Bristol v Saracens: please post match related comments here

thnks to Daniel Davis
By The Saracens
October 16 2024

This week sees round 5 of the Gallagher Premiership: incredibly we will be over a quarter of the way through the season already! Last weekend’s game against Quins was a bit of a wake-up call (and best wishes to Andy – let’s hope he heals quickly and we see him back in a Sarries’ shirt before the end of the season) but I’m sure we would all have taken 16 points after 4 games before the season started. Getting rid of the “unbeaten” moniker isn’t a bad thing either. But it does mean that this Saturday sees a clash of the Premiership’s top 2 teams, Bristol Bears having claimed top spot after an entertaining win over Exeter last weekend. Bristol have also won 3 from 4 beating Falcons, Bath and Gloucester and losing narrowly at home to Gloucester. Apart from the first game up on the Tyne, they have all been high scoring with Brizz taking a try bonus point from all their 4 games. Bristol are the League’s most prolific try scorers with 21 so far (as against Sarries’ 15 – interestingly Sarries have only converted 7 of those 15: valuable points going by the board) but Bristol have also conceded a few (13 versus Sarries’ 11).

When it comes to penalties the stats are fascinating. In 4 matches, Bristol have scored just 6 points from penalty kicks (sounds a bit like Exeter of a few years back) whereas Sarries have scored 30. Bristol have also conceded a huge number of penalties: 51 as opposed to Sarries’ 31. They will be a very different sort of opposition to Quins. This season Bristol’s karma would seem to be “score as many tries as you like, we’ll score more!” So if nothing else we should be in for an entertaining game. We do need to capitalise on their extravagance on the penalty side though – hopefully Loz has been practising his kicks extra hard this week!

Encouragingly our scrum stats are much improved: 96% of scrums won – a huge improvement on last season and something we can capitalise on. Brizz boast the league’s top try scorer in the late lamented Max Malins (one who really shouldn’t have got away).

I don’t anticipate many changes to the team that lost to Quins, that really isn’t Sarries’ way. Obviously Andy Christie won’t be around for a while and I suspect Gonzalez may not be fit for this weekend but hopefully McFarland will be back. I hope young Bracken gets another shot as he looks decidedly useful. I would like to see Daly back at fullback - Goodey did nothing wrong but Daly just looks a more fruitful option. It Segun isn’t fit we might see Parton back or maybe give young Brandon Jackson a go.

So my team (for what little it’s worth) : Carre, George, Riccioni, Itoje, Tizard, Isiekwe, Earl, Willis, Van Zyl, Burke, Elliot, Tompkins, Lozowski, Segun/Parton, Daly

When it comes to officials we still seem to be in the dog house: this time in the form of Anthony Woodthorpe, assisted by Jack Makepeace and Gareth Holsgrove with TMO David Rose so good luck with that then!

It sounds like a potential tryfest: the team which scores the most (or maybe the team which kicks their goals) is likely to come out on top. A tough ask but fingers crossed, Sarries can do this

Bristol v Saracens: please post match related comments here

Posted by: TheSaracens.com (IP Logged)

Date: 16/10/2024 20:44

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:10:30:08:44:14 by Darraghgirl.