In With The New..........

Opinions are very divided about visits to Kingsholm – some will never go there, some will on sufferance if it’s an important game, and some, like me, rather look forward to it; it’s certainly “different” with the denizens of the Shed doing their best to live up their reputation as a cross between a torch-bearing mob from the middle ages and a Seventies football crowd, but Teagues Bar is a fine place for a few beers and good rugby chat and the fans themselves are in the great majority friendly enough. The ground’s a bit dated but has its charm - pretty much how the younger members of my family would describe me... Breaking the custom of recent seasons whereby we’ve made a weekend of it, we’d decided to travel to Gloucester and back in a day, and even allowing for this game being a 17.30 kick-off, the trains were on time and it’s very doable. The weather, rainy earlier in the afternoon as we sat outside the pub (Mrs Jonny had commented that at least it made the beer last longer) had cleared up as we grabbed burgers at the ground and took our seats in the Malvern Stand.

Sarries’ matchday squad inevitably looked very different from that which finished last season, including as it did a sprinkling of new signings, including Owen’s successor Fergus Burke (who’d impressed me against Bedford and Scarlets and who would doubtless be the focus of many people’s attention), and a crop of highly talented youngsters including Tobys Knight and Elliott, plus Charlie Bracken of whom much is expected. Maro Itoje was leading the team out in his first game as club captain.   

Gloucester were fielding their new signings including a talented Welsh international midfield pairing of Gareth Anscombe and Tomos Williams, plus the familiar face of former Wasp and England winger Christian Wade, making a return to English rugby after 6 years away, after an unsuccessful attempt at breaking into the NFL followed by 18 months at Racing 92.  

There was a mixture of excitement and trepidation as the game got underway in brighter conditions that we had been expecting, and it was Sarries who started the more purposefully of the teams, enjoying the lion’s share  of possession and territory in the early stages but without offering a serious threat the Gloucester line. Knight and Willis were already looking like handfuls.

Sarries were briefly jolted by Williams as he surged forward but Itoje prevented the home side from capitalising, followed by great defensive work from Elliott and then Willis to snuff out any threat as the Shed found its asinine voice.

There was a flurry of penalties with the game not yet settling into a rhythm.

Segun got the visiting fans going with a chase from his own kick but the bounce eluded him.

On 16 minutes, though, Segun opened the scoring, and Sarries’ account for the season, when a peach of a kick from Daly was taken beautifully by rugby’s speediest chemistry graduate who scorched to the line and executed what we all hope was the first of many Segun Splashes over the coming months. Burke’s conversion from out wide was unsuccessful, leaving matters at 0-5.

Sarries didn’t have to wait too long to take further control of the scoreboard when after 23 minutes Anscombe telegraphed a pass near the halfway line which gave Van Zyl an easy interception and the opportunity to race over and double our lead, Burke this time converting successfully with another kick from out wide for 0-12.

Gloucester looked rattled as Sarries took a grip on proceedings, and it was just 10 minutes later that a lovely spell of rugby over several phases brought Sarries close to the Gloucester line and, with the reward of a penalty coming, Daly superbly found Elliott who left the Gloucester defence for dead and took the score to 0-17 on 34 minutes, Burke having missed the conversion.

The Shed kindly informed the rest of us in the ground that those same old Sarries were, as ever, cheating.

Speaking of Burke, it was noticeable that he’d slotted seamlessly into Sarries’ set-up – calm, classy and looking like the very, very good signing we’d all trusted Mark McCall to make.

A cloud on the horizon, though, was an injury to Riccioni who was replaced by Clary.

Sarries were looking to see out the first half having just one try to score for the bonus point but as the clock ticked towards the interval Gloucester worked hard to try and gain at least a toehold in the game before tea and lemon slices, applying pressure to the Sarries defence which ultimately set upThomas to crash over, Barton adding the extras for the teams to head for the tunnel with the score at 7-17.and still some work for Sarries to do.

Taking half-time refreshments, life felt good; Burke, as I said above had settled in beautifully and his pairing with Van Zyl showed immense promise, Willis looked every inch a worthy successor to Billy, Elliott had taken his try like a veteran, Itoje looked a real leader, Daly was as classy as ever, and the defensive set-up, despite so many personnel changes this year, functioned at near-Wolfpack levels. And as for Andy Onyeama-Christie....awesome, just awesome....

The second half started exactly as everyone of a black and red – well, grey and white – persuasion would have wanted when Gloucester made a hash of the restart, allowing Sarries Sarries to build up early pressure from a penalty and rumble to the line, Onyeama-Christie getting on the end of the drive for the bonus-point try. Burke secured the seven-point score and with barely 42 minutes gone, it was 7-24.

8 minutes later, Burke slotted over a straightforward penalty in front of the posts for 7-27.

Gloucester still weren’t going to lie down though, and on 56 minutes Clarke went over from a powerful maul to chip away at Sarries’ lead although the conversion attempt failed, keeping Sarries more than two scores ahead at 12-27.

At this stage there didn’t seem to be any real concern about Sarries eventually coming away with the five points, although Gloucester were working hard to get back onto something like terms, and there was a small tinge of relief when, just as the game passed the hour mark, a brilliantly worked score put a bit more daylight between the sides:

A training ground routine of a line-out worked the ball to Van Zyl, who then drew a defender and deftly found Onyeama-Christie who scampered for the line from just inside the 22 to dot down his second score in a Man of the Match display. Burke missed the conversion, leaving Sarries 20 points ahead at 12-32, but 2 minutes later our Anglo-Scottish Kiwi redeemed himself with a successful penalty for 12-35 with just 15 minutes left

Although, even given the number of “pass me the defibrillator” matches the red and black faithful have endured in recent seasons, we felt after Burke’s penalty that Sarries looked to be reassuringly in control of this one,  but Gloucester were nothing if not game and with little to lose started to push Sarries back and enjoy their best spell of the day - such a good spell that a tiny smidgin of the old anxiety returned to haunt us….

On 71 minutes, Clement went over from close in, and the excellent Barton’s conversion took Gloucester to within 16 points at 19-35.

5 minutes later, Blake earned Gloucester what we hoped would be a losing bonus point after a neat piece of interplay free him to go over under the posts, Barton taking things to 26-35.

Between the two tries, Daly had gone close to scoring but we’d have had no prospect of any drama if he had!

Sarrie held out with no further score, and the ball was gleefully booted into touch to conclude what, apart from the last 10 minutes, had been a great way to begin the season – certainly a lot better than last term’s first fixture.

A seamless transition from Old Sarries to New Sarries? Time will tell, and with all due respect to Gloucester there are sterner tests to come, but on this showing the signs are very good and our young squad has immense potential – it's also worth noting that the likes of Lucio Cinti, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Eroni Mawi and Theo MacFarland have still to come back from international duty, and hopefully at some point Ollie Hartley will return from injury to continue the huge progress he was making last season.

 Gloucester (7) 26

Tries: Thomas, Clarke, Clement, Clarke Cons: Barton (3)

Saracens (17) 35

Tries: Segun, Van Zyl, Elliott, Onyeama-Christie (2) Cons: Burke (2) Pens: Burke (2)

Squads:

Gloucester: Barton; Wade, Harris, Llewellyn, Thorley; Anscombe, Williams; Vivas, Singleton, Fasogbon, Thomas, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow, Mercer

Replacements: Blake, Ford-Robinson, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Clement, Englefield, C Atkinson, S Atkinson

Saracens: Daly; Elliott, Lozowski, Tompkins, Segun; Burke, Van Zyl; Carre, Dan, Riccioni, Itoje, Tizard, Onyeama-Christie, Knight, Willis

Replacements: George, Crean, Clarey, Wilson, Isiekwe, Earl, Bracken, Goode.

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys