Sarries Finish the Season on a High

By Rupert Thacker (filed: 10/5/04)
May 10 2004

Saracens scored their third away win of the season at the Madejski on Saturday, outscoring London Irish by three tries to one and leaving victorious by 20 points to 14.

The first 20 minutes gave no clue as to what was to follow, with both sides dropping the ball at roughly 30 second intervals. Phases were scrappy, neither side seemed to have any penetration and the only scores were two penalties from Mark Mapletoft, leaving it at 6-0 to the home side. Irish seemed to want to kick it all the time, we just couldn’t break that gain line.

But something must have happened on the 20 minute mark – for it suddenly became a totally different game. Sarries started to run through the phases as they did against Sale last weekend, with ball being recycled quickly at ruck time for the next wave of attackers to go forward. To the fore, as ever, Simon Raiwalui, Richard Hill and Cobus Visagie – they created many platforms from which to move the ball on. Eventually, an attacking line out 5m from the Irish line gave us the opportunity to get the rolling maul going, Simon Raiwalui being credited with the try from the bottom of the pile.

We were now turning Irish’s ball over with ease, but just could not convert the possession into points – even with a sin-binning in our favour. This failure led to us going into the break down at 6-5.

The second half started much as the first half finished, with Sarries having huge swathes of possession. Except that the points followed this time; Robbie Kydd bounced off several Irish tacklers for the second try on 44 minutes, then Simon Raiwalui dived under the posts 5 minutes later for a guaranteed 7 pointer to make it 6-17. Sarries were in total control, players were making metres on a regular basis and it looked as if the team were to runaway with victory. A Nicky Little penalty from in front made it 6-20 with only 25 minutes left and a comfortable win seemed assured.

Between the second and third try though, the Irish brought on Barry Everitt to play at 10, moving Mapletoft to outside centre. Immediately, their game plan changed and the Irish backs started running positive lines and having much more of an impact. As a result of this, Irish scored an uncoverted try on 68 minutes. Bizarre in the extreme, Mapletoft went over in the right-hand corner, only for a knock on to be signalled and a Sarries 5m scrum awarded. The Irish fans were not happy. That scrum was turned over, Irish moved it left and Justin Bishop was eventually credited with a score on the left – cue loud protests from the Sarries fans who considered that a double movement may just have been involved. Didn’t matter. Despite another Everitt penalty and some late Irish pressure, Sarries hung on for a 14-20 win, their first against Irish at the Madejski.

So the season concluded on a winning note – in fact on two winning notes. Our push for an automatic entry into the Heineken Cup probably started about 5 months too late, but two wins out of two makes us one of the form sides in the ZP!

There were many highlights from this game – Kris Chesney leading out the side on his 200th appearance for the club; Craig Yandell receiving a standing ovation from all the Sarries followers when he left the field for the final time; the players coming over to those of us who were in the East Stand and saying thanks.

But, for me, the highlight of the entire day was watching the massed ranks of Sarries fans in the corner of the West Stand. I was sitting in the East, almost in the opposite corner of the ground – to see the reception the players got when they scored a try, or defended brilliantly, or cleared a ball to touch, or whatever, was heartening. You could hear “Allez Les Blancs” clearly over all the Irish chants and drums, you could see the players being lifted by this support. When the final whistle went, you’d think (judging by reaction of players and fans) we’d won the ZP! At the end, the players all went over to thank the fans in both stands – you could see that they truly appreciated the great support. We should be proud of that support.

The reason that was a highlight for me was that despite everything we (the players, officials and supporters) have gone through this year and all the “criticism” that appears on the message boards, everyone got stuck in and either played or supported their team to a great win. From Kevin Sorrell (probably my MOM, sorry to the forwards who were magnificent) through to our drummers, singers and back-room staff, all had Sarries at heart. Just as there is a great spirit at Irish, so it is with us and perhaps this is something that we don’t always remember or care about as often as we should. The players in the past fortnight have shown us that they really care about the club, the fans have responded and the whole club seems to be on a positive footing for the future - this is something we haven’t had for a while. Let’s build on it, who knows where it could take us?