The Challenges of a New Season
By saracens4life
August 28 2013
Back after a long summer break – including a recent team-bonding trip to South Africa’s Western Cape – one would hope that the Saracens squad have shaken off the hurt of the end of last year. Two comprehensive semi-final defeats at home to Toulon and Northampton Saints were thoroughly deflating, after a season which had promised so much.
Certainly, the Men in Black will need to vanquish those memories as soon as possible. Without trying to sound melodramatic, this really is a ‘make-or-break’ season for Mark McCall and his charges.
No longer do they have the excuse (not that it was ever used as such) of being homeless. The youngsters and the internationals are now more established, with another season under their belts. And most of all, this is now Year 5 of the infamous “5 year plan” (winning the Heineken Cup) set out back in 2009.
This campaign will determine whether Sarries are “among the best” or “actually the best”. For a squad of such quality, and such strong foundations (set-piece, defence, work ethic), qualification for the English top 4 and the European quarter-finals is really a minimum – even a given. It is the ability to convert those positions into a) finals and b) trophies, that will be under inspection.
Three areas where Sarries need to improve in order to make the step-up:
1) More Physicality. Whether it was lightweight personnel, or not enough aggression, or lack of streetwise ploys, Sarries lost both of those semi-finals due to being outmuscled. The coming-of-age of Jamie George and George Kruis; the signings of James Johnston and Billy Vunipola; and the return to fitness of Jacques Burger, provide new options (and serious extra weight) in each layer of the pack. The likes of Barritt and Tomkins in the midfield will have no trouble getting over the gain line and making inroads if the forwards offer front-foot ball – which means aggressive carries and aggressive clear-outs. The philosophy at the club of ‘memories’ being more important than ‘trophies’ is an admirable one – but we can’t keep losing big games because the opposition are hungrier…
2) Better Rotation. The players above mean that there is far more strength in depth in the forward pack (possibly excepting hooker). There are enough potential combinations to vary the strategy according to gameplan and opposition. The likes of Brits, Borthwick, Hargreaves, Brown, Fraser and Joubert were all overworked last season – and it showed. More energy will mean more physicality! Rotation has always been the lovechild of our coaching setup – but it could be better utilised still. In the backs too, there is more variety in the midfield with Marcelo Bosch and Tim Streather arriving, and Duncan Taylor developing well. Hopefully this will make our backplay more unpredictable – if the options are used well. Which leads us too…
3) Variable Attacking Play. Kevin Sorrell’s first year as backs coach must be classed as a success – with try-scoring figures going up considerably, especially at Allianz Park. However, it remains evident that Sarries’ backs struggle without go-forward ball. It’s why we seem to have no Plan B when sides like Saints or Toulon dominate the physical exchanges. Given that there is a potential England starting backline lurking in our squad, that really shouldn’t be the case. The likes of Brits, Barritt and Tomkins offload incisively when on the front foot, and our forward carriers often run piercing lines. But it’s in broken field where our attack needs to improve (i.e. when play is more unstructured and we don’t have the luxury of forward momentum). Between Ashton, Strettle, Goode, Wyles, Ransom, Short and Tagicakibau (the back three), there is considerable capacity to beat defenders and score tries. The key will be how well they can interlink, and how well the inside backs can give them ball to use. Their success will largely depend on mindset and confidence. But their firepower may be what makes the difference against the best sides…
The danger is, with a group of such quality, that complacency will nullify the potential to improve. The challenge I – and hopefully many supporters – would put to the players and coaches is this: maximise your potential.
If they do, 2013-14 could be quite a special year for the Men in Black…
The Bards new seasons predictions coming soon ...
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013:09:08:12:51:39 by TonyTaff.
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
I'm sure George Kruis will get a lot more starts in the Premiership at least.
Since 2009 expectations have grown steadily but it’s now two years since we got to a final (we lost three semi-finals last year!). I’d like to see more of a focus on the LV= this year as it gives a chance to secure some silver-ware for relatively little effort and we need to build a trophy-winning mindset.
One other thing I’m hoping for is Farrell to be in a better mental place this season, the Lions tour showed a more settled and more creative player and hopefully we’ll see that continue.
Quote:Tigers will win the AP again
Now there's a detailed analysis if ever I heard one...
Most obvious change is certainly that of getting more physical strength in the pack - we must make sure now that we're happy to switch that around with the "speedy pack" (for lack of a better term, clearly not fully mutually exclusive) when gameplay suits that