A win is a win
Man of the Match
By JOG
January 11 2011
The first visit of the year to VR or indeed for me to any rugby ground was a pleasure. Both sons were with me and a roast beef dinner inside my stomach got me off to a welcome start.
Sarries too, seemed to be looking forward to the game and started brightly. Playing with drive and purpose they soon found their way into the Irish 22 and after a nice inside pass to Strettle made good ground before the arm of Rose was outstretched, With the penalty in the bag Sarries continued to attack but a speculative kick over the top was grounded by Irish. Expecting to come back for the 3 points; we were all surprised by an Irish 22; or perhaps, given the official, not so surprised.
Still, Sarries gathered the restart and progressed, back to where they were before, with a good attack and this time Sarries didn’t waste the advantage. They made sure that the pass back from Wiggy went to ground (that’s sarcasm by the way; both pass and catch were awful) and the kick was awarded this time; if memory serves right for collapsing a line-out drive. Unfortunately, Farrell was trying to win 250,000 and hit the left-hand post. Irish gathered for another 22. The process was repeated as Sarries trundled back up-field for their third penalty award in pretty much the same place in 10 minutes. No sniff of a card or even a warning from our favourite official. This time Owen over-compensated for the left hand post and hit the right one. The ball did bounce back into play, but Irish covered it well and cleared.
Not to be disheartened, Sarries came back again into the Irish half and from the fourth penalty award (this time on the other side of the pitch), Farrell finally got one in the middle. He wasn’t to miss any other kick all afternoon. Sarries had been completely dominant for the first 20 minutes, without looking like scoring a try, to be honest; 3-0 wasn’t just reward for all their dominance. Irish started to put together some possession and from their first incursion into Sarries half were awarded an equalising penalty for offside. Irish started to put together a bit of possession and drove up-field before being awarded another penalty, this time for not-rolling away. Malone made the most of both opportunities.
After 5 minutes or so of midfield tussle, Sarries were awarded another penalty in their own half for Irish collapsing another lineout drive; it seemed from the touchline that a final warning was being given. From the kick and following line-out, Borthwick was taken out in the air. To be honest, it was more inept than cynical, and Sarries got the penalty; no card though. Farrell slotted home the equalising kick. Irish didn’t give up and made a spirited end to the half, securing a lineout in Sarries territory. Kennedy secured the ball and a short drive led to another collapsed maul; this time by Sarries. It was difficult to see exactly but it did seem to my one-eye that Irish had detached slightly before the offence and that it seemed legitimate. However, no harm was done as Malone got in on the post hitting competition with one of his own. Sarries gathered and it was half-time.
Not inspired rugby, but you felt Sarries had missed a trick in not kicking their points. Had they gone 9-0 up as they really should have, perhaps they would have opened up a bit. After all, we know BV doesn’t like the players taking risks until we are a least 8 points clear, and the crowd missed out. Still, 6-6 made for a tense second half.
Irish started better, but not really with any conviction. Limited attacking options, combined with great Sarries defence and good discipline meant long periods of play didn’t amount to much. I think I counted four times in the second half where Irish had 20 or so plays, trying to bash through the middle with their big centres or bigger forwards. There were a couple of half-breaks, but nobody got on to the offload and the next drive ended going back the 4 yards gained. Three or four minutes of play - net result a line-out level with the scrum that started it all off. There was a little spat (with handbags) around this time, where Malone missed a kickable chance to take the lead.
Sarries weren’t much better, but did manage to get some field position. Farrell with good line kicks over the wingers’ heads, until they started standing further back. With 20 minutes to go the replacements came on and to my mind they made the difference. It was still fairly tense when the game seemed to turn on two plays. First Ojo grabbed hold of an interception on his own 22 with Goode in the line. In former years, he would have run the return all the way, but he panicked and kicked straight into touch; worry over. Two minutes later, after a little kicking battle, Owen kicked deep and Irish tried a quick one, again to Ojo. He took completely the wrong option, cutting back into traffic instead of the open space on his right. Ernst and Burger started to turn him over, he hung on and, from the penalty, Sarries took the lead.
Sarries were well in control up front now and, with the Irish forwards struggling, a number of turnovers were happening. Five minutes later Malone was caught in possession and held on for another Farrell penalty kick, making the scores 12-6.
Irish were now in a bit of trouble as time was running out. Tagi (Sarries one) made good ground from the restart almost getting through an increasing frail defence but Irish did get their hands on the ball eventually. A penalty was awarded, but six points behind and now with only 5 minutes on the clock, understandably they kicked for the corner. There was a brilliant defence of the line-out; Borths and others driving the Irish catcher as he hit the ground, causing a loss of around 5 yards on the play as the maul was taken to ground by Irish to stop further loss (why isn’t that a penalty offence, muses the Ed!).
The ball was recycled and a tense passage of play ensued with two restarts after long periods of advantage. The first was very strange. I’ve never seen a knock-on advantage lasting 10 phases before. The second penalty advantage was well over 20 phases, the kick finally being taken in almost the same place as Sarries first half effort should have been. That was advantage over after 6 phases for the same offence. The Sarries defence was brilliant, at times toying with Irish to make them commit more men to each breakdown to stop getting turned over. Finally the turnover came and after a swift run up the touchline, Saull put the ball into touch. There was just enough time though for Irish to try again, but again Sarries turned them over on halfway and Wiggy put the ball in the stand for the victory.
The game was a little strange, full of handling errors on both sides on a dry pitch. There were no yellow cards this time and hence no tries. Other things of interest were Henson only came on with 5 minutes to go due to a Brad injury otherwise he might not have got on at all. There was also a painfully slow setting of the scrums, but as they were set and bound correctly, there were no collapsed scrums at all. The ball came out of the back as expected or there were penalties or free kicks for offences. It seemed slower but probably the time spent overall was less. If this is the future then fine, but the next step would be to give a tap-penalty to the side failing to set-up as expected to make the whole thing painless.
Overall, a good day as we WON to go second. The only sad event of the day was bumping into poor Derick hobbling away from the ground. He seemed in pain but was happy to answer questions about his leg and accept my commiserations and the hope that he would be back leading the line next season. He must have known Charlie was on the way even then; at the time I thought he would stay at Sale.
Saracens: Goode; Strettle, Tagicakibau, Barritt, Short; Farrell, Wigglesworth; Carstens, Brits, Nieto; Borthwick (capt), Botha; Burger, Saull, K Brown.
Replacements: Henson for
Barritt (75), Gill for Carstens (51), George for Brits (68), Du Plessis for
Nieto (62), Vyvyan for Botha (51), Joubert for K Brown (62).
Not Used: Barrett, Ransom.
London Irish: Malone; Ojo, Seveali'i, Mapusua, Taicakibau; Bowden, Hodgson (capt); Corbisiero, Buckland, Rautenbach; Kennedy, Garvey; Thorpe, Armitage, Stowers.
Replacements: Lamb for
Bowden (64), Allinson for Hodgson (62), Dermody for Corbisiero (68), Ion for
Rautenbach (62), Hala'ufia for Stowers (62).
Not Used: Blaney, Casey, Thompstone.
Ref: David Rose - Assisted by Ashley Rowden and Andrew Small (pretty heavy duty touch judges for normal game)
Alleged Attendance: 7,000 + an unlucky 13.
Jeremy manages to find lots of prose to describe a game in which many had drifted off to sleep or the bar.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011:01:18:08:58:27 by TonyTaff.
Well done! You indeed made it more interesting than the real thing!!
But, I totally agree with ypu that after the Sale match, a win is a win and I am grateful for that.
The ball hit the post, but rebounded back onto the pitch. An Irish player touched the ball down behind the line, and a 22 metre drop out was the result. Why was it not a scrum to us? (it is possible my interpretation of events was completely wrong).