Saracens Keep Qualification Hopes Alive

By Rupes
December 18 2005

Saracens beat Ulster 18 points to 10 on Saturday at Vicarage Road ensuring that, barring accidents against Treviso, the trip to Biarritz will be winner takes all to see who qualifies for the Quarter Finals.

The game was played at a frenetic pace for the first quarter, scoring chances aplenty and both sides playing with a real purpose - Saracens in attack but running into rock solid defence from the Ulstermen. First minute, a Humphreys missed penalty. Second minute, a fine chip through saw Ben Skirving collect and dive over the line, Jackson's conversion making it 7-0. Sixth minute, quick Sarries ball and a ruck in centre field. Suddenly, it slows and the ball was fired back to a somewhat surprised French outside centre; a charged down drop goal later, two phases and Tommy Bowe crossed in the corner. 7-7 and both sides fancying their chances of victory.

Saracens continued to apply the pressure and went through a serious of scrums 5m from the Ulster line - the result, rather than the hoped for penalty try, was a penalty to Ulster, Visagie again being pinged by referee Jutge for a technical offence. Monsieur Jutge had already incurred the wrath of the Men in Black, twice awarding Ulster penalties for Saracens' dissent; inexcusable.

Finally, having re-emerged from the sin-bin after his swinging arm had removed the Ulster number 8 from the side of a maul, Kevin Yates crashed over to give Saracens a well-deserved 12-7 half time lead. And, at half time, it was a remarkably similar picture to last Friday at Ravenhill - Saracens with lots of possession, in control of the game and failing to convert their superiority into points.

The second half was a pale imitation of the first; Saracens continuing with a shed load of possession but, for all the effort that was put in, a lack of a cutting edge was preventing them from edging closer to the bonus point. Not to decry Ulster's defence, which was magnificent, but no doubt that Plan A and Plan B were not really as subtle or as effective as they should be.

With 15-7 on the scoreboard and only a few minutes remaining, Ulster then put together the best move of the match to send, or so they thought, Kevin Maggs over towards the corner. The Ulster players had jogged back to nearly halfway, the Sarries' players were congregating in a huddle behind the line. And then the TMO got involved - the big screen showed that a foot was in touch for the final pass to score the try, lineout given to Sarries and a huge sigh of relief all round. A lucky break maybe, one which could have very positive consequences for the rest of our season.

A Humphreys penalty to take Ulster into bonus point territory was then cancelled out by another from Jackson, the final score of 18-10 being neither a reflection of Saracens' superiority in possession nor close enough to give Ulster the bonus point they desired. Almost a carbon copy of last Friday, showing how closely matched these two teams are.

Some individual performances of note for both sides - Heineken MOM Ben Skirving (until he was taken off) was simply magnificent in both attack and defence; his performance was, no doubt, his best to date for the club. A mention too for the Mercurial One, who was responsible for whatever creativity was on show in the Saracens' backs. And, for Ulster, Neil McMillan - wearing 7, must have been close to MOM as he was everywhere, spoiling (it was his chargedown that led to the try), creating and generally rampaging about. Finally, a word for the Ulster supporters; top people (at both games) and welcome to visit Vicarage Road whenever they'd like.

So - qualification is still possible. Saracens needed that win, big time, and ground it out. Well done Dimes, Fordy and the rest of the team - we smashed them.

Saracens: D Scarbrough (Ben J Russell 80min); P Bailey, T Castaignède (M Bartholomeusz 70min), B Johnston, T Vaikona; G Jackson, K Bracken (A Dickens 61min); K Yates, S Byrne, C Visagie (B Broster 56min), S Raiwalui, K Chesney, H Vyvyan (capt), B Skirving (T Randell 63min), Ben T Russell (B Broster 25-31min).

Tries: Skirving 3, Yates 40+4 .

Conversion: Jackson. Penalties: Jackson (2) .

Ulster: B Cunningham; T Bowe, K Maggs, A Trimble, P Steinmetz; D Humphreys (capt), K Campbell (I Boss 57min); B Young (J Fitzpatrick 57min), R Best (N Brady 80min), S Best, J Harrison, M McCullough, N Best (S Ferris 38min, R Caldwell 71min), R Wilson, N McMillan.

Try: Bowe 5 .

Conversion: Humphreys. Penalty: Humphreys .

Yellow card: Saracens: Yates (21min) .

Referee: J Jutge (France). Attendance: 8,571