Glasgow v Sarries Match Report, HC r6 Jan 18, 2008

Now I tip my hat to those that made the trip to Glasgow, but as a 30 year old male in January with a pregnant wife, there was only going to be one way that I were to complete this match report and it wasn't getting the 2.30am sleeper train home from Glasgow! Yes call me a lightweight or a pretend supporter but this report comes to you direct from Sky TV's coverage.

My season ticket holding friend - ‘The Prop' had already declined to watch it with me "you get so wound up when you watch it on TV". To be fair he has a point, when viewing on TV it's even more obvious the discretions of the opposing side and the referee's incompetence... "I'm going out to watch it instead".  ‘The Prop' had a point.  I turn like cringer to battle cat, mild mannered fly half to rabid front row forward, using language that would have seen me signed up by Gloucester and sent off by Mr Lewis.

Having booked the large screen downstairs with the wife as opposed to being banished to the portable screen in the bedroom to watch Friday night rugby and Curry ordered. The game kicked off.

This is the way to watch rugby; curry ordered, beers in, Cat on lap...Cat on lap?  Yes for all my macho posturing I have a small cat that likes nothing more than sitting on my lap on a Friday night... even by Pavlov's theory you'd have thought the cat would have worked out not to sit on my lap when the rugby was on the TV, even the far less intelligent ‘Prop' had worked that one out...not that he's ever sat on my lap, but I digress... 

It was about 5 minutes in that the cat first jumped up and ran away, I jumped around the front room as Glen Jackson's punt up field embarrassed O'Hare and Haughton dived on the ball in the in goal area.  The try correctly awarded while Scott Hastings, not really understanding the laws of the game, claimed Haughton was in touch

"Law 12.4 - A try may be scored by a player who is in touch or in touch-in-goal provided he is not carrying the ball"

My god isn't watching rugby at home great when you can look up the laws and laugh at ex-internationals not knowing things... ‘no it's not a controversial decision it's a correct one Scott, your brother would probably have known but then he always was the better rugby man'... that's probably what the cat would have said if she wasn't trying to eat my nan bread or licking her backside for most of the first half.

It was like watching chess, with both Parks and Jackson kicking excellently out of hand, Saracens looking dangerous and Glasgow winning a lot of turnover ball from their excellent back-row.  Had Glasgow's backs been as effervescent as they were at Vic Road, Saracens would have been in much more trouble. Alas for those crammed in at the Firhill Stadium, the Glasgow backs were as flat as a two-day old Magners.  It was Saracens who were asking the questions and Glasgow struggling with how many fours go into five points.

The nicest thing I could say about Glasgow (and I genuinely mean this as a compliment) was they were very Scottish in their display. Doing their very best to disrupt, niggle, and get as much out of the ref as they could. They were helped by Saracens ill discipline, as every time the Warriors got near Saracens 22, Saracens coughed up a penalty without ever looking like conceding one of the valuable 4 tries.

It looked like going in 9-11 at the break, as Jackson had kicked 2 penalties on top of Haughton's early score and Parks had drilled over 3 penalties.  It was on the restart from Parks third penalty with the minutes ticking down to half time that the game changed.  Jackson kicked out on the full, the cat had leaped from my lap, having got settled again in the fairly quiet middle period of the half. As I cursed the Jackson error... the Kiwi Paul Daniels redeemed himself straight away as he intercepted a pass off the base of the scrum, walked in under the posts and then converted his own score.  Glasgow liked that ‘not a lot'.  As the whistle, blew we were treated to the Jackson - Ratty handshake that even Shaft would have turned down for being too jive turkey... God I love Sky!

The second half kicked off and it was the next 20 minutes that won the game for Sarries.  A series of sustained pressure where Glasgow seemed to decide the way to defend at scrum time was to ‘do si do' Scottish dancing style by running around in a circle, led to three reset scrums. Sarries, clearly having the upper hand, were finally penalized for a knock on at the base when I was screaming with my one eye for a penalty.  The pressure was maintained, and after around 80% possession Sarries nearly went over first from a Glasgow lineout, only an excellent rip from the Scottish Hooker off Jack kept the home side in the tournament.  It was probably a game that Russell (and my cat) would prefer to forget, having been caught in possession a couple of times in the first half (Russell, not the cat) he managed to drop the ball with the line begging and a  man outside him.  Such was the cursing from ‘T towers' that I had to agree with ‘The Prop' that I'm probably no fun to watch a TV game with.

From Russell's error the cat decided that upstairs was probably a better place to get some sleep as Glasgow went down the pitch and finally scored in the corner... having looked home and dry, Sarries now looked wobbly.   It was a difficult final 10 minutes, Glasgow never really looked like scoring the 4 tries that would put Sarries out but always stayed in contention. Parks missed the resulting conversion but strangely kicked another penalty on 72 minutes to cancel out Jackson's earlier three pointer, the fact he went for the posts rather than the corner was tantamount to raising the white flag, Sarries were home and dry.  And the celebrations began in my house!

Credit must go to the pack who were once again excellent, Jack and Vyvyan outstanding, and suitably marshaled by NDK and Jackson.  Ongaro was 100% for the lineout and Lloyd and Census conspicuous in the loose.  The much vaunted Glasgow back-row were kept honest by a Sarries back three where Skirvs stood out, while the backs always looked dangerous on the break.  A final pat on the back should go to Andy Farrell who, once again, was outstanding carrying the hard yards and taking 3 men to bring him down.

We've qualified which is a massive achievement... getting the cat to sit back on my lap will be another!