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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:04:21:21:10:58 by Darraghgirl.

I'll copy the text across when the new site starts working

1 Mako Vunipola
2 Jamie George
3 Marco Riccioni
4 Maro Itoje
5 Hugh Tizard
6 Nick Isiekwe
7 Ben Earl
8 Billy Vunipola
9 Ivan van Zyl
10 Owen Farrell (c)
11 Sean Maitland
12 Nick Tompkins
13 Alex Lozowski
14 Max Malins
15 Alex Goode

Bench:
16 Tom Woolstencroft
17 Eroni Mawi
18 Christian Judge
19 Callum Hunter-hill
20 Jackson Wray
21 Aled Davies
22 Duncan Taylor
23 Alex Lewington







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:04:07:12:10:53 by Sarriebone.

Looks like Sean is captain

The opposition:

Le XV de départ :
Reda WARDI,
Pierre BOURGARIT,
Uini ATONIO,
Thomas LAVAULT,
Will SKELTON,
Ultan DILLANE,
Levani BOTIA,
Greg ALLDRITT (cap.),
Tawera KERR-BARLOW,
Antoine HASTOY,
Raymond RHULE,
Jonathan DANTY,
Ulupano SEUTENI,
Jules FAVRE,
Brice DULIN.

Le banc :
Quentin LESPIAUCQ,
Hayden THOMPSON-STRINGER,
Joel SCLAVI,
Romain SAZY,
Yoan TANGA,
Paul BOUDEHENT,
Thomas BERJON,
Teddy THOMAS.

O’Gara has had umpteen touchline bans this season, I’m not so convinced he’s the hottest property. Just hoping we are not talking about officials , strikes or riots after the weekend!

Anyone driving down make sure you fill up in the UK as petrol from the motorway services is around €2.25 per litre. We also found some supermarkets garages are out of unleaded or rationing to 30 ltrs max.
However no shortages around La Rochelle and no sign of strikes or riots around here either.

Good to see a couple of ex-Sarries on the oppo.

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

🌻🌻🌻

Interested to see what people’s opinion on tomorrow’s game. Would you prefer to lose tomorrow but win the Premiership? Personally I think fighting on 2 fronts is going to be a stretch given the strength of some of those left in the competition. It would be gauling to come away with nothing at the end of the season. Winning both comps would be greater than previous doubles but equally we could end up with no silverware. A win tomorrow would probably mean a trip to Bristol .

Get the job done..............................

It would be gauling to come away with nothing

Should be galling. but not inappropriate, given the opposition!

I'm expecting we will win. I will be watching after the family lunch (which will probably run to 6 pm).

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

🌻🌻🌻

One sided referring from Brace so far

They joked about Austin getting stuck in traffic has the TMO not got to the game yet? there has been 5 high tackles/Head on Head contacts not looked at in the 1st 35mins

As predicted. Now to take a rest and go again. COYS

Not impressed with Mr Brace. We didn't lose because of him but he and his team missed sooooo much

Well at least we won’t get Brace and Neville again this season. Fingers crossed Billy is just carrying a knock and nothing worse.

Brace really didn’t seem consistent as he rightly penalised us a few times for going off our feet in the tackle area but seemed to ignore exactly the same offence by LAR players.
LAR definitely deserved to win as Bottia’s work at the breakdown was phenomenal - reminded me of the day when Jacques Burger tackled Clermont Auvergne into the dust.
I think we are getting a bit short of back row resources with Theo, Andy C and now Billy looking crocked.

We just did not learn. If you are tackled and on the floor then you have to let the ball go. Simple.

Don't blame the ref. We could not handle the breakdown. As we learnt from the 6th Nations, English rugby is far from top class. How can people claim the Premiership is the best ...

Was rooting for you today. Hope your injuries aren't too bad. Thought Brace only reffed one side and was definitely not even handed. It was interesting that O'Gara referred to him as "Andy" post match..

Classic game showing that there’s not a huge amount you can do when you’re being physically dominated. So much effort goes in to tackling wave after wave of massive men the guys looked knackered when they needed to support a breakaway. Brace was frustrating but not the reason we lost. I don’t think there’s a club team in the world who could’ve beaten La Rochelle at home in this form.

Fingers crossed on Billy, he was on crutches but that’s not definitive. Going to need him for the prem run in.

Thought Jackson Wray did a sterling job when he came on to replace Billy

Quote:

gerry1
Thought Jackson Wray did a sterling job when he came on to replace Billy

Agreed
LAR were faster to the breakdown and more pysical in defence. Commentary kept saying we were having an off day but I thought that was unfair on LAR. Skelton did to us what we loved him doing to oppos when he was with us.

A lot of the 50/05's went against us but I dont think half of them would have got our noses in front. Well done La Rochelle.

Please feel free to give a few players a weekend off next week at The Gardens…………….

Based on that performance I think we may have just witnessed the winners. Reffing aside we didn’t match them physically and lacked support at the rucks. After the first few minutes ( and decisions) we should have been sharper at the breakdown and not let La Rochelle jackal as easily as they did. We looked more dangerous when we went wide. Roti with his pace and physicality would have caused them problems than trying to bash our way through.

Quote:

NGSB
Please feel free to give a few players a weekend off next week at The Gardens…………….

I wouldn't be surprised to see a PRC team sent next week at best... Lol u20 at worst

Ninjafez - supporting Sarries and cleaning their signs since 2006!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:04:11:08:00:29 by ninjafez.

Well played LAR - deserved win. Ref was not consistent and we are missed Big Theo, Daly and Andy. We had chances, but did not take them. All is not lost. This is first season back in top Euro comp and on another day with full strength team and composure it could be a different result. Reminds me of 12 years ago. Let’s win the Prem and then build again towards Champs Cup, although not as far to go this time! Qtr Final not shabby.

Well played Ben Earl - thought Jacko brilliant when he came on and Eroni, too. Wolfie’s yellow ridiculous, some common sense must prevail.

Bring on Saints, Irish and Bath and let’s make sure we win our 6th Prem title. Always proud of the lads!

The TMO talked him down to a yellow but it was totally ridiculous.
As.for the 15/running into Mako 😂

Quote:

Stanster
The TMO talked him down to a yellow but it was totally ridiculous.
As.for the 15/running into Mako 😂

That should have been a penalty for diving. It's the only way they'll that sort of play acting

La Rochelle are beatable and I'm proud of our guys though. Its hard to compete with a limited salary cap and it shows with the depth of La Rochelles bench as well.
I know we have come away from our kicking game but would it have helped if we kept turning them and stop running into their heavier ball carries. But that would have been difficult as half of their team are huge lol.
I think Leinster could go on and win it as they seem to have more physicality at the breakdown and can keep the ball moving. To beat this team they physically have to run outta steam if they are kept running and chasing the ball. Their blitz defence is crazy though.
The ref didn't help as well today as some of their players were flying over the ball and the seatbelt tackles might be flagged by other refs.

We were well beaten but didn't hit all our shots. Two held up over the try line, another day another result. Hate moaning about officials but Brace gave us nowt although notwithstanding that our pen count was stratospheric.
Hope no lasting injuries - Billy on crutches not a good sign also hope Big Will is ok - didn't look that bad on the multiple French replays!
Let's get the Prem.

My wife has told me that she's considering ending our marriage due to my utter obsession with rugby.

I'm begging her for one more try!

Poor decisions near the end to try and muscle over with men advantage out wide. Awful from Brace and co in the first half, a clear knock on missed in their 22 just before half time being one example.
They were outstanding today, bug will probably be awful again next week. You can never tell.
A fantastic atmosphere, it absolutely lived up to expectations

their turnover work killed us today - we had a lot of good possession but somehow didn't look like converting it to points.
There is something about Andrew Brace's reffing I always somehow dislike (whoever is playing) but I don't think he was significant in the outcome.
Having watched some of the other games, I'm neither surprised nor massively disappointed by today's outcome - I think it probably reflects roughly where we stand at the moment - just outside Europe's top 4.
Billy's injury didn't look good which given the other back row injuries we have is bad news.

Billy was really struggling on crutches after the game. Not looking good at all and leaves us very short for the rest of the season

Agree with the above, we were outmuscled for the large part. It is annoying though that through poor decision making we didn’t give ourselves a chance to snatch it at the end. Brace terrible. Of all the high shots and head contacts in the game why he decided to pick on Toms at the end is just so arbitrary. Maybe because it resulted in a head on head between Skelton and his teammate. Perhaps he should have sent them both off instead 😁. As for stopping the game because of the LAR 15 running into Mako! Even the crowd were embarrassed about their part in that one.

Missing Mr B Barritt massively in these sorts of games. Tompkins is great at premiership level but just doesn’t offer the same level of physicality against these huge French teams

Well done to LaRochelle. They obviously had a very specific plan for Sarries and had worked hard on addressing how Glaws exposed them in the game before. They are also very obviously a much different beast at home with that fantastic crowd and atmosphere. Skelton was the wrecking ball we know he can be rather than the gentle giant who ambled around against Glaws. There seemed to be at least two Boticas on the field at anytime and he had MotM wrapped up after about half an hour.

In terms of the game a second viewing suggested more positives than I took out of the game live.
Maro was absolutely incredible. A shame that probably one of his best performances in the season will get lost in amongst the loss. Carrying well direct and in the loose, great disrupting and at the breakdown and one of very few totemic players for Sarries. Earl, Van Zyl and Malins the others and I'd agree that Wray did well when he came on. I also thought Maitland had another strong game.
The set piece generally held up very well and whilst Brace seemed to be warning both sides at every scrum that one was going early and one was fading on contact he seemed to fall with LaRochelle being dominant.
The reality is Sarries created the chances to win the game whereas (other than missed kicks) I think LaRochelle pretty much took all their chances. I was really proud that despite a battering they played the full 80. For me whilst it didn't feel Sarries would win I also don't think they looked beaten (in the sense of heads dropping, players workrate dropping, etc)

However, how Sarries could talk about not being prepared last season for the finals and that they'd changed things and yet they play this game seemingly as if they had not watched or taken anything from Glaws performance against LaRochelle last week was odd. Glaws put width on the ball and kept the blitz honest with kicks in behind something Tompkins did once and then we seemed to stop. With no check to the blitz we ended up getting smashed and even after half time the plan didn't seem to change.
Tbf in the first half we twice worked good chances out wide but lacked the composure to put it through the hands with players instead trying optimistic floated miss-passes that gave the defence time to number up. Having fluffed our lines we then seemed stop trying to stretch the defence?
In the second half we saw the same white-line fever that caused the loss against Tigers re-appear. Either get a latch or use the width when spaces appear (as they did and as they were at Tigers) this feels like an issue of individuals trying to win the game rather than working as a team. A bit more composure would have helped immeasurably in this game.

That Sarries are out of Europe is a shame that it has come at such a high cost over the past two weeks is a worry. Christie and Billy (speedy recoverys to both) are essential to how well we've been playing. As always an opportunity for the youngsters but still a blow. I don't suppose T Willis fancies starting early?

With the focus now on the Premiership alone I don't expect the coaches to change much but I think we need to.
Sarries have lost dynamism and carrying with injuries and it has to be replaced.
However much potential Tizard has he's not delivering and hasn't for too long. Hunter-Hill instead and Isiekwe partnering Maro.
The only real creative play came from Malins yesterday. Goode looks like this is a season too far. Malins to FB and Goode to bench.
Daly will soon be fit. Sarries will inevitably stick him back at FB which wil marginalise Malins further and I wish they wouldn't. Wing if he has to start. On a similar note it's time to back Segun. Maitland played well as has Lewington recently but we need the energy, physicality and speed of Segun IMO. Three or four great breaks yesterday where there was no support. We need players alive to those chances and able to keep up.
Unless Dan is injured he starts on the bench. We desperately need that dynamo energy. Start Mawi for similar reasons.

Losing Malins so we could keep Daly looks an increasingly bad call (and it looked a poor one to start with) and I feel we're going to stumble to the season end without silverware. That sounds brutal after such a promising season but I just don't think the coaches are going to make the calls that need to be made and I think they're repeating the mistakes that were made at the tail of last season. Not rewarding form, sticking with tried and tested.
Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong and it goes without saying this is my uninformed view and that the coaches know more than I could ever in ten lifetimes of armchair viewing!

Old Marovian I do agree with much of your analysis but I think if I had to choose between Daly and Malins I would actually choose Daly. They are both super fast and great ball players, neither has the greatest defence, but Daly will make a superb full back coming into the line at pace and he has a far better kick on him than Malins. Shame we couldn’t keep both but I think that is the reality of the salary cap.

Botia was immense, in every way. (Botica plays at Castres, OM!).

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

🌻🌻🌻

My views are well know so I won't repeat but Malins is a significantly better defender and under the highball in my view. Dalys long kicking is the one advantage he has plus his popularity with the key leaders in the player group.

Thanks AP. I didn't pick it up when I wrote it so will leave it. Botica would have been ideal for Sarries. He's rubbish at the breakdown and if we were losing by 2 with time to go he would almost certainly kick it back to us!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:04:10:11:16:50 by OldMarovian.

Also think Tizard has got better as the season has gone on. Daly has far mor pace than Max, which was a big factor in Glos doing well there as they had the pace to win foot races. We don’t.
Sadly pretty clear time is catching up with Goodey these past few months, and a few of our senior forwards are clearly beyond their very best years too.
We do seem to have the unfortunate knack of bringing out the best in our opponents in big games at the moment

OM and I had an exchange a few weeks ago when I opined that I thought some of your golden generation might be falling away ever so slightly, and the LR game probably showed that to be the case . I think you can hold it together to win the Prem again, but next season after the World Cup I suspect there will be big decisions to be made about Goode, Maitland, the Vunipolae, George, Wray, even OF. There are players in that horrid position where their minds are writing cheques their bodies are increasingly unable to cash. At Exeter we saw that with Don Armand and others and it seems Ewers has reached that point too.
Then there are players who to my mind never quite achieve what they promised, and Isiekwe is prime amongst them, although Tompkins is fringing into that group.
Finally there is the Enigma that is Maro Itoje. I thought he would kick on and rival Etzebeh over the long haul, but despite having all the physical attributes, and on occasions being outstanding it just hasn’t happened consistently for whatever reasons.
I appreciate these comments derive from setting the bar very high, but that’s what Saracens have done over the last 10 years, and it’s that threshold against which players have to be judged.

I think the ruck tactics they use is the biggest factor. They seemed to target the non ball players to splinter them off, drop the attacking Player to the floor and have the jackler in position to get a turnover/penalty. We seemed to get caught by this repeatedly.
Was this a tactic for just us or is this common for them in the French League.

I agree with some of that Debenair especially about big changes in the season to come.
I'd actually disagree quite strongly re Tompkins. I think he's absolutely vital for Sarries playing at their best and he very rarely has a bad game. Sometimes you come up against a better player and team that doesn't make you poor. He made a few errors but also defended well against the likes of Danty and Botia something that many international sides will struggle with.
I think Maro had an incredible game. Maybe he's not been quite where he was at his best but like Billy I feel he's judged against a higher standard than most. I'd struggle to think of many games he's had where he hasn't been one of Sarries best players on the field.
Isiekwe is an interesting one. Easy to forget he's only 24 rather than Maros age. He's a very good player but I feel like he has masses more potential. How he realises that will be interesting.
No reflection on any other lock but we were spoilt by having Kruis.
I think Chiefs situation is fascinating. Tbh I feel Baxters current approach is a result of his failure to develop his team and style of play but fair play to him for being so ruthless about it and I feel it will pay dividends.
Is it true that Chiefs new song will be "Scone of Heaven" to acknowledge both the Devonian and Welsh players who make up the majority of the team?

That's a really interesting point and question SM. Not something I'd noticed in game but that's what makes hearing different peoples takes on the game so fascinating.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:04:10:12:36:08 by OldMarovian.

I do agree that Kruis going has been a big loss. Him and Maro were a near perfect fit and Maro has not looked the same player since he left.
Age isn’t everything though, Botia is 34 and can hardly have ever played better. He probably won’t ever beat that performance frustratingly

Can't say i saw this

The Chiefs now face a trip to France to play the cup holders, La Rochelle, who looked ominously powerful against Saracens. The north London side were always going to need the rub of the green to win away and they certainly did not get it when it came to the penalty count. Decisions like the missing of a head-on-head tackle on Owen Farrell were not the difference between the sides, but they did not help.

Quote:

ComeOnSarries
Old Marovian I do agree with much of your analysis but I think if I had to choose between Daly and Malins I would actually choose Daly. They are both super fast and great ball players, neither has the greatest defence, but Daly will make a superb full back coming into the line at pace and he has a far better kick on him than Malins. Shame we couldn’t keep both but I think that is the reality of the salary cap.

Too shaky under the high ball. Malins can play anywhere in the backs including 10.