Are Sarries' Ambitions Buried in Mem Ground Draw?

By Gryff
September 11 2006

Gryff tells the story of the afternoon described variously as "a truly dire game" (Daily Telegraph), "poor" (5Live) and "dross" (Gryff). To quote D-Ream, things can only get better...

A beautiful sunny day at the Memorial Ground a perfect day for running rugby, good ball handling in front of a good crowd of 9,100.

Glen Jackson kicked off and Bristol’s rolling maul got to work resulting in the first infringement. Bristol attack but the ball bounced kindly for Sarries and following a lineout steal Sarries had an attacking lineout in the Bristol 22. The ball was won and several phases of play resulted in a sweeping move with a Simon Raiwalui miss pass finding Dan Scarborough who took a great angle cutting out several defenders to score Jackson converting. 5 minutes gone and Sarries 7 up after a lovely move, the travelling and very vocal Sarries fans were wondering if the Gaffers plans were going to all come right with open 15 man rugby, the Bristol fans who had constantly referred to their 40 points the previous weekend were hoping for a fight back.

What we all got was error ridden dross. Knockons, turnovers happened with increasing frequency to both sides. Finally after 12 minutes not for the first or last time Sarries were penalised for holding on in the tackle by Gustard and Strange kicked the penalty 7 -3.

It took over 20 minutes for a scrum to be completed and when it was Bristol showed clear ascendance much to concern of Saracens. Where has the dominant scrum of last season gone? The half continued error ridden and Sarries hit a patch of not being able to claim their own line out balls and 3 attacking lineouts were lost in the Bristol 22. As the half came to a close Strange had another penalty chance but it faded and the half closed 7 – 3.

Bristol started the Second Half strongly and again a Saracens player was caught in possession resulting in a Bristol lineout deep in Sarries 22. Sarries failed to clear and a catch and drive resulted in an unconverted try for prop Darren Crompton. Score 7 – 8.

Sarries responded but the errors continued and a promising attack in 54th minute fizzled out when Sarries scrum again gave way under pressure and the resulting possession was turned over and cleared. On 62 minutes Jackson was given a kickable chance but the chance was missed.

As the game entered the last 10 minutes Saracens finally seemed to wake up. Sustained pressure in the Bristol half resulted in Dan Scarborough collecting a long clearing punt near the half way lining setting himself and dropping a goal. 75 minutes gone and the scores 10 – 8.

Two minutes later Sarries were on the attack again and Jackson dropped another goal from 30 yards. 78 minutes and the score was 13 – 8.

We all knew what to expect from the Bristol kick off. Sarries were unable to clear the ball and were caught in possession. By know we were well into the 11 minutes of injury time Chris White was to allow. Saracens were penalised for hands in the ruck and the penalty was kicked to the corner. The first catch and drive was stopped but White decided illegally and the second one resulted in Shaun Perry scoring through the mêlée of bodies. Strange missed the conversion. Final score 13 -13.

In conclusion a match Saracens should have won easily thrown away by bad handling and constant infringements. There was a worrying lack of power in the pack (Census and Pelu had better hurry up), the lineout wasn’t functioning, there appeared lack of leadership and the decision making was poor (e.g. the number of times a Sarrie player was isolated in possession was amazing). Gaffer is quoted on BBC as saying “I am extremely disappointed we did not win” So are we Alan please sort it out!

SCORERS: Bristol: Tries: Crompton (46min), Perry (80+11). Penalty goal: Strange (13). Saracens: Try: Scarbrough (5). Conversion: Jackson. Dropped goals: Scarbrough (80+2), Jackson (80+8).

SCORING SEQUENCE (Bristol first): 0-7, 3-7 (half-time), 8-7, 8-10, 8-13, 13-13.

BRISTOL: J Taumalolo; L Robinson, R Higgitt, S Cox, C Morgan; J Strange (rep: D Gray, 70-73), S Perry; D Hilton (rep: A Clarke, 73), M Regan, D Crompton, R Winters, G Llewellyn, M Salter (rep: G Lewis, 73), J El Abd, D Ward-Smith.

SARACENS: D Scarbrough; T de Vedia (rep: R Penney, 64), K Sorrell, B Johnston, R Haughton; G Jackson, A Dickens (rep: M Rauluni, 78); K Yates, S Byrne (rep: M Cairns, 76), J Visagie, T Ryder (rep: K Chesney, 66), S Raiwalui, P Gustard, D Seymour, H Vyvyan.

Referee: C White.

Attendance: 9,100.