Preview - Saracens vs Toulon

By Saracens4Life
April 25 2013

I’m determined not to write yet another preview full of superlatives and hyperbole. There’ll be enough of that this weekend already: Sky are televising a Munster game. But as I sit in bed (student for you!) thinking about this game, I don’t really think I can help it. It’s been a week of continual reminders about how crappy and depressing this world can be – illness, terrorism, professional football. Maybe rugby can be a bit of an oasis – fun in the sun & quality sport. Except ERC of course.

Certainly, rugby matches don’t get much bigger than this – don’t let the crowd numbers fool anyone. Two teams on a steep upward curve: the red & black Galácticos of Toulon, up against the, er, red & black Wolfpack of Barnet. Our visitors possess three players who, in my view, were the outright best in the world at their peak – Bakkies Botha, Juán Martín Fernández Lobbe, and of course ‘le petit Jonny’. The rest of their side isn’t too shabby either. On our part – we can offer the tightest-knit & hardest-working squad in England, with a fair few internationals thrown in.

In terms of playing capability, the match-ups are simply mouth-watering. Andrew Sheridan, Carl Hayman and Sebastian Bruno (an actual Frenchman; administrative error, probably) are a trio of sizeable fellows who will look to bully their way round the park. Although our own Mako Vunipola and Matt Stevens contribute a fair bit in the pie stakes, I feel it will be a question of containing the raw power of the Toulon three. As a scrum we drive extremely low and are very quick across the gap; this does end up in a lot of free-kicks and silly penalties, but when we get it right we can pressurise any side.

One big unknown on the Sarries side is the availability or not of Schalk Brits at hooker. What the South African may lack in bulk at scrum-time, he more than makes up for with lineout work, leadership, and several other things I’ll come onto later. Either way, we will be hoping to achieve parity at the scrum and at least parity at the lineout. Steve Borthwick will be up against one of the forgotten men of English rugby, Nick Kennedy. But, although the ex-London Irish man is a good operator and technician, his comrades in the back five, for all their abundant physical qualities, are not what you’d call “springy”. The Men in Black, on the other hand, are five out of five for jumping options, with Ernst Joubert especially adept at the front of the line.

So…about equal in the scrum and the lineout. As for the third set-piece, the restart, another absolutely crucial aspect of the territory battle, I can’t really see any team in Europe matching our efficiency. Borthwick and Joubert in the air, Kelly Brown fielding the deeper kicks, and Ali Hargreaves with the one-man gazelle-style leaps. Our own kick-offs tend to go very deep, so the Toulon exit strategies will have to be functioning smoothly otherwise they’ll end up conceding good field position.

But the battles that really define this game will not be about securing initial, first-phase possession – it will be about the resulting phase-play, i.e. the gain line and the breakdown. Toulon’s ball-carrying options in this regard are fairly ominous – Botha on his collarbone-shattering runs, coming like a lorry rolling down a hill; the explosivity of Chris Masoe and, wider out, Mathieu Bastareaud. They have similarly unscientific, ferocious approach to the breakdown (“just smash it”, etc.). The indefatigable Lobbe is a necessary counterpoint to the low work rate of the marvellously overhyped Steffon Armitage – but in tandem, the pair is very effective.

The Toulon pack also has a fearsome offloading game, and they love nothing more than to gain quick yards through the narrow channels so that Jonny has space into which he can launch the silly array of talent outside him. In that instance, the very much in-form Matt Giteau will wreak havoc with his running lines, and odious though he is, Delon Armitage with that long stride is extremely potent out wide.

Soooo … we don’t want to let that happen. Joel Tomkins and David Strettle aren’t the most comfortable positionally, but they normally have their jobs made considerably easier by the line speed on their inside. Trouble is, you can’t have a good defensive line speed if you’re moving backwards. This makes the job of the back row and 10/12 rather important. The loss of Will Fraser will not only be devastating for him personally, but it also hits the team hard; with hindsight, the 3 points he won for Shaun Knight’s massively illegal clear-out probably weren’t worth it. Knight is just lucky his name isn’t Bakkies Botha.

In the absence of Fraser and with physicality and line speed being even more important than usual, I’d love to see George Kruis slot in at 6, with nailed-on Lion (surely?!?) Kelly Brown shifting to 7. As they’re not the quickest over the ground, they would need to “bust a gut” to hit their breakdowns – but both have been well rested recently. Borthwick, Hargreaves and Joubert need to launch themselves into collisions and make their presence felt. Barritt had a storming game against Ulster, and if he keeps having them Warren Gatland will have to consider him; without Fraser and potentially without Brits, Brad will need to be as focused and sharp as ever as leader of the defensive line, and at an individual level he must contend with the angles of Giteau and the power of Bastareaud.

It will be a hard enough task trying to contain Toulon – but how can we respond with ball in hand? Having George Kruis (or Jacko Wray, if he gets the nod) at 6 gives us an extra heavy-duty carrier, so hopefully our front row can shift a touch wider and attack the less-cluttered 10 channel. Given that Farrell at 10 is not the quickest off the mark, we really need that go-forward if our backs are going to have any chance. If they are on the front-foot, Tomkins, Ashton and Strettle have all been in scorching form recently, as offloader, support runner and finisher respectively. Contrary to popular belief, we will score tries out wide if we get the platform.

Alex Goode’s form has been variable of late (since the Six Nations). He is dependable as ever, which means he will keep the #15 shirt – but he often seems hesitant both on the counter-attack and coming into the line. He’ll never be Christian Wade, but equally he is a lot quicker than he often looks, and when he goes for it whole-heartedly he skips past defenders as easily as anyone. A bit more of Goodey at his best will give us yet another string for our plentiful bow.

So that's the individual match-ups, the physical complexion of Sunday's game. And it’s pretty well-balanced. According to the Opta stattos on Twitter, both sides have scored exactly 207 points in Europe this year; it’s very hard to separate them on paper.

More interesting, and more crucial, though, will be the tactical and psychological dimensions. The battle of the mind; the top two inches; the sort of thing that makes Will Greenwood really excitable.

For all of Toulon's star names, this is where Sarries may have the edge. Against Ulster we were absolutely spot-on; the tactics were balanced perfectly, and we had the ruthless streak needed to execute a game-plan in a pressured environment.

And while the perception of the Toulon players as money-grabbing and under-motivated is way off the mark, there are perhaps some issues worth highlighting. They draw so much inspiration from their stunning Mediterranean backdrop, and their barmy, vociferous crowd led by Cedric the Pilou Pilou man (of which I am an established fan). They are rampant when on the front foot, but struggle (more than most) when they're not - their season has been a combination of really impressive wins, and really heavy defeats.

Tactically, if we are switched on at the lineouts and the restarts (all of them, not most of them!), we will dominate territorially. I hope you’ve appreciated the lack of Farrell-Wilkinson hype so far…but you would expect both to punish indiscipline from the tee – so playing in your own half will be undesirable. Of course, Toulon may back themselves to play their power game from anywhere on the field. But talented as they are, they are of course containable with the right mentality and physicality in defence.

Ultimately, I think we will win this game if we do the things we’re good at exceptionally well. As soon as you start back-pedalling against Toulon, you get slaughtered – and at the same time, they can suffocate you with long-range penalties. The key will be to put them in the areas of the field where we want them, through our kick-chase, and keep them there, through our set-piece and defence.

So if we have the capability to beat them – with a Heineken Cup final on the table for the victor – it’s all up to the players to go out and do the business. All the results and good times we’ve already enjoyed were only leading up to this moment. Games like Sunday’s are what this squad has spent 3 years working its nuts off for. Let’s not let the rewards slip through our fingers now…

Preview - Saracens vs Toulon

Posted by: TheSaracens.com (IP Logged)

Date: 25/04/2013 09:22

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Thanks for the preview of this weekend's match saracens4Life, I for one am looking forward to it!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013:04:30:11:32:28 by TonyTaff.