Bath v Sarries: Young Guns Show Their Class
Movember Short
By Fozz1e
November 23 2010
Who would have thought that in the later half of November, we’d be going into the Bath match just 2 points ahead of Exeter? But that’s where we were at the start of the match, lying in fifth and without a win in any competition for a month. With the “young-guns” being given a run out during the LV= period, it’s good to see some of them retaining their place for the full blooded Premiership.
Faz junior, Short and Wray get another chance with some of the more experienced players there to support them. In some late changes, Goode & Barritt were deemed not to be ready yet to come back from injury, with an interesting & controversial inclusion of Nils Mordt at fullback. If the team were chosen democratically by the fan base, I fear he wouldn’t make the bench, but like the monarchy, it’s not a democracy and the good Doctor has seen fit to include him. Last year Borthwick had to watch from the hospitality boxes, being part of the England set-up, but now has to show his real metal and pull the team through what would be a difficult match. With five of our main stream out on International duty, the senior players needed to stand tall and be counted.
Even with nine players out on International duty, the Bath team still looks formidable with a big & experienced pack (including a handful of ex-Sarries), and some high quality players in the backline, but they haven’t won in the Premiership since the end of September.
Sarries kick off, Barkley clears well for first lineout, taken well and the Saracens line moves for the first time with assurance. From the ensuing ruck, Faz’s first kick goes into touch right into the corner two yards out, from within his own half, Dad would have been proud. It was the first of many from the youngster during the afternoon. Sarries get a scrum 7 yards out after a knock on, De Kock gets the line going and Powell takes it into contact but from the ruck, De Kock made a rare error & fed out too far back, Faz has to clear it up but kept possession well. After 4 phases of play Nieto barges into Vyvyan; accidental offside. Bath scrum, but good pressure from the front row realises a free kick to Saracens. Sarries drive forward but even though there was some good offloading, James Short get involved in some pushing & shoving with Abendanon, resulting in a penalty to Bath who were able to clear into the Sarries half.
Abendanon would play an important part throughout the afternoon, helping both sides to score.
After being encamped in the oppositions 22 for five minutes, like a lot of the recent games we came away with nil points. Bath then had periods of possession, which they inevitably fumbled, something which was to dog them all afternoon, giving possession back to us, unfortunately Mordt’s first kick goes out over the deadball line, which gives Bath a scrum ten yards back in Sarries half. A big drive by the Bath pack results in the inevitable penalty 45 yards out in front of the posts, which Barkley duly converts into 3 points. All the possession and territory yet we find ourselves 3-0 down, it was starting to become a bit familiar.
Aerial ping-pong ensues before Bath give away a penalty in the Sarries half from which Faz puts a penalty kick deep into the Bath 22, the boy is starting to impress.
From a good break, Adam Powell takes a late shoulder charge from that man Abendanon, Brits releases Wray who gallops down the wing, but when brought down the support didn’t get with him and, Bath turned it over. Play then stops & Powell goes off, his arm cradled in his shirt, to be replaced by Sam Stanley (yes who indeed, 18 y/o débutant- he might have turned 19 recently, Ed).
There follows a period of scrappy rugby by both sides before Brits tackles high (on guess who, yes Abendanon) giving Barkley the opportunity to double their lead. More scrappy play in and out of both halves before Claassens kicks, sees it deflected off De Kock’s back, Mordt dithers and guess who hacks it on, then dribbles it over the line to touch down, that man Abendanon, again! Their first try in four games, 30 minutes gone and 13 points down.
Sarries then advance upfield, via a lineout and a great break by Strettle, and find themselves in front of the posts where guess who gives away a penalty at a ruck. Faz duly slots the penalty to register Sarries first points. No more points during the half, but Sarries have at last got the hang of Flatman at scrumtime, the lineouts are going well, and we are just starting seeing some better running with Faz chipping cross field for Strettle, making a break feeding Saul for a beautiful run towards the line, and a dinky chip for Saull to chase, none result in a score but the signs are looking encouraging.
The second half restarts, a scrappy few minutes including a missed penalty from Barkley before Andy Saull turns the ball over, from the next ruck in our own half. Faz looks up, sees just forwards in front of him and puts a beautifully weighted ball into the Bath 22; Short puts a deft kick infield before the ball goes out; Ratty goes to pick it up, fumbles the ball, but it goes straight between his legs and he carries the ball over the line trapped between his legs before grounding it. After a full 3 minutes consulting the video, the TMO finally gives the try. A most bizarre score, but it stands. Faz calmly slots the ball over for the conversion, even with the Bath chasers hounding him. The boys doing good! 13-10, progress being made.
After the restart Brucie does us a favour and drops a high ball from De Kock, at which point the coaches decide to instigate a whole raft of changes; Wiggy for De Kock, Botha for Vyvyan, Du Plessis for Nieto and Gill for Carstens, so there are two Wiggys on the pitch for the second time this season. Would it prove to be an unwise move to change a team going forward and starting to make more inroads, or is it a injection of more pace? One asks. It proves to be the latter, and after a good solid scrum in our own half, Faz puts yet another killer kick into touch in the Bath 22. Although nothing ultimately comes of it, he is showing a lot of maturity and has good vision of when to run and when to kick or pass. Bath continue to press into the Sarries half, but again careless handling lets them down (Brucie again from a bad Grewcock pass). Sarries are at last showing some dominance in the scrum and push Bath off their own ball, giving Sam Stanley the opportunity to break, showing good speed and strength as he breaks through three tacklers. A couple of rucks later, Wiggy chips down the left side into the Bath 22, guess who goes to clear, but has it charged down by James Short who calmly gathers and trots the 20 yards over the line for the score. Faz again gets the two points even with the Bath chasers hounding him again.
More lateral play before the first bad (well not great kick) from Faz, a grubber kick blocked which was fortunate not to pop up for Bath, but Brucie knocks on again, and to save further embarrassment gets substituted. I think that was the only real mistake Faz made all day.
Bath attack fast out left, then back right across the pitch. Good defence from Sarries now pushing them back and Brits tackles Scott into touch. Playing with much more intensity now, we now have our tails up, the best I’ve seen for a few weeks. Borthwick & Grewcock get involved in a bit of handbags, with Sarries getting the penalty decision, so it must have been Grewcock’s fault, gosh-quelle surprise.
20 minutes left, can we add to the score-line, or will we have to defend it?
Backward & forward it continues, with Bath by no means giving in, Wray takes a good lineout, Wiggy too kicks deep, returned only to the halfway line, Mordt takes a good catch, back towards Bath. Bath now looking more threatening, Brits puts in a huge hit, Vesty making good yards, Sarries defence holding. Imperative we hold out now, up to the 22, the thin white line is stopping all attempts to break it down, after 12 phases Bath breach the 22 but there’s a chance for a breather as a knock on is called. 13 to go. Bath scrum just holds, Claassens breaks through but is just held and Wray manages to strip the ball from Barkley enabling Wiggy to put in a long clearance kick up to the halfway line; again Mears throws in crooked, 11 to go. Somehow Bath take one against the head, spin it out wide and “that man again” steps through Short & Saull to make 30 yards before being brought down inside the Sarries 22, but again Bath manage to go backwards and drop the ball, 9 to go. Saracens win the scrum and Faz kicks deep, Bath return to the Sarries half with more vigour and Claassens puts in a clever kick into the 22, where Mordt and Short both assume the other’s got it covered, before Mordt makes his mind up but gets bundled into touch. 7 to go, Bath lineout 10 yards out.
Mears throws well this time and the Bath backline set off, back into midfield, but the defence holds firm and eventually force Barkley to drop the ball after Gill upends him. 5 to go. Wray picks and goes from the scrum, Farrell clears deep, Abendanon kicks through from a ricochet off Ratty, Bath chase but from an offside position. 4 minutes left, and the only thing Healey can criticize is Faz’s movember, “too young to grow a proper one”, three resets of the scrum, 3 minutes left. Good solid scrum, good feed from Faz to Stanley who promptly gets clothes-lined just inside the Bath half by Barkley, which earns him a yellow card. Wiggy is chosen over Faz to go for three points and promptly misses!
Bath break out of their 22, but yet again manage to knock it on. A whole 60 seconds to go, Venter is on the edge of his seat (as is your author). Bath scrum, penalty against du Plessis for dropping, Bath run it, 30 seconds to go, Fernandez-Lobbe drives but is driven back by Borthwick, Abendanon tries to take the scenic route over the top of Brits, but manages to hang on, Bath spin it out and yet again…… manage to lose it in contact, 0:00 left, game over. Breathless.
A cracking match. Saracens played with a lot of confidence as a team, defence was solid again and this week we managed to take some of our chances for a change. A big thanks must go to the young-uns, they stepped up to the mark and were not found wanting. Wray was the official man-of-the-match, but Farrell was unlucky not to get the nod, he played with a lot of vision and maturity, and now deserves to lose the “junior” tag, he’s his own man and, I think, came of age today. Short is starting to get more confidence, and Stanley seems to be a young man who will do great things, a strong runner who can run a good line.
The win takes us back into the playoff zone, into third position, but we have to cement it.
Bath
15. Nick Abendanon ,14. Nick Scott,13. Matt Carraro,12. Olly Barkley, 11. Tom Biggs, 10. Sam Vesty. 9. Michael Claassens (C), 1. David Flatman, 2. Lee Mears, 3. Duncan Bell, 4. Stuart Hooper, 5. Danny Grewcock, 6. Andy Beattie, 7. Simon Taylor,8. Ben Skirving,
Replacements-16. Pieter Dixon, 17. Nathan Catt, 18. Aaron Jarvis, 19. Ignacio Fernandez-Lobbe, 20. Josh Ovens, 21. Guy Mercer, 22.Matt keyte, 23. Jaques Boussuge
Saracens
15 Nils Mordt, 14 David Strettle,
13 Kameli Ratuvou, 12 Adam powell, 11 James Short, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Neil de
Kock, 1 Deon Carstens, 2 Schalk Brits, 3 Carlos Nieto, 4 Steve Borthwick ©, 5
Hugh Vyvyan, 6 Justin Melck, 7 Andy Saull, 8 Jackson Wray
Replacements-16 Jamie George, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Petrus du Plessis, 19 Mouritz
Botha, 20 Don Barrell, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Sam Stanley, 23 Noah Cato
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010:12:01:08:41:29 by TonyTaff.
Graeme
Gret report, well done!!
