Tigers lose their bite!

It’s 91days since Sarries last played a Premiership fixture at StoneX. How can that work under any known business model? No wonder we’re 9 million up the creek with a hole in our paddle!  (Yes. Ok. We don’t help ourselves by having the Showdown but even so this whole scenario is mad). Certainly the Stadium was a tad confused with the clock still on GMT! Still we had the rare luxury of an unchanged starting 15. Now when did that last happen? (And before you ask I don’t know either). A sell out stadium had come along to see if Sarries could back up that fabulous demolition of Sale sprats with an altogether more formidable opponent in Leicester Tigers.  The lack of relegation has made the end of the season meaningless for too many teams but Sarries still just about have something to play for and Tigers undoubtedly do so hopefully we were in for a good one. Not to mention the presence of Noah Caluori and Gabe Hamer-Webb who BOTH scored 5 tries for their respective teams last week.

Our last performance at StoneX in the January sunshine but about 15C colder, was a systematic demolition of a pretty hapless Newcastle. What would warmer April sunshine bring? Well at least Noah’s name was spelled correctly this week! Things couldn’t have gone better when after 3 minutes, Bracken spotted  Hartley lurking dangerously. Hartley showed footwork that might yet get him on Strictly, ran round 3 members of the Leicester defence and scored under the posts giving Burke an easy kick.

A bit of Caluori magic under a dangerous high ball deep in the Sarries 22 saved a likely equaliser for Tigers (resulting from the first of several dodgy lineouts from Jamie). Willis banged his head and looked decidedly woozy to us in the stand so why on earth did it take another 2 minutes for him to be hauled of for an HIA which he inevitably failed? The scrum was also looking a bit vulnerable too and when Freddie Steward scored for Tigers to level the scores we feared the worst. We also appeared to have got on the wrong side of Mr Dickson who seemed to be wearing green-tinted spectacles with a marked astigmatism.

A lovely break from Burke found Malins free. Parese somehow came up with the ball but Mr Dickson didn’t like the way he did it and off he went for 10 minutes rest. There was lots of good attacking stuff from Sarries mostly involving Hartley, Burke and Bracken but somehow the ball kept going astray (although it took an intervention from the TMO before Mr Dickson recognised a big knock on by Van Poortvliet.) Then came a Caluori moment of pure magic. He received the ball from Bracken on the wing, kicked the ball ahead, ran round Steward and into touch, avoided the tackle of Hassell-Collins, leapt into the air caught the ball, landed millimetres back onto the field of play,  had the strength to hold off Hassell-Collins and the skill to ground the ball without going into touch. Some player! Sadly Burke missed the conversion but 12-7 was good.

Sarries had a great opportunity to extend their lead with a sustained attack led by Segun but once again the handling let them down. A few minutes later the same thing – lots of good stuff, lovely handling then once again unable to finish it off. The frustration wasn’t helped by Dickson’s green specs, especially when it came to knock ons! Everyone seemed to stop when the ball was bouncing around (knock-on surely) but fortunately Bracken was alert to the danger and touched the ball down ahead of Searle. However the goal-line drop out was a poor one, Tigers were roaring again and Hassell-Collins scored their 2^nd try. Searle missed a tricky conversion so the scores were level at 12-12. But after Sarries’ dominance in both possession and territory it felt like a real kick in the you-know-whats.

Sarries seemed to have seized the initiative from an attacking line-out. Michelow broke free and Caluori appeared to have scored in the corner. The TMO had a look at a possible knock-on by Michelow. Michelow was absolved but Hartley was found to have transgressed so sadly another incredibly athletic effort from Noah came to nothing. To add insult to injury, on the brink of half-time Tompkins was alleged to be offside. Thank goodness, Searle uncharacteristically missed a very kickable penalty.

So all square at half time. We had very mixed feelings: great that we were very much still in it but frustration that we hadn’t taken our chances. Leicester were clinical, Sarries rather wasteful with what they had. I didn’t have great confidence in what was to come but weirdly, because we don’t have much to lose this season, it felt OK!

We were treated to some totally bewildering zorbing which seemed to have no rules and even less point other than to feel very sorry for the poor b*ggers in the plastic balls on such a warm day. Carre played a whole 3 minutes of the 2^nd half before Mawi replaced him (why do they do that? Was Mawi in the loo when they restarted?) Some really good stuff from Itoje and Segun saved an almost certain try. Caluori seemed to be taken out in the air but Mr Dickson needed prompting by his TMO to give Sarries the penalty (well it was in the shade!) from which Burke put in an unbelievable kick with no angle to the Tigers 5m line. Sarries set up the drive and Mawi thought he’d scored but Mr Dickson said it was held up. Once again it was his TMO who suggested he have another look and he had to change his decision. He took out his wrath on Maro by giving him a lecture for daring to ask the question! Burke converted to give Sarries a 19-12 lead. It also triggered a huge raft of changes for Tigers including the arrival of Adam Radwan, former torturer of Sarries, for Hamer Webb (who had barely touched the ball). Riccioni replaced Marcus Street for Sarries. We also saw the arrival of Sarrie-to-be, George Martin.

The players seemed to prefer the shady side (can’t say I blame them) but from our vantage point in the East Stand it made it tricky to see what was going on.

After an hour Jamie and Fergus were replaced by Theo Dan and Faz. Caluori was in trouble with Mr Dickson for some illegal activity at the maul and went to put his feet up for 10 minutes (I presume his first Yellow card?) Whatever, it now left Sarries down to 14 men for half of the remaining 20 minutes. Fabulous defence from Ben Earl averted the immediate danger then he single-handedly rescued a failing scrum. So good to see him back on form.

Tigers scrum was starting to look ominously good but they had also started to make unforced errors to let Sarries off the hook. Isiekwe replaced Tizard. More pressure from Tigers and they opted for a kick from the latest penalty. Searle took the 3 but I wonder if that was the right option? Pressure was now relieved on Sarries and Tigers still needed to score a try to win.

Both sides had half chances but neither could take them. Tigers kept winning penalties from Mr Dickson to let them off the hook. The TMO kept telling Dicko what he’d missed. Cinti replaced Hartley. Under 10 minutes left to go and we dared not get our hopes up. We’ve been here too many times this season and we all know what happened. Well something happened. Somehow Sarries hung on! The inevitable didn’t happen. Despite Van Zyl replacing the splendid Charlie Bracken, despite Cinti heading off to the bin for a deliberate knock-on, despite a last burst from Tigers somehow Michelow pinched the ball and that was that.

We could, maybe should have got that 4^th try and a bonus point but that would just be greedy. The win was what mattered, the fact that finally Sarries came out on top in a close game. Charlie Bracken was once again as much of a superstar as Noah Caluori. Burke is looking the guy we hoped he would be. Hartley looks like the real deal. Tompkins is a much better 13 than a 12. Max is a confidence player and he’s going from strength to strength. Segun is just all strength. Ben Earl (official MOTM) and Nathan Michelow made up for the absence of Willis between them and Itoje was beck to doing what he does best: being a flippin’ nuisance.

It’s a pity we have a week off now. It would have been good to keep the momentum going but as it is, we go to Ashton Gate in a fortnight for another “must win” game. Would you bet against us?

Saracens:   Malins, Caluori, Tompkins, Hartley (Cinti), Segun, Burke (Farrell), C Bracken (Van Zyl): Carre (Mawi), George (Dan), Street (Riccioni), Itoje, Tizard (Isiekwe), McFarland, Earl, Willis (Michelow)

Leicester Tigers: Steward, Hamer-Webb (Radwan), Perese (Wand), Bailey, Hassell-Collins, Searle, Van Poortvliet (Whiteley); Smith (Van der Flier), Blamire (Clare), Heyes (Hurd), Henderson (Williams), Chessum, Liebenburg, Moro, Cracknell (Martin)

Scorers: Saracens 19: Tries – Hartley, Caluori, Mawi; Conv: Burke (2)

Leicester Tigers (15): Tries -  Steward, Hassell-Collins; Conv: Searle; Pen: Searle

Referee: Karl Dickson