Wuss v Sarries report, Nov 23, 2012
Pies, what pies?
By King Zak
November 27 2012
Worcester is one of our annual ‘away weekends’, although given results in recent years, not one we approach with much hope of reward. In February we watched a Six Nations depleted Sarries succumb to an Andy Goode inspired Worcester and the process was to be repeated this time round.
However, whereas February’s defeat had offered some promise for Saracens as they created several opportunities in an entertaining display, Friday night’s effort never got better than mediocre, generally flitting between poor and woeful.
With so many established names missing through injury and international duty it was always going to be a tough game against a very determined Warriors squad who had been performing a lot better than the league table suggested.
The succinct report would read; beer good; weather okay; game poor; Sarries clueless; journey a nightmare! The game was best summed up by Mark McCall’s post match comment, “It was a dreadful game of rugby, I feel sorry for anybody who had to watch that.”
Saracens started brightly and went through a number of phases but were unable to make any meaningful inroads into the Worcs 22 and never really looked threatening. Eventually Worcs were able to clear and on their first foray into Sarries territory they were awarded a penalty that Goode the Elder duly converted to give the hosts the lead.
The response from Sarries was positive and they immediately earned a chance of their own when Worcs were caught offside at a ruck. It wasn’t the easiest of chances from wide right and not for the last time in the game Mordt was unable to get it ‘over and through’. He did however make amends a few minutes later with an easier shot and Sarries were level at 3-3 after 18 minutes.
The game then burst into life (well, comparatively speaking) as we witnessed three moments of enterprise and entertaining play. Sadly, these were to be the only such moments in this dreary affair. Firstly, Sarries created space on the right wing for Taylor; unfortunately he chose to ignore Tomkins on his inside, attempting instead to bulldoze his way through Pennell, when a pass to Tomkins would surely have seen the centre run through unopposed to the try line.
Worcester responded with a well executed ‘chip ‘n’ take’ from Ralph Coates Andy Goode to get in behind the on-rushing defence. Fortunately for Sarries, Claassens was unable to gather the chip through cleanly, with the line at his mercy, resulting in a 5m scrum and a chance to clear the danger. Unfortunately for Sarries, they were penalised at the scrum and Mr Goode did the rest – 6-3.
The final piece of skill came courtesy of Strettle; having made a wonderful break on the right wing, he too chose to ignore Tomkins on the inside and the move petered out. Tomkins is undoubtedly improving; perhaps he should spend a bit more time on practicing to shout louder!
Sarries continued to make unforced errors, be that kicking from hand, dealing with clearing kicks or simply trying to hold onto the ball and presented Goode with opportunities to extend the home teams advantage. Having missed with an earlier attempt, he struck a successful drop goal after 36 minutes. That moment epitomised the Worcs approach as he ignored a potential overlap deep in the Sarries 22 to take the three point shot. The final action of the half saw Goode slot another penalty to give the home side a commanding 12-3 lead. It had been somewhat a war of attrition, the main casualties (other than rugby itself) were Joe Carlisle and Jackson Wray, both leaving the field limping heavily. Mordt had missed another penalty, not particularly easy, but it was not a night to spurn any scoring opportunity.
The second half followed the pattern of the first; Mordt missed an early penalty chance and Goode pulled another drop goal wide. If the first half had offered little by way of entertainment, the second period plummeted from the heights of mediocrity. There was certainly no lack of effort or commitment from either side, but the skill levels, execution and excitement were woefully inadequate. Even the abrasive Neil Best failed to ignite any real passion into the game, despite one notable effort against Mordt.
Sarries kicking game fell apart, they continued to make numerous unforced errors and the lineout failed to function properly but it would be wrong to identify any particular individual. This was a poor performance from both experienced and younger players alike. Mordt's eventual replacement, Sam Stanley, missed a penalty opportunity that may have seen Sarries gain an undeserved losing bonus point. All in all, a very poor day (night) at the office - it certainly does not bode well for the visit of Burns, Sharples & co to Vicarage Road next week.
Man of the Match? Well, the game was totally controlled by Andy Goode; that probably tells you all you need to know!
Sorry if it all sounds a bit negative, but at least most of you reading this didn’t actually spend money to watch it or battle your way up the M40 for the pleasure of doing so!
On the bright side, the beer in the Dragon was excellent and the evening was rounded off with a tasty visit to Café Mela. On Saturday we had the pleasure of watching the table topping clash between Stourbridge and Hull Ionians – an altogether more entertaining offering complete with Sarries academy product Jamie Hearn running in one of the home sides four tries.
Worcester: 15 Chris Pennell, 14 Nikki Walker, 13 Josh Matavesi, 12 Joe Carlisle, 11 Errie Claassens, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Paul Hodgson; 1 Ceri Jones, 2 Ed Shervington, 3 John Andress,
4 James Percival (c), 5 Chris Jones, 6 Neil Best, 7 Matt Kvesic, 8 Semisi Taulava
Replacements: 16 Aleki Lutui, 17 Rob O'Donnell, 18 James Currie, 19 Dean Schofield, 20 Sam Betty, 21 Jonny Arr, 22 Alex Grove, 23 Andy Short
Saracens: 15 Ben Ransom, 14 David Strettle, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Kameli Ratuvou, 11 Duncan Taylor, 10 Nils Mordt, 9 Richard Wigglesworth; 1 Matt Stevens, 2 Jamie George, 3 Carlos Nieto, 4 Steve Borthwick ©, 5 Alistair Hargreaves, 6 Jackson Wray, 7 Andy Saull, 8 Ernst Joubert
Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 Lorenzo Romano, 19 Eoin Sheriff, 20 Will Fraser, 21 Neil de Kock, 22 Sam Stanley, 23 James Short
Ref: T Wigglesworth
Attendance: 8,848
Thanks Chris.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012:12:11:21:47:18 by sutton_sarrie.
We are constantly in need of new scribes, and indebted to those who write stuff already; the fate of the MB hangs by a thread.
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
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