Last Tango in Barnet
Gavin
By Darraghgirl
September 23 2013
For a top of the table clash between the 2 remaining unbeaten teams, it was a shame, although perhaps inevitable, that all the pre-match speculation surrounded one Gavin Henson, late of this parish and via Toulon, Cardiff Blues and London Welsh, a man of Bath. Of course Edward Griffiths’ offer to refund Bath supporters ticket money if Gav scored a point fuelled the fire (and was, I thought, pretty generous: a try maybe but a point?) But I guess it would all depend on whether the “tangoed one” would turn up. Well he was named in the Bath team so there was at least a chance.
Sarries made a couple of changes from last week with Alex Goode back from injury, the injured Tomkins replaced in midfield by Chris Wyles, Mako and Brits making their first starts of the season and George Kruis taking over from Alastair Hargreaves in the 2nd row. Bath had shuffled their successful side with Tom Heathcote starting at half back instead of George Ford and Dave Attwood also left on the bench.
The weather couldn’t have been more different to last week –warm, still, dry, with the sun making a few guest appearances. The referee was J P Doyle who had presided over Sarries’ only defeat at Allianz in the premiership semi-final last season.
Sarries started on the front foot and good breaks from Brits and Ashton led to the first penalty and a 3-0 lead. Bath responded with a penalty of their own (and interestingly with the only points scored all day at the North end) after some excellent Saracens defence and a Bath knock-on on the try line which brought the TMO into play.
Henson’s first touch was a rather lame kick which Ashton returned and eventually gave Sarries an attacking line out which was disrupted but Mako grabbed the loose ball and charged forward getting the ball back to Farrell, Wyles and Goode and finally out to Strettle who on current form was always going to score. Farrell managed the conversion and Sarries led 10-3.
Bath had a chance to cut the deficit with a rather ominous scrum penalty but a long kick from Heathcote went well wide (maybe they should have let Gav have a go). A better Sarries scrum led to another attack. Ashton’s tackle rattled Biggs and the head-banded Alex Goode set off for the try line. He was initially stopped but good work from Billy Vunipola gave Goode the chance to run through a narrow gap and score. Farrell converted again and the lead had stretched to 17-3.
Then followed an interesting sequence. Sarries stole a Bath lineout in their own 22 but JP deemed it to be illegal. Bath put the penalty back in the same place and this time Sarries stole the lineout legally. A third Bath line out was again stolen by Sarries before finally they cleared their lines.
Two superb tackles from Ashton, one on Banahan and a second on Biggs led to a Sarries penalty which Farrell encouragingly put in the corner. The attack from the line out eventually failed with a knock on but Mr Doyle went back for a penalty which Farrell put back in the same corner. This time the drive was pulled down illegally so the ball went back in the corner again. The 3rd lineout was driven forward but JP Doyle gave Bath the put in because the ball wasn’t going forward apparently. Bath changed Perenise for James but all that happened was Sarries stole the ball, won a penalty and put the ball back in the corner. So lineout Round 4. This time the ball came out to the backs and Bath conceded yet another penalty and finally a yellow card when Weber departed for the bin. So guess what, the ball went back in the corner for the 5th time. And finally the forwards drove their way to the line and a delighted Matt Stevens picked up the ball and executed a perfect swallow dive, worthy of anything Ashton could produce, over a pile of bodies to score against his old club. (Alastair Hargreaves described it as the “Matt Splatt”, Priceless! Despite an early charge from Bath, Farrell once again converted and Sarries led 24-3.
Bath had to bring on Tom Dunn for Fa’osiliva . As the half ended Sarries were camped inside the Bath 22. A lovely break from Goode put Ashton through. His little kick ahead almost found Wyles who just knocked on. Sarries won the resulting scrum against the head and only a poor bounce denied Ashton a well-deserved try. But Sarries kept driving forward. The ball came out wide then back to Brits who went for the tryline when he should really have passed out wide to an unmarked Strettle. The ball was protected and this time Ashton found his other wingman and Strettle scored his second of the day. Farrell succeeded with his trickiest conversion to keep his 100% record and Sarries went in for half time with the bonus point secured. What a superb half of rugby. Sarries had completely outplayed Bath. And the “orange one” had barely touched the ball let alone scored a point.
Bath made a significant change at half time bringing on Ford for Heathcote and Garvey for Mercer. Immediately they looked a better side. Anthony Watson showed a glimpse of his promise before being caught by Ashton but Bath attacked. From the lineout Sarries repelled the Bath maul but Bath still looked dangerous until Henson got goal line fever and forgot to hang on to a pass from Ford to the delight of the 8,000 odd crowd.
Ford found a lovely kick ahead for the dangerous Rokoduguni but Wigglesworth just got the tackle in. A couple of scrums followed before Johnston and Hargreaves replaced Stevens and Borthwick. Johnston’s first contribution was to win a scrum penalty for his side and finally 7 minutes of Bath pressure were relieved without Bath scoring a point.
Ford seemed to have added a new dimension to Bath’s play and before long they were on the attack again helped by a couple of crooked scrum feeds that went unpunished. Attwood replaced Day and Burger, whose pretty face had taken rather a battering, gave way for Kelly Brown to make his first appearance of the season. More significantly for the Saracens accountants, the ineffectual Henson was replaced by Jonathan Joseph
Somewhat worryingly the Sarries scrum was now coming under increasing pressure. Finally a Sarries’ penalty allowed them to clear their lines and set up an attack in the Bath 22. Ashton found Brown but he couldn’t get to the line, finally Alex Goode’s pass was intercepted by Rokoduguni and to Goode’s horror the Bath wing ran the length of the pitch and scored Bath’s opening try. Ford kicked the simple conversion and it was 31-10 with 20 minutes still left to play.
From the restart Kruis charged down Ford’s clearance but the ball just beat him into touch. Jamie George came on for Brits and Neil de Kock replaced Wigglesworth for the first time this season. Bath replaced Roberts with Mickey Young to set up an all ex-Leicester half back pairing.
The penalty count was starting to tell against Sarries now and Bath pinned them back in their 22 again. The scrum creaked but the defence held and finally Farrell cleared with a penalty. Richard Barrington made his debut in place of Mako and Ben Ransom replaced the tiring Alex Goode. But the respite didn’t last long and Bath were soon camped back in the Sarries’ 22 again. Again the Sarries’ defence was huge and despite a couple of dodgy penalty decisions Bath couldn’t breach the line. The excellent Duncan Taylor came off for Mordt. Farrell got the ball back up the other end. The respite was short-lived. George Ford was put clear and ran the length of the pitch but no one was getting past Ashton today. Coolly he shepherded Ford towards the touchline, forced him to go outside and charged him into touch picking up a cut eyebrow for his pains.
JP got annoyed with Jamie George for throwing the ball in when he’d told him to wait and gave Bath a free kick. It seemed harsh and ended in a Bath try when Attwood managed to bundle the ball over. Ford again took a simple conversion to bring Bath back to 31-17.
Only 4 minutes left on the clock now. Sarries threatened briefly before conceding another penalty and another, and another! As the clock ran dead Sarries turned the ball over and kicked it out to secure the win.
If you’ll forgive the cliché this was a real game of 2 halves. Sarries were out of this world in the first half but mere mortals in the second. Given the penalty count in the second half they were probably lucky to finish the game with 15 men on the pitch. George Ford made a huge difference to Bath and Sarries probably took their collective foot off the gas after half time but the demolition of the scrum late on was worrying. On the plus side though this was our 3rd 5 pointer on the trot and “boring old Sarries” have maximum points and sit on top of the league, the only unbeaten side in the Premiership. Duncan Taylor won man of the match and he did play well but you have to feel for Strettle who for the second successive game scored 2 tries. I would have given it to Chris Ashton though who was everywhere on the pitch, tackled like Brad Barritt, saved a try and but for the bounce of the ball would have had one too.
And the Orange one? His main contribution to the game a celebrated knock-on, faded anonymously into the background. No fairy tales. No refunds. No golden wonder. Just a last Tango in Barnet!
Saracens
Goode (Ransom), Ashton, Wyles, Taylor (Mordt), Strettle, Farrell, Wigglesworth (De Kock), M Vunipola (Barrington), Brits (George), Stevens (Johnston), Borthwick (Hargreaves), Kruis, B Vunipola, Burger (Brown) Joubert
Bath
Watson, Rokoduguni, Banahan, Henson (Joseph), Biggs, Heathcote (Ford), Roberts (Young), Perenise (James) Webber (Dunn) Wilson, Hooper, Day (Attwood), Fa’osiliva, Mercer (Garvey), Houston
Scorers:
Saracens: Tries:- Strettle (2) Goode Stevens, Convs: Farrell (4) Pen: Farrell
Bath: Tries: Rokoduguni, Attwood, Convs: Ford (2) Pen: Heathcote
Scores:
3-0 3-3 10-3 17-3 24-3 31-3 31-10 31-17
Referee JP Doyle
Attendance 8047
She is to be greatly applauded. We need more scribes, and, if we are to maintain her enthusiasm for writing such excellent articles, we need one more publisher; I now have some material to assist with the induction process
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013:10:06:19:49:33 by Darraghgirl.
And taking over as editrix makes sure it gets published in time as well!
Quote:AlanE
Yes - thanks, DG.
And taking over as editrix makes sure it gets published in time as well!
Ho, Ho!
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Seriously guys and gals, if I can do it anyone can so come on, VOLUNTEER!