Four vital points bagged by Sarries

By Ruperr Thacker
November 22 2004

Saracens took four points from their “must-win” game vs Gloucester on Sunday, the victory lifting the Men in Black to 8th place in the Zurich Premiership table.

In what was an uninspired game, with defences reigning supreme and errors occurring from both sides all over the pitch, Saracens were indebted to Robbie Kydd who scored all 14 points, including the only try of the game after 42 minutes. A cross-kick from Mark Bartholomeusz found Tevita Vaikona in space, who ran over the Gloucester full-back Goodridge before releasing Ben Johnston. Snared just before the line, Johnston had the presence of mind to look for his support and popped the ball up for Kydd to flop over the line. That made it 11-6 to Sarries.

During the first half, 2 penalties from Simon Amor gave Gloucester parity with 6-6 being the half time score. However, his 3 misses (2 penalties and a drop goal from in front of the posts) could be easily be viewed as costing Gloucester the win. The Cherry and Whites came back to 11-9 with another Amor penalty on 58 minutes, Kydd restoring Sarries’ 5 point lead with the final score of the game 4 minutes later.

There were two huge positives from the Saracens’ point of view. First, the Premiership debut of Alex Sanderson – he put in two huge hits on the imposing Fanuloa and foraged on the floor to good effect at the breakdown. Second, the defence was unrecognisable from the debacle at The Stoop 9 days earlier. Gloucester had a very big and mobile pack, using the rolling maul extensively to good effect. The Saracens defensive pattern was good though, judging when and when not to commit players to the ruck or maul and, 9 times out of 10, making a successful first tackle. Coach Kafer will have been pleased with this aspect of the team’s game, the trick now is to maintain this level of performance.

The players had been challenged by fans and owner alike to respond positively after the Quins performance and, although it wasn’t a classic, “we won ugly”. Nothing wrong with that, there was certainly a positive response and you could see the effort that went into the game, the 4 points were gratefully received. Onwards and upwards to Welford Road.

SARACENS: R Kydd; R Haughton, B Johnston, K Sorrell, T Vaikona; M Bartholomeusz, M Williams; K Yates (rep: N Lloyd, 73), R Ibañez (rep: M Cairns, 46), C Visagie, K Chesney (rep: S Raiwalui, 55), I Fullarton, T Randell, A Sanderson (rep: B Skirving, 61), H Vyvyan.

GLOUCESTER: J Goodridge; M Garvey, N Mauger, T Fanolua, J Bailey (rep: S Kiole, 60); S Amor, A Page; C Bezuidenhout, C Fortey, G Powell, A Eustace, M Cornwell, J Forrester, P Buxton, A Balding.