Sarries Beaten as Vicarage Road Goes Green Again

By Rupert Thacker
February 21 2005

Saracens blew a golden opportunity to ascend to the dizzy heights of 4th place in the ZP on Sunday, being comprehensively outplayed by a London Irish side over the 80 minutes and losing 12-30.

Played in a biting wind and the occasional shower of hail, the game took a while to warm up and it took a full 15 minutes for the first penalty to be awarded – 3-0 to Sarries. Both sides looked stilted in attack and the chances of a try seemed miniscule, further Jackson penalties gave Sarries a 9-0 lead at half time. The only time Saracens put any pace on the ball out wide, yardage was made – Chief Vaikona being hauled down just short of the line on one occasion, but that was the extent of try line excitement. Irish, with their well-documented lack of tries (no try bonus point since October 2003), threatened briefly through the forwards but Sarries’ defence held firm.

The second half was a totally different story. Irish, playing with the wind, came out with much more purpose and, to no-one’s surprise, scored a try within 10 minutes of the re-start, Rodd Penny going in close to the posts to allow Mapletoft a simple conversion. 9-7, game on, and an urgent wake-up call for Sarries to step up their game and demonstrate why they had recently surged up the table. Instead, the 6,000 freezing souls were treated to a display of various Saracens players trying to crash the ball up the 12 channel, with little or no success. Faced with this predictable attack, Irish did what they had to and took advantage of playing against a side with little or no purpose going forward.

Another Jackson penalty to make it 12-7 only delayed the inevitable. At 80 minutes Irish led 12-15, the second try having come from Scott Staniforth plus 2 penalties from Barry Everitt. Then, in injury time, another Everitt penalty, a Strudwick interception under the posts and a 75 metre gallop, touched down by Kieron Dawson, made the final score 12-30. Describing it as simply as that is not meant to dismiss the Irish effort, but the Sarries defence had crumbled and it really was as simple as it sounds.

Fair play to London Irish, they deservedly won the game and no-one could have any complaint over the result. Sarries never came to the party; perhaps the lure of 4th place had made us start to believe our own hype, but attacking ideas were in very short supply and we never looked like scoring a try of our own.

So off up the A1/M1/M62 to Leeds for Friday night’s game, to prove once again just how consistently inconsistent we are.