A Tale of Two Twelves
PNH
By Innings
October 12 2014
Rumour was that Stuart Lancaster was in the stands to run the rule over a number of contenders. If he was, then his afternoon probably caused more headaches than it cured. The biggest headache of all came in the remarkably different afternoons of two inside centres. Bradley Barritt played a pivotal role, organising his defence, providing regular muscular go forward and distributing a greater supply of good ball than the Gloucester backs saw all afternoon.
After the game, Mark McCall noted what makes Bradley special: “People underestimate Brad. They think he’s a one-trick pony because he’s a great defender. He defended brilliantly today of course, but there’s much more to his game than that. He has such a presence on the pitch….. I’d have him in my international team every day of the week...” Meanwhile, Billy Twelvetrees must have travelled home asking himself what more could have gone wrong for him. He did start with an excellent break, handing a superbly timed long pass that led to the first try of the afternoon, but everything unravelled thereafter. He was forced all too often to run sideways, into the killing zone, where his frequent knocks-on out of the tackle must have had West Country soap manufacturers thinking of using him to front new advertising campaigns. But his real moment of horror came with one of his routine clearances charged down in what seems to be a routine Sarries’ fashion, taken and touched down behind him. The worst of that horror was that Twelvetrees, the incumbent England 12 was left flapping at the vapour-trail of Chris Wyles, a thoroughly dependable and talented player, much respected by the supporters, but not the quickest sprinter in the Sarries back line. A very poor showcase for Lancaster to consider.
But what of the game? Gloucester came to play, to win. Their power play had done down the Tigers in style, and Gloucester brought the same game to Allianz Park. For ten minutes it looked as though the Sarries power machine had met a new and bigger kid on the block. Two penalties, 0-6, a single reply by Charlie, and then on about ten minutes, the break that enabled Twelvetrees to put Cook into the corner and take the visitors to a deserved 3-13 lead. In that same period we welcomed the return of the ever-cheerful Schalk Brits, fresh from international duty with South Africa. Alas it was not a happy return; Jamie George was called upon for another full stint at the front after only seven minutes. As I write there’s no official word about the extent of Schaller’s rib injury.
So, after ten minutes, Sarries were in a dogfight. The Gloucester big dogs seemed to be dominant, and our big dogs looked less formidable. With the variable but often strong wind behind them, Gloucester were looking good for a solid lead. But, in the immortal words of Nigel Molesworth, “as any fule kno,” it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. Trailing by ten, suffering a bit of sand in the face, Sarries decided to start playing. Gloucester had started with their ‘A’ game, and had little more to offer, even if that was a pretty decent offering. Sarries had started with their ‘C’ game and moved up significantly. One period of sustained pressure, pulling the Gloucester defence this way and that, led to a really well-worked try for Hargreaves in the corner. Going towards half-time with the slenderest of leads, Sarries might have given that up when Twelvetrees was offered a penalty attempt from 55 metres, a very ambitious attempt in the gusty conditions. His elevation was good, but as soon as the ball rose to any height above ground the wind inexorably took it right.
So the sides went in for the break. All in all, Sarries must have been much the happier. For Sarries to build on a first half lead achieved against the wind was always an easier ask than for Gloucester to recover the lead against the wind and against a team who almost never surrender a half-time advantage. On top of that, we had waited 28 minutes for the first scrum, whereafter the few of the half had definitely gone Sarries’ way. Can John Afoa, 36-cap All Black have expected to concede penalties at the first two scrums to a player seen playing in ND1 only a couple of seasons ago?
The second half was not quite the gripping duel of the first. Mistakes were creeping in. Decisions by referee Dean Richards seemed to be as much mysteries to the players as they were to us in the stands. But don’t think these decisions affected the outcome, because they didn’t. A clear yellow card for taking out a player in the air should have seen a Gloucester player in the bin, but an equally obvious offence shortly afterwards, I think by George Kruis, at the other end led only to the same finger-wagging. On a number of occasions I was baffled by Mr Richards’ interpretation of the requirement to release the ball and recover it before getting to one’s feet and moving off again, and of course a straight feed to the scrum is so last year that we can forget that anyone ever tried to invoke that law. In general I think Mr Richards is one of the better referees on the circuit, but today he was at times a little inclined to enjoy the limelight.
The highlight of the second half was a terrific press upfield from the forwards culminating in a crucial break by Hargreaves, from which his perfect pass to the man on his shoulder led to an uncontested stroll in under the posts for Chris Ashton.
The game ended with the sort of indecision that should never be in the make-up of the successors to Steven Borthwick. Four or so minutes to go, 28-16 ahead with a simple three-points penalty for Charlie to bury Gloucester’s hopes of taking anything home, or a kick to the corner for a drive for the line in search of an elusive fourth try. The least sensible option is a scrum. We simply haven’t dominated enough there to expect the ultra-fast ball that could release the speed outside. So we opt for the least sensible option, fluff the ultra-swift delivery, and after several scrambled phases Gloucester have been presented with a try and a gift-wrapped losing bonus point. Crazy thinking.
What of other players?
Another interesting conundrum for Lancaster lies on the wings. Johnny May appears to be well ahead of Chris Ashton in the reckoning, but today, whilst May played on his wing, did his work as a wing but looked unlikely to do anything else, Ashton was constantly on the move, popping up in attack anywhere from fullback to flanker, and a couple of his breaks caused near-panic in the Gloucester defence. However, his try, coming up in the centre onto the beautifully weighted pass, caused no West Country panic because I doubt whether a single Gloucester player had the slightest inkling of what Ashton had seen was on as a result of the urgency of Hargreaves’ break.
Alex Goode definitely needed a good spell when he came on at 50 minutes. So far he has not been the player of the last couple of seasons, but today, when it mattered, he did well, commanded his space under the high ball, threatened in the line and put in the defensive shift as well.
Billy Vunipola is a force of nature. His instinct may be to take the ball deep, fix on a player and set off to run him over, and he does that scarily well. But he offers much, much more. He has the ability to straighten a line crabbing sideways, he has a sense of when to use his off-load skills, and he defends as though his entire family honour depends on it. Others may want to take his England shirt, but they all have to make better case than I’ve seen this season so far. Morgan is a direct competitor for that very large shirt, but he had to concede the honours today.
And finally on the players, to Charlie Hodgson. He had another good game, and for me is clearly, and by a margin, the form 10 of the AP. Supporters from his Sale days must wonder whence came his defensive game, now an assured and reliable part of his armoury, and may claim Cipriani to be the form 10. However, I did fear for Charlie in one tackle, on the much larger Tom Palmer. However Palmer was stopped in his tracks, actually driven backwards, and I wonder whether that ignominy was the cause of his leaving the field to be replaced shortly afterwards.
So what did we learn? Many of us must have been concerned that we have seen little of the ‘A’ game so far, with at least two results dependent on sneaking under the wire in the final minute, with the Bath game showing that others bring similar weaponry to the fight. We could so easily be looking at P6, W2, D1, L3, staring up the table and wondering what’s gone wrong. This game showed that the steel still lies within, that the ‘A’ game is still powerful enough to trouble anyone in the Aviva Premiership. For the next two weeks and Europe, nothing else will be good enough.
Saracens: Ransom, (Goode, 50 mins) Ashton, Wyles, Barritt, (Bosch, 70 mins), Strettle; Hodgson, Wigglewsorth, (de Kok, 71 mins), Barrington, (Gill, 51 mins), Brits, (George 7 mins), Longbottom, (Johnston, 51 mins), Hamilton, (Kruis, 58 mins), Hargreaves (capt), Joubert, Brown, (Frazer, 50 mins), Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: George, Gill, Johnston, Kruis, Fraser, De Kock, Bosch, Goode.
Gloucester: Cook; Sharples, Purdy, (69 mins), Twelvetrees (capt), May; Hook, Laidlaw, (Robson, 71 mins), Wood, (Thomas, 66 mins), Hibbard, (Dawidiuk, 57 mins), Afoa, (Paufisi, 71 mins), Savage, Palmer, (Stook, 64 mins), Kalamafoni, (Moriarty, 66 mins), Kvesic, Morgan.
Replacements: Dawidiuk, Thomas, Puafisi, Stooke, Moriarty, Robson, Atkinson, Meakes.
Attendance: 9,084
Referee: Dean Richards (RFU).
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014:10:25:17:09:26 by Darraghgirl.
I hope you have emailed it to SL!!
It was Fraser at the other end - bad boy.
Excellent report - thanks
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Applause for the author !
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Regarding Hodgson's tackling ability, it started when the Sarries staff said, "just get in the way of the bloke with the ball and Brad will do the rest!!"
I ws impressed with Glocs. They will only get better and IMHO are serious top 4 contenders.
Nous sommes l'armée noir et rouge !
I'd just add that our captain showed not only great form but signs of him growing into the leadership role, communicating well through the game with his forwards and via Brad to the backs. Okay, maybe the scrum call was wrong in hindsight but having not converted so many line outs in their 22 throughout the game I will give him credit for trying something different.
However, surely we must record our appreciation of Alistair Hargreaves kicking abilities. It did the job, but a thing of beauty it was not
thats the way for a forward to do it