Sarries end Exiles winning run
Moses Rauluni
By Jason Harris
December 27 2008
Saracens ended London Irish's 10-match winning run with at 16-13 win at a packed Vicarage Road. A first half try from Moses Rauluni and 11 points from Glen Jackson's boot saw Sarries home against the top-of-the-table Exiles who looked off colour on a cold, grey Watford afternoon.
A classic this most certainly was not as neither side could break through two tough defensive lines, but Sarries opened the brighter and were rewarded with a Glen Jackson penalty goal to put them 3-0 up.
As is seemingly customary these days, the lead was relinquished straight afterwards as Exiles win Sailosi Tagicakibau fielded a downfield kick from Jackson and beat a tackle to put his fullback Peter Hewat on a run up the left touchline. Hewat fed the supporting flanker Declan Danaher who outran the cover to score next to the posts. Hewat knocked over the easy conversion and Irish were ahead 7-3.
Jackson and Hewat exchanged penalties before Moses Raulun scord Saracen's try on 31 Minutes. From a five metre scrum, Michael Owen took the ball right and offloaded to Adam Powell who set up a ruck a couple of metres out. Rauluni took a look to see what was on and spotted half gap through which he surged over a James Hudson tackle attempt and under Shane Geraghty's flailing arm to touch down for the five points. Jackson added the extras and the sides changed ends with Sarries ahead 13-10.
The second half saw Irish make more headway after a 70%-30% territory advantage enjoyed by Sarries in the first half, and their reward was a second Hewat penalty to level the score at 13 apiece, but with the score and the match so evenly balanced, both sides withdrew into their shells and took to ensuring that they were sound defensively, rather than throwing caution to the wind.
Hewat had an opportunity to put Irish ahead again, but his kick went wide and Cencus Johnston had half a chance to score in the corner as he went after Chris White played an advantage for Irish not releasing in front of the posts on the 22. Jackson put a grubber kick to the corner but Johnston couldn't control a ball that looked as if it would hit touch-in-goal anyway.
TMO Geoff Warren confirmed what we all knew and White took the teams back for the original infringement, giving Jackson an easy three points which, ultimately, won Sarries the game with a quarter of the contest still to play.
Talking point: The back three
Richard Haughton was summarising for Three Counties Radio today and he is 100% and up for selection. Del Boy looked sharp and scored a long-range try in the practice match just before Christmas so he could feature next week against Gloucester.
However, with Alex Goode impressing and improving every game, Noah Cato looking more like the real deal week-by-week and Chris Wyles also performing excellently when pressed in to service, Eddie Jones and the coaching staff have an embarrassment of riches at 11, 14 and 15. Not forgetting Ratovou, Penney and several others all of whom are fit and chomping at the bit. So, which back three would you play at Castle Grim in the first match of 2009?
Scorers: Saracens: Try:Rauluni Con:Jackson Pens:Jackson (3) London Irish: Try:Danaher Con:Hewat Pens:Hewat (2)
Scoring sequence: 3-0, 3-5, 3-7, 6-7, 6-10, 11-10, 13-10 HT 13-13, 16-13
Referee:Chris White (Gloucestershire)
Attendance:16,082
SARACENS:A Goode; K Ratluvoa, K Sorrell, A Powell (A Farrell 75min), N Cato; G Jackson, M Rauluni; N Lloyd, F Ongaro, C Johnston (C Visagie 77min), S Borthwick, C Jack, W van Heerden, A Saull (B Skirving 73min), M Owen
LONDON IRISH:P Hewat; T Ojo, E Seveali’i, S Mapusua, S Tagicakibau (M Catt 61min), S Geraghty, P Hodgson (A Lalanne 73min), C Dermody (D Murphy 64min), D Paice (D Cotezee 63min), T Lea’aetoa (A Corbisiero 54min), J Hudson (K Roche 54min), B Casey, D Danaher, S Armitage, C Hala’ufia (R Thorpe 75min)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:12:30:08:16:17 by TonyTaff.
On that basis I'd pick our strongest team for Glos and bring other back for the following games. In terms of the back 3 it would be hard to say that Del or anyone else could come in and do a better job in their first outing for several weeks, so leave them in place for another week.
We are going to have to win big games on the road if we are going to make the top 6, never mind the top 4 as we have had by far the easiest half of the fixtures so far, so we'd better roll our sleeves up again on Saturday!
> break through two tough defensive lines
Good review - not an easy one to summarise! There was so little shape to the game. It says something when the only ones whose performances really went to plan were two camels...
Well played Sarries, fewer mistakes and solid set pieces did the trick.
Quote:... actually, their's didn't either, the Sarries score numbers fell off by the time they reached the Rous Stand....Cormac
>It says something when the only ones whose performances really went to plan were two camels....
I think when Eddie rests one - he will probably rest both. I can't imagine many changes for Castle Grim, but depending on the 'A' performances against Sale, I might expect to see Del and Wyles get a run out against Viadana and prehaps Leonelli feaure in what is bound to be a more physucal French game.
(And some changes in the back row.....?)