Glaws Match Report
By jeremy ogaribaldi
December 3 2012
It was a cold day on Sunday, but thankfully no rain to create a slippery ball that has frustrated Saracens this season. Gloucester were the visitors, without Burns who had promised to play 2 games in 2 days. Perhaps he had to much champagne after England’s victory. The much-vaunted Twelvetrees led the Glaws back-line in his absence. The game started and before long we saw a familiar sight for the rest of the afternoon. Wavey Davey playing for the cameras penalising Sarries for something not seen from the touchline; no signals afterwards to confirm what it was for. 36 stepped up to take the points. It wasn’t very long before the same situation played itself out and Glaws were 0-6 up. Here Rhys failed to get a bind at the scrimmage and collapsed; not fir the last time the penalty was awarded on the advice of the touch-judge who had a much better game than Davey.
I wasn’t too concerned at Sarries seemed to be playing some good rugby. The forwards were in control at the scrimmage and generally more competitive at the breakdown. Each time Sarries ran with the ball there seemed to be a potential half-break or the possibility of an offload behind someone’s back and to my mind, it was only a question of time before a score came. Good Sarries pressure forced Glaws to offend by slowing the ball down and Charlie continued his amazing prowess with the boot; 3-6. Shortly afterwards the next visit to the half saw another Glaws offence and the scores were level; a slightly easier kick this one.
The Gloucester game plan seemed to be fairly limited; run a couple of balls into a pretty solid Sarries defence and after no ground was made, 36 in the shotgun position kicked the ball deep to Sarries. There didn’t seem to be much of a chase either; Wyles was able to run them back pretty much with ease, making as much as 20 yards before running into contact. Sarries were not really returning kicks, they seemed to run pretty much everything although there were of course the customary scrum-half box-kicks from around out own 22.
Then to me the deciding 10 minutes of the match. Sarries had run the ball back and there was a big pile of bodies just outside the 22. Quickish ball came out and there seemed a big advantage out wide, especially as most of the cover were forwards; Murphy the prop at fly-half. Charlie for some reason spurned the running chance and kicked. He was standing a fair way back, and NdeK’s pass was pretty snappy so quite how a prop managed to charge him down was bemusing; Glaws managed to get the ball over the line in a tumble of bodies and 36 made it 6-13. Worst of all Joubert left the field, Sarries best player until that point. Without this try, I think Glaws would have gone into half-time a fair few points down, instead of just ahead.
A calamity soon mended as Murphy became the villain at almost the next breakdown; earning Sarries a kickable penalty and himself a yellow card. Worse was to follow at the restart as 36 kicked directly into touch. With HRH Tindall packing down on the blindside, Glaws were driven up and away. Davey giving the penalty on the centre spot. Up steps Charlie Hodgson to put the ball just over the crossbar to get within a point. Although Sarries tried for the rest of the half, nothing came of their man advantage. They were lucky after a line-out offence gave Glaws a kickable penalty. Sione Kalamafoni screaming at Davey for a yellow card had the opposite effect; the penalty was reversed. The half-time whistle itself seemed to sum up Davey’s performance. With a Sarries player down seeming in distress he was half stopping , half carrying on – seemed to give a penalty then seemed to reverse it on the advice of the touch-judge
At half-time we seemed to be missing a few Sensations and the dance routine was fairly standard after the last magic effort; but the guy catching the balls won himself a £1,000. The second half started well and just before being back up to full strength, Charlie put Sarries into the lead. Shortly afterwards an innocuous run in midfield by Kalamafoni (great west country name) with missed tackles led to a storming run well into the 22. The storm seemed weathered when a scrum was awarded (again not sure why as Glaws had the ball) but Glaws kept up the pressure to score in the corner. 36 again performing well with the boot to make the score 15-20. I’m not exactly sure what Gloucester’s game plan was, as they kicked the ball way almost all day, not even really for field position. Twice in the match (once here and once at the death) they tried to drive with repeated phases and in both cases had Sarries on the rack.
Still that was later and after keeping on pressing Sarries were rewarded when Kalamafoni managed to get the yellow card he was calling for earlier in the game. Lying out of a ruck and stopping the scrum-half playing the ball by moving your feet isn’t going to win friends when the referee is looking straight at you. An interesting choice for Borths as Sarries were pressing hard, but he took the points on offer. Sarries were on top before the departure and were completely on top now., with a beautiful try. Gloucester kicked deep and MoBo collected the kick; handing off to Charlie as he took the tackle. Charlie ran forward and linked up with Wyles who beat all the remaining cover. Running at the full back he passed outside to Wigglesworth who crashed over in the corner. There were other Sarries players on hand, but they were not needed. Charlie added the extras from the touchline and Sarries were 5 points up.
Sarries were pressing for points now and running the ball at will. Tompkins had a little run on the Rous side not quite getting away, but Charlie had the best attempt, selling the defence with a lovely show and go only to be caught on the line. The resulting ruck looked promising, but Davey gave a penalty for holding on. Clearing their lines, another penalty was conceded and 36 narrowed the gap to 2 points. Sarries were undaunted and totally in control of the play marched downfield to win yet another penalty. Charlie opened the gap again to 5 points.
Then oddly enough with only 6 minutes left on the clock; Gloucester decided to actually play some rugby. Playing flat and driving well they moved upfield, seemingly an irresistible force. Sarries defence became a bit desperate as the clock ticked down. Before, the defence had been solid and turning the ball over quite often; now it was beginning to look a little ragged. Penalties were conceded and from a driving lineout with 1 minute left Wiggy was yellow carded. Glaws piled everything into the scrum and drove forward. I was a little surprised to be honest; with no defending scrum-half surely running the ball through 8 and 9 was a certain try. Glaws went for the penalty-try and got just a penalty.
There is a sort of code on these I believe – only the 3rd penalty is generally given as a try. With this being the last play of the game, no referee (even Mr. Davey) is going to court controversy by awarding the match to one side. The second scrum was a Sarries stormer as the newly arrived and somewhat young Auterac got the hit on and earned Sarries a penalty as the Glaws scrum buckled and went backwards
So 28-23 as a final score and like the London Welsh game Sarries survived a last minute scrum nightmare, when the game should already have been wrapped up long before then.
Saracens (12) 28
- Tries: Wigglesworth
- Cons: Hodgson
- Pens: Hodgson (7)
Gloucester (13) 23
- Tries: Murphy, Qera
- Cons: Twelvetrees (2)
- Pens: Twelvetrees (3)
Saracens: Wyles, Strettle, J. Tomkins, Taylor, Short, Hodgson, de Kock, Gill, Smit, Stevens, Borthwick, Botha, Kruis, Fraser, Joubert.
Replacements: Ratuvou for Taylor (73), Wigglesworth for de Kock (56), Auterac for Gill (76), George for Smit (76), Du Plessis for Stevens (70), Hargreaves for Botha (77), Saull for Joubert (41). Not Used: Mordt.
Sin Bin: Wigglesworth.
Gloucester: Cook, Sharples, Molenaar, Tindall, M. Thomas, Twelvetrees, Cowan, Murphy, Dawidiuk, Harden, James, Hamilton, Savage, Qera, Kalamafoni.
Replacements: Taylor for Tindall (62), Monahan for M. Thomas (52), Britton for Dawidiuk (60). Not Used: Wood, Knight, Buxton, Cox, Robson.
Sin Bin: Murphy, Kalamafoni.
Att: 5,960
Ref: Sean Davey (RFU).
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Thanks Jeremy for the Glaws Match Report.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012:12:18:22:52:53 by sutton_sarrie.
Anyway I was very happy to see that last push - just Sarries keeping it tense as usual
Ernst's injury was sustained when he jumped to catch a touched-in-flight kick. I don't think there was any malice, but it's still a penalty regardless of the partial chargedown. I am at a loss to determine where else the officials could have been looking - were they all looking for an offside by kick-chasers (hint: The chargedown had put them onside anyway?)
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Tomkins seemed a bit out of sorts, he hardly touched the ball for some reason that I couldn't fathom.
Regardez mon visage. Suis-je bovvered?
Nous sommes l'armée noir et rouge !
Quote:It looks like Strettle simply ran into somebody a lot bigger
Isn't that enough to ask for a penalty?
