (rep: P Murphy 47).

Saracens: T Castaignede (rep: T de Vedia 67); D Scarbrough, A Powell, K Sorrell, K Ratuvou,; G Jackson, N de Kock (rep: M Rauluni 77); K Yates, S Byrne (rep: M Cairns 70), C Johnston (rep: T Mercy 77), I Fullarton (rep: H Vyvyan 67), S Raiwalui (captain), K Chesney, R Hill (rep: D Seymour 72), B Skirving.

Referee: C White Attendance: 8,738