History, Culture and an Under-Used Turtle

By Tim (Ex-Girlie Back)
October 31 2005

The 700 or so Saracens fans that made the pilgrimage to the outskirts of Treviso were rewarded with a 17-30 victory by Saracens, but left with an abiding sense that 4 points may possibly not be enough.

In the 9th century a Frankish fleet attacked Venice. They got lost on the lagoon and asked an old women directions, “Sempre diritto” (= straight ahead) she replied. The Franks floundered on the shallow waters of the Venetian lagoon and were picked off by the more nimble and shallow-hulled Venetian fleet, and so Venice avoided being sacked. “Sempre Diritto” is polite and English for what Generalissmos Diamond and Ford were yelling at their troops throughout the match.

Following a farcical defensive mix-up in the 5th minute, allowing the Treviso full-back, Brendan Williams (the best player on the pitch) to pierce a confused Saracens defence for a try and MJ Smith conversion, Saracens went straight down the other end and laid siege to the Treviso line. After 3 powerful scrums, which were collapsed by the home team, Sarries were awarded a penalty try. Saracens failed to learn from this exercise in forward dominance, much to the apparent annoyance of Diamond and Ford.

The Venetians people descend from Romans who fled the mainland, to marshy islands, escaping invading Visigoths and Franks in the 7th and 8th centuries. However earlier the first form of the rolling maul was ‘the turtle’, developed in 2 B.C. by the Roman army to prevent their ranks splintering in close combat. It was indeed ironic that on the 3 occasions the invading Saracens used this military tactic it worked remarkably well, making good hard yards, which the descendants of the Romans failed to deal with. (It had also been noticed by the Saracens generals that Ulster used the ‘turtle’ to great effect last week in scoring two tries against Treviso). “Keep it tight” screams from the increasingly upset touchline were consistently ignored, with the handling in the backs (for both sides) too inept to take advantage of overlaps. Without doubt if Sarries had utilised the ‘turtle’ more often they would have marched to the extra bonus point. Instead there were numerous knock-ons; contrived, poor passing; accidental offsides and obstructions in the backs that made the overall performance scrappy and unconvincing. It was ironic that the newly announced ‘Man of the Match’, Glen Jacksoni, should manage to knock-on after a run the mercurial one would be proud of, with the try-line within falling distance. This was the last action of the game.

In between, Jackson didn’t miss a kick, the defence was sound, and Saracens set-piece was good – even managing to pinch some line-out ball. Hugh Vyvyan scored two good tries, and the best passage of play came from Treviso, when they went through about a dozen phases, shifted the ball wide (with Williams to the fore), drew Sarries in, and Kiwi no8 Dion Kingi scored under the posts after a great offload by Treviso lock Wentzel. However why not more of the ‘Sempre Diritto Turtle’? Only Mr Dickens can probably answer! There were certainly no shallows for Saracens to ground their ships upon.

The game was not particularly memorable, there were phases of competent play, but often this was ruined by fallibility, the worst example being when Bailey and Castignede conspired to allow centre Barbini to reach Baileys’ kick ahead, when he should never have got near the ball. Another chance of the bonus point gone! But on reflection Saracens can be pleased with the 4 points and not zero, which is what those other descendants of the Romans, Bath, got here last year.

Treviso: Tries Williams, Kingi; Conversions Smith 2; Penalty Smith. Saracens: Tries Penalty, Vyvyan 2; Conversions Jackson 3; Penalties Jackson 3.

Treviso: B Williams; M Perziano (D Dallan, 78), S Legg, M Barbini (S Picone, 78), P Calanchini; M Smith, A Troncon (capt; S Picone, 66-78); G Faliva (H Mazino, 57), F Ongaro (A Tejeda, 71), S Costanzo, E Pavanello (A Pavanello, 71), M Wentzel, S Garozzo, S Orlando (D Dal Maso, 57), D Kingi.

Saracens: T Castaignède; D Scarbrough, K Sorrell, B Johnston (BJ Russell, 19), P Bailey; G Jackson, A Dickens (M Rauluni, 78); K Yates (B Broster, 57-69), S Byrne (M Cairns, 62), C Visagie (Broster, 69), S Raiwalui, I Fullarton (K Chesney, 51), H Vyvyan (capt), T Randell (D Seymour, 52), B Skirving (BT Russell, 73).

Referee: D Changleng (Scotland).

Post-script – the hospitality of the Treviso club and fans was superb, really fabulous. They put together a great package and Sarries management could learn from this!