Saracens Victorious over those Saintly Types

By T
November 8 2005

T's report of Saturday's win vs Northampton Saints at Vicarage Road, featuring a host of penalties, the home side being outscored 3 tries to 1 and the lack of a penalty try or two. And NO Guy Fawkes' mentions...

Don't be fooled by the score or the try count 3-1 in Northampton’s favour, for 70 minutes this game was dominated by Saracens.

Saracens were out of the traps like a lame tortoise, the game was only three minutes old when the ball was aimlessly kicked away, the weeble-like John Rudd (they wobble but they don't fall down!) collected, bounced out of four half-hearted tackles and when finally grounded set the ball for his forwards. The ball was simply worked out to the other touchline leaving a three man overlap and some beautiful interplay by Reihana and Lamont drew the fullback and Robinson went over for a very good score, albeit all based on Saracens first up tackles being missed.

Worse was to follow when dozing Saracens were again caught out due to some poor first up defence. Northampton taking full advantage of another poor kick, good lines of running and excellent support led to Robinson again taking the scoring pass from Clarke and cantering in for his second of the game, Reihana converted again.

9 minutes, 2 poor kicks, 6 missed tackles, 2 very well worked tries, 14-0 down and the with the tedious “Saints Go Marching In” reverberating around the ground, it looked like being an extremely long afternoon.

Sarries finally realised that in order to win they had to keep the ball - so booting it down the throats of the back three tactic was binned. Centred around the set pieces, Saracens began to dominate, the outstanding Fullerton making a mess of the Northampton lineout while Messrs Yates, Cairns and Visage were clearly enjoying scrum time. Northampton had no answer to Sarries’ rolling maul and after the umpteenth transgression Gerard was sent to the bin for pulling it down.

After Jackson set up field position with a penalty to touch Sarries camped in Northampton’s 22. A set scrum and a big shove splintered the Northampton front row and the juggernaught pack was making rapid progression to the Northampton line with advantage being played the referee, it was a surprise to those in the Rous to have the imminent pushover try called play back for the penalty - I'm still unsure what was wrong and why play was called back.

After another penalty was kicked to touch the ball was worked left and right in the search for the try that would bring Saracens back into the game. Scrappy ball found its way to Haughton who set off - Northampton showed they too could also miss first up tackles on wingers as Haughton showed great strength and Ferrari-like acceleration to evade 5 tackles only to be pulled down just short of the line, Scarbrough was on hand to pick up the well-presented ball and dive over for what was to be Saracens’ only try of the game. Jackson converted.

What was to follow was to be the pattern for the rest of the game. Northampton in a desperate attempt to win any ball resorted to any means possible of trying to win possession and disrupt Saracens forward momentum; driving mauls were quickly pulled down, hands were all over balls in the rucks, while the offside line was ignored. Northampton were lucky to only have two players binned, many more could have followed as Saracens attacking platforms were disrupted by means never fair and always foul. The late Saracen Norris McWhirter would have taken great interest in the penalty count as surely it was close to a world record by 80 minutes!

Jackson added two penalties, Reihana kicked one in return the teams went in at 13 -17. 5 minutes and numerous penalties after half time, Saracens were ahead. The right boot of Jackson taking the honours with two quick penalties. Jackson further punished Northampton with when kickable penalties were given for transgressions at the lineout and scrum, taking Saracens two scores clear.

As good field position was again set up from a rolling maul which covered 30 metres before being pulled down. Again, Sarries chose to catch and drive from the resulting penalty for more of the same. After the maul was hauled down the referee decided enough was enough and Matt Lord was sent to the bin. While most were expecting to see Mr Davey walk under the posts to give the penalty try, he obviously thought differently and awarded a penalty right in front of the posts 5 metres out. With Northampton a man down in the scrum there for the taking and with Saracens two scores ahead it was a surprise that kick was signaled. Jackson landed his 7th penalty of the game.

With the countdown clock showing time, there was still one last play for 14 man Northampton to work Spencer over in the corner for Northampton’s third try securing a losing bonus point in the process.

Saracens were not great by a long stretch of the imagination, with the utter dominace that the pack had we should be scoring a lot more tries. While gifting 14 points to any side is eventually going to cause problems, if Northampton had any idea of how to stop the rolling maul legally things could have been very different. A concern for the coaches must be the first up tackling, and while the boot of Jackson and the forward power of the pack was more than enough to see Sarries home it might not be enough against better sides. However job done, bring on Bath.

SCORERS: Saracens: Try: Scarbrough (28min). Conversion: Jackson. Penalty goals: Jackson 7 (36, 40+1, 43, 52, 60, 73, 80+4). Northampton: Tries: Robinson 2 (5, 10), Spencer (80+8). Conversions: Reihana 2. Penalty goal: Reihana (32).

SCORING SEQUENCE (Saracens first): 0-7, 0-14, 7-14, 7-17, 10-17, 13-17 (half-time), 16-17, 19-17, 22-17, 25-17, 28-17, 28-22.

SARACENS: D Scarbrough; R Haughton, M Bartholomeusz, K Sorrell, P Bailey; G Jackson, A Dickens (rep: K Bracken, 52); K Yates (rep: B Broster, 61), M Cairns, C Visagie (rep: K Yates, 80+3), S Raiwalui (rep: K Chesney, 61), I Fullarton, H Vyvyan, D Seymour, B Skirving.

NORTHAMPTON: B Reihana; S Lamont, J Clarke, R Davies (rep: D Quinlan, 48), J Rudd; C Spencer, M Robinson; T Smith (rep: P Barnard, 41), D Richmond, C Noon, D Browne, D Gerard (sin-bin: 22-32; rep: M Lord, 54; sin-bin: 80+3), G Seely (rep: S Harding, 63), D Fox, B Browne.

Referee: S Davey.

Attendance: 8,524.