SARRIES - BACK ON THE HORSE
By Innings
March 15 2021
I doubt whether anyone took pleasure in watching any of the pre-season friendlies, the Trailfinders Cup or the game that opened our Championship campaign. That most recent, in particular, surely opened eyes to the Great Gatsby’s inescapable truth that the Championship is a different country; they do things differently there. The supply of high-quality forwards, especially front-five players, means that the Championship is well-stocked with them, as Sarries had found out several times already in the prolonged pre-season and during that first ‘real’ game. However, back divisions seem to face a different balance between supply and demand.
On my socially distanced walk with the dog yesterday morning I was thinking, as I often do on days when I shall be writing a match report, about what headline might be required to lead into this piece. After constant distractions about the headline that I would have written last week, about the The Pirates of Penzance, the one headline that came to mind was ‘Sarries left Red-faced.’ Form and results so far made defeat against an ambitious Jersey side perfectly possible, and to be thinking of headlines to announce a Sarries win seemed to tempt the Fates too much for comfort.
Trying to use my Sarries voucher to watch the game as it live-streamed was a nightmare. It required entering a web-site that was designed by the archetypical web-design nerd, a subterranean being who has not realised that web providers like Amazon can look after the shopping of the entire world on a one-click basis, and Google can answer every question in the blink of an eye. The Championship is delivered to your TV by a clunky, old-fashioned, definitely an old-generation iteration of web commerce. I was unable to use my season ticket voucher, but oddly was able to pay £10 to watch the game with much less difficulty.
After 20 minutes, I was wondering what the first quarter of the game, already having cost me £2.50, justified as value for money. Admittedly, a peach of a try by Alex Lewington, coming from fast follow-up of a deep kick leading to a Jersey error, but the game plan seemed to be pretty much the same as the one that had cost the game again Pirates: muscle up front and ignore the potential of a back line that was likely to be far better than any it will face this season. Reds were well in the hunt with two converted penalties, as Sarries’ forwards showed the same frailties that had bedevilled the pre-season.
And then on 20 minutes, a total transformation. It was almost as though a light came on and illuminated that part of the pitch where players like Duncan Taylor were hanging around, possibly expecting to be as ignored as they have been all year this far. Two things seemed to exemplify this change of attitude. Tactical kicking was no longer a matter of hoof and hope, becoming a weapon for a chase game in which Sarries have always been the best in NH rugby. Passing to players with time and space replaced the endless attempts to out-muscle an opposition pack who play that game year-in and year-out. Suddenly, and it really did seem sudden, Sarries were released from whatever mental shackles have bound them recently. Scrums were no longer a chancy arm-wrestle but an opportunity for fast delivery to the backs, with fifteen players looking more like a team than two separate non-communicating divisions, forwards and backs.
If anything marked the definite change it occurred on about 30 minutes. Scrum, fast ball, a fractionally delayed pass by Aled Davies who had a good game, that gave a very narrow window of options - run, pass or kick – to Manu Vunipola. Three Reds players in attendance, two seemed to expect the running choice, one expected the pass and moved to flood the channel. A perfect little prod, passing ahead of the two Reds preparing to tackle and behind the player flooding the channel. The ball sat up perfectly, Lewington took the invitation, and things were looking a whole lot better. Only moments later, a strong set-piece more or less under the posts at the Red end forced a penalty under pressure, and Davies faced a defence not set. Tap, distribute, ball with Elliott Obatoyinbo and two to beat. There was only ever going to be one outcome in that short dash to the corner.
Although we had now seen three excellent tries, I doubt that many would disagree that the BP try, just before half-time, was technically the most polished. Davies again sowed the seeds of doubt in the Jersey defence, Vunipola used the time well, and this time his little trickery of a kick that cost them last time was in their minds, and hanging back gave time for a delayed pass to Duncan Taylor, who needed no invitation to slide through the dog-leg, more or less undisturbed. He must today know what a cat-burglar feels when he breaks into a house only to find that the alarm is off, the occupants away on holiday and the silver left on the sideboard.
At half-time, Sarries are clearly back on the horse and the horse is running well. 24-6 and the try bonus point secured. It might be suggested that the half time oranges had a taste of sweetness that has been lacking recently.
The weather now played a mean trick. As always, Sarries prefer to play into the wind for the opening period, to enjoy its benefit against tiring opposition in the second period. The first part had gone to plan, but the wind seemed disinclined to play its part and died away during the interval. Not to be denied, the forwards are now running and passing like backs, and I thought I spotted the ever-willing Jackson Wray, having a very influential captain’s game, delivering a couple of fancy off-load passes. Callum Hunter-Hill joins in, delivering perfectly to Juan Pablo Socino whose immediate, delightful soft hands pass puts Obatoyinbo over the line for his second try. He and Lewington are now looking for hat-tricks.
Jersey are watching the rear-end of the horse galloping away, but do not want to be totally outdone. A hesitant clearing kick by Obatoyinbo under his own posts is charged down, Jersey gratefully accepting the 7-pointer that comes from the moment.
At about the hour mark, Davies is still bemusing the Reds close defence. His kicking has been on the money, his timing in the pass has sowed the seeds of hesitation more than once, and here he is again, with the split-second hinted hesitation of pass that causes defenders to break out of the line and leave dog-legs. Rotimi Segun is on hand, to take the pass and make something of it. My late, missed and much-loved brother once described a player “Thighs like tug-boats, legs like gazelles, he’s so hunky”. That is the description of exactly the player you need to find with ball in hand and two or three defenders to beat in the 20-odd metres that you have to cover to score. Segun fits the bill exactly: great power, acceleration and spatial awareness.
Segun is not entirely finished after this sixth try, and in the last moments he is on hand as Dom Morris tidies a spilled Jersey knock-on and passes to him. Another little piece of doubt-sowing, and Jackson Wray is over for the seventh try.
All the while, Manu has quietly maintained his impact on the score-board ticker, converting five of his seven opportunities. With the strong first half wind, and the fact that several tries were scored in the corners, this is a creditable performance.
There was an unseemly tussle as the match wound down. With two Sarries legends assisting in the commentary box, selecting a player of the match was divisive. The forward wanted Jackson Wray, the Scot wanted fellow Scottish player, Duncan Taylor. I would not disagree with either choice, nor if Davies had been the winner. All three were influential and deserving. Perhaps Jackson, leading a sparkling performance coming out of the pre-season dross was the right choice, and not just because of his own performance but because of his captaincy on the day.
So that was that. Reds are one of the stronger Greene King Championship sides, our senior piano shifters will have returned for struggles to come, and our piano players are well up to the standards that are needed. To have lost that game would have been potentially disastrous, winning it puts the show back on the road and will suggest to the rest of the clubs yet to play us that Mark Twain was right: “Rumours of my death have greatly been exaggerated.”
Saracens:-
Obatoyinbo, Lewington (Hooley), Socino (Morris), Taylor, Segun, Vunipola, Davies (Whiteley); Barrington (Mawi), Pifeleti (Crean), Koch (Ibunaokpe), Hunter-Hall, Swinson (Kpoku), Rhodes (Christie), Reffell, Wray
Jersey Reds:-
Williams, Spencer, Van Breda, Barnes, Owen, Cope, Elliot; Richardson, Harris, Parker, Farrance, O’Connor, Argyle, Wynne, HatherallRep: MacFarlane, Godfrey, Alexis, Bartle, Grey, Nordii-Kelemeti, Bainbridge, Ma’afu
SCORERS:
Saracens 45:- Tries: Lewington (2) Obatoyinbo(2) Taylor, Segun, Wray; Conv: Vunipola (5)
Jersey Reds 13: Try: Macfarlane; Conv: Cope; Pens: Cope (2)
Referee: Jack Makepiece
I totally agree with you about Aled Davies - his best performance for us in ages.
I don't think you were alone in struggling with the login! Fortunately I did it 2 days before (didn't work) but then it did work the next day! I suppose the moral is to log in a couple of days in advance! Thanks for investing £10 to write the report!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2021:03:31:21:31:16 by Darraghgirl.
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
For a while I was whether Vincent was going to get a card from the ref on his birthday after being penalised at the first two scrums but thankfully he turned it around.
Just on the sub-standard website, a piece of advice which may help.....
I also had problems, being faced with paying £10 as the only option. What I found on second attempt was that the first things you have to do when you get the opportunity to put in your voucher code is to a) put in your voucher code and b) click the button which says something like 'Apply Code (can't remember precisely.)
Having done that you then see a second box which allows you to apply for your ticket(s) free of charge. Follow the instructions from there and you should be good to go and expand your 'lived experience'....
That's the best I can do to remember what happened; Amazon it ain't.
I was 17 miles from Graybridge before I was caught by the school leopard
I found booking the live stream a bit fiddly before i remembered that there were instructions which unusually, being a man, I actually followed.
Quote:jonnybrowne
i remembered that there were instructions which unusually, being a man, I actually followed.
My wife would suggest that this sentence confirms you are a woman. She says that man never read the instructions until a/. they have cut themselves, b/. broken part of whatever they're trying to assemble or adjust and c/. have exhausted every other possibility.
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
Quote:InningsQuote:jonnybrowne
i remembered that there were instructions which unusually, being a man, I actually followed.
My wife would suggest that this sentence confirms you are a woman. She says that man never read the instructions until a/. they have cut themselves, b/. broken part of whatever they're trying to assemble or adjust and c/. have exhausted every other possibility.
You’ve slightly misquoted me there,,,and in fact it was scenario C..
Quote:jonnybrowne
You’ve slightly misquoted me there,,,and in fact it was scenario C..
But without blood, breakage, a lot of shouting at the screen and hitting it at least twice with at least a clenched fist, can you really claim that all else had failed before you tried the reading option?
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
Quote:InningsQuote:jonnybrowne
You’ve slightly misquoted me there,,,and in fact it was scenario C..
But without blood, breakage, a lot of shouting at the screen and hitting it at least twice with at least a clenched fist, can you really claim that all else had failed before you tried the reading option?
All of the above - check! plus of course industrial language, threats to hunt down and inflict physical damage to whoever created the website, and the Jonny household was seconds away from a laptop shaped hole in the front window...
Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade
🌻🌻🌻
Quote:AP
Let me guess, Jonny - you're a psychotherapist specialising in anger management?
It’s been a struggle, AP, but at the age of 65 I’ve finally learned to truly express my feelings...
Quote:jonnybrowne
It’s been a struggle, AP, but at the age of 65 I’ve finally learned to truly express my feelings...
Funnily enough, at the age of 75 my wife is pleased with my progress in not being quite so vocal about mine, but that may be because I've realised that it's easier to change channels on the TV than rant about some of the dross that passes for entertainment.
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade
🌻🌻🌻
Quote:InningsQuote:jonnybrowne
It’s been a struggle, AP, but at the age of 65 I’ve finally learned to truly express my feelings...
Funnily enough, at the age of 75 my wife is pleased with my progress in not being quite so vocal about mine, but that may be because I've realised that it's easier to change channels on the TV than rant about some of the dross that passes for entertainment.
You’ve clearly moved past the grumpy ageing man phase I’m currently moving through - which of course I’m dressing up as simply getting down with the snowflake generation and externalising my feelings - and reached your higher ground, Innings.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:03:21:11:09:20 by jonnybrowne.
Quote:AP
I have to confess, as a mere 61 year old, the two millennials I was watching with were shocked at the language I uttered when England, who looked the better side than Wales at 24 - 24, threw it away with brain-dead penalties.
Thankfully the millennials in my circle - my nephews - have all inherited the “pottymouth” gene prevalent in the Browne lineage and we often enjoy a swearfest together. Think The Thick Of It crossed with The Waltons.