Saracens Unhinge Quins

Harlequins 19 Saracens 11

Harlequins had been waiting a long time for this match. Their ascent under Dean Richards checked by the ugly fallout from Bloodgate, they are finally back at the top of the tree, unbeaten in ten league games even after visits to Leicester and Gloucester, honours even with Toulouse after a feisty Heineken Cup double header and selling out 82,000 seats at Twickenham after three ‘Big Games.’ The delay in coming out and the pre-match fireworks suggested that they wanted to savour the moment. Unfortunately, Saracens were sharper and more disciplined, leaving Quins with the inevitable slur of the post-Christmas hangover accusation.

Much of the pre-match talk was of new England prospects, and there are certainly plenty on both sides. However, the importance of this match to the league also deserved a talking up. Had Harlequins won, they would have been thirteen points clear at the half way point of the season and odds on for holding onto that lead come May. Defeat will keep them honest, and open up the contest.

Both sides are capable of producing flowing rugby but are becoming renowned for big hits and tight defences, and both sides of their games were on show early on. A crunching tackle on Nick Evans and a looping run from David Strettle opened the game.

The momentum and referee not unjustly behind Saracens, the opening twenty minutes provided opportunities to attack but the first points came from practically identical penalties conceded by Harlequins holding onto the tackled player. Owen Farrell kicked flawlessly, adding a superlative to his name with each of his four penalties and one conversion. A lineout in Quins’ twenty-two should have offered Saracens the chance to get the first try, but an early jump meant that it was bungled. Not long after, however, Strettle was alert to a careless pass from prop Joe Marler on his own twenty-two and stole in under the posts.

Saracens scored their final points after only twenty-five minutes, taking three from a collapsed scrum. The next forty were painfully tense, with Quins in almost permanent possession due to Nick Evans’ clever tactical kicking and a number of errors by Saracens, with first time starter Peter Stringer struggling to get kicks away cleanly. Nonetheless, at half time Harlequins had only two penalties to their name.

The break did not bring the visitors a respite and the pressure began to tell. After Nick Easter of all people threw a miss-pass to release Ugo Monye down the wing, only a diving tackle from Strettle averted a score. The Saracens winger was injured in the process, but not before laying a strong maker down for the England selectors.

Another man looking to make a statement was Marler, for England and for his teammates, and he was the recipient of the pass that made their second half try. After going through several phases of hard-fought rucking on the Saracens line, Andy Saull was pulled out of position and Marler strolled in.

That more or less ended the spell of Harlequins dominance and opened up the game, with Saracens starting to win penalties in the scrum. The introduction of John Smit and Matt Stevens on either side of the scrum added weight and led to a big drive on the hour mark, while Chris Wyles, on for Strettle, made a telling break. For the most part, defence outweighed attack, with Brad Barritt, Ernst Joubert and Andy Saull all outstanding.

Three more clear chances arose; two for Harlequins and one for Saracens. First, Mike Brown fielded a Hodgson kick, dummied and shimmied his way out of his own twenty-two before unleashing a move that went through three more pairs of hands before being brought down. Then Easter found a gap, but his pass was too high for Maurie Fa’asavalu to hold. Immediately afterwards, James Short nearly went over in the corner after a sixty-metre move from a lineout, showing that there was space available, but again, sheer bloody-minded defence and a tackle by Monye at full tilt maintained the status quo.

It is easy to characterise a match with long periods of no scoring as dull, and indeed, both teams looked too exhausted at times to pull off the incredible. Such is the game these days in the Northern Hemisphere, that defensive efforts are fast outstripping attacking developments. Another way of looking at the difference between the two sides in the last twenty minutes is that while Saracens used all of their substitutes, Harlequins changed only three players over the course of the match.

That said, the will to attack is not gone, and both teams were adventurous from deep. This bodes well for England, who often seemed to have time on the ball this year but no ideas. Danny Care’s energy behind the Quins scrum establishes him as one of the two scrum halves in the Elite Player Squad, but Ben Spencer will be close behind with more performances like this. Farrell and Barritt arguably outplayed Jordan Turner Hall, while Nick Easter and Chris Robshaw looked powerful but slow in comparison to Saull and Joubert. Mike Brown showed vision at full back, Alex Goode a sure touch. On the wing, both Monye and Strettle excelled, while in the front row, Stevens frequently got the better of Marler in the second half.

Whoever makes the EPS, and plenty from both of the top two teams in the country deserve to, the coaches will have to go some way to replicate the intensity of the club game, and think long and hard about how they are going to unlock defences. For these two clubs, there are another eleven games to go in the regular season, plus the Heineken Cup to worry about. Building on these performances is going to be critical.

 

Harlequins: Brown; Stegman, Hooper, Turner-Hall, Monye; Evans, Care; Marler, Brooker, Johnston; Vallejos, Robson; Fa’asavalu, Robshaw, Easter.

Replacements: Williams for Stegman (34), Gray for Brooker (58), Fairbrother for Johnston (58).

Not Used: Lambert, Matthews, Wallace, Bolt, Clegg.

Saracens: Goode; Strettle, Farrell, B Barritt, Short; Hodgson, Stringer; Gill, Brits, Nieto; Borthwick, Kruis; Brown, Saull, Joubert.

Replacements: Wyles for Strettle (42), Stevens for Nieto (46), Botha for Kruis (50), Spencer for Stringer (60), Smit for Gill (60), Powell for Farrell (73), Wray for Brown (73), George for Brits (77).

Attendance: 82,000.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU).

The Double Header

Sarries stutter and Quins pay the penalty, again (groan).

 Twickenham was resplendent today for the gala opening of the 2009/2010 season.  Perhaps there was a sense of rebirth in the air – so many changes, but a few big issues not quite resolved so tinged with worry – how will it turn out?  Well, we had two games I wouldn’t chose to introduce someone to the game with, but for those of us with rugby in our blood, it was sweet to have it back.

 

Sarrie the Camel and I share a Guinness and some pre-match banter

 

 

Saracens 18 London Irish 14

Clinical is not usually a word you associate with Saracens and yet, in twenty first half minutes, they had two real chances and went in leading 18-3.  Frustrating, nervy and perhaps even complacent are more to the point, and it was not a little hard to bear seeing these false friends take their seats after the interval to watch a half almost completely dominated by Irish, who came close to snatching victory.  Indeed, but for new arrival Ryan Lamb’s lost kicking boots, they would have run out comfortable winners.

Irish always had a hold on the game through their dominance of the scrum.  Saracens conceded too much possession and too many points from their inability to match their opponents, although the solidity of their lineout was encouraging.  However, with England international Nick Kennedy, Irish’s lineout ball was equally secure.  Moreover, their forwards chased the ball with real hunger, keeping possession and turning it over on occasion.

 

 

Hodgson breaks through

 

If Irish had a solid base on which to build, they proved unable to live up to the billing as last year’s most attractive team.  While Paul Hodgson at scrum half was lively, the extent of their backs’ strategy was to pass the ball as quickly as possible to the renowned Delon Armitage, who really offered nothing above and beyond the fallback plan of hoofing it up in the air, except for the distance he could achieve and was sin-binned for reacting angrily to a late tackle. 

 

This happened a lot

Irish seem to have suffered from the loss of Mike Catt and Shane Geraghty, their fly halves from last season, when they passed the ball with confidence and precision (partly thanks to the innovative coaching method of training blindfolded).  Lamb failed to impose himself and missed at least 11 points with the boot – unforgivable in such a close game.

Saracens, all-considered, did well to win a game where they were predominantly on the back-foot.  It was an atypical performance for a side nominally with home advantage.  However, there were two moments of magic in the first half, both the result of quick thinking from fly half Glen Jackson.  First, Saracens were awarded a penalty in the Irish 22.  A kick at goal appeared inevitable, and indeed the touch-judges were making their way behind the posts when Jackson tapped and went from 15 metres, jinking inside the defender on his way to the line.  Within ten minutes Saracens were again in striking distance when, fed by the irrepressible Neil de Kock, Jackson kicked cross-field, for Andy Saull to dive on.

 

Jackson was outstanding today

Irish came back after the half-time pep-talk and Gary Stowers completed a forwards-move to give them something to fight for.  But though they weren’t short of chances, Saracens defended solidly (if not brilliantly) and as more of Lamb’s kicks went astray, Irish’s luck ran out.  Even with Saracen No. 8 Ernst Joubert in the bin for the penultimate ten minutes, their incisiveness was limited.

 

Irish's score came through their dominance in the scrum

Man of the Match: Although a sentimental, and in one sense fair choice would be Saracens’ Glen Jackson, when Peter Richards came on at outside-centre, Irish were a different prospect.  Richards is a player who wants the ball at every opportunity and almost always takes it forward.  Irish would be wise to start him – he could make their season.

 

Blatantly Biased Bit About Saracens

In the first game of any campaign, a good result is preferable to a good performance.  But unlike the rusty Irish, Sarries were relatively on their game, at least in the first half, and showed spirit in the second.  That spirit will have to be backed with a bit more control if Saracens are to march up the table this season.  Our weakness in the scrum was a worrying development, suggesting that the loss of Cobus Visagie was the decisive event of last summer.  We have yet to see the ball skills of Schalk Brits, and his sin-binning was not especially helpful, although par-for-the-course for a hooker (the position most likely to be prefixed by‘abrasive’).  The backs were practically faultless, with Wyles in particular showing some distinction, but some of Jackson’s kicking from hand was uninspired.

 

Maurice Botha, He-Man and apparently useful acquisition (or maybe just noticeable)

On another note, despite being played twenty-odd times, the new Saracens ‘anthem’ (which must be a first for Right Said Fred) is good, but three pints of Guinness does that to you.  Stand Up!

http://www.saracens.com/news/view.php?Id=5488

 

Wasps 25 Harlequins 14

Harlequins were always going to be playing with a heavy weight on their back.  We can only imagine how disruptive having their coaching staff and club name dragged through the (well-deserved) mud must have been.  It would be a fairly reasonable thing to respect their character to come out fighting in a difficult opening game, or at least it would be, if it hadn’t meant playing with 14 men for 78 minutes.  When second-row George Robson had a Zidane-esque moment of madness at some unknown provocation (and headbutted Joe Simpson, in plain English), he let his already way down teammates down even further, although the fact that half of them were throwing punches probably didn’t help his appeal.  And much as it spoilt a potentially exciting game, you really can only ask the referees to enforce the rules of the game (strictly too, when necessary – i.e. now more than ever).

For all its potential, there really were some moments of positive excitement about this game.  Quins were far from dull – in fact, they were the brighter team attacking, and scored first when British Lion Ugo Monye raced in after David Strettle soared down the wing, drew the defenders and slipped the ball inside to his full back.  Their disadvantage was most evident in the two tries Danny Cipriani worked for the otherwise sloppy Tom Varndell. 

 

Varndell scores from Cirpriani's cross-field kick

For the first, the Boy Wonder took the ball from a scrum, ran across the blind side defence and put the winger in a one-on-one from a few metres.  5-5.  Minutes later, however, Quins were again in front when the brilliant Danny Care chipped the ball across the field for Gonzalo Comacho to collect in the goal area.  Varndell scored a second after Wasps stole lineout ball and Kelly Brook’s ex-boyfriend kicked across field (yes, it’s quite a popular move now).  Quins’ line was too stretched, and they went in at half time a point down – really rather respectable but a poor return on their effort.

The second half was a protracted affair – slow set-pieces and tedious kicking.  Wasps’ advantage was translated into an ultimately comfortable margin when the referee awarded them a generous but probably justifiable penalty try in the last five minutes.  On balance, it looks like Quins will be the better team when they recover from their current woes – they certainly have the motivation and as crucially, the players.  What they may lack is the nous of Dean Richards, a man who dragged them up the mountain (from Division One to last year’s play-offs) but now threatens to pull them back down.  Wasps on the other hand were poor in defence – once their strongest area.  Too many gaps opened up, and Serge Betsen can’t fill them all, although he does cover Cipriani at set-pieces.  The Future-of-English-Rugby was good today, but he still lacks awareness of some of the opportunities Wasps created.  Moreover, by not taking his team’s place kicks, he suggests that his ankle is still not fully healed.

 

In the absence of Shaw and Worsely Betsen will be key to Wasps' sturdiness

I saw nothing that made me reconsider my fairly low expectations of Wasps this year – they will miss Flutey, and though Shaw and Worsely will tighten them up they don’t look like the commanding outfit they were in the Dallaglio-era.  However, I don’t doubt that with Simpson, Cipriani and Sackey they will score some great tries.

 

He's overrated, but that doesn't mean he's not good

Man of the Match: Monye and Strettle both looked fit and alert, Cips was alright (I suppose) and Betsen was hard to miss, stalking the field in a fluorescent scrum-cap.  But Harlequins’ efforts were predicated on good, quick delivery.  Danny Care quietly, but noticeably was up to it.

 

The Season So Far

Of course, it’s early days, but there were a few interesting indicators today.  The first concern is discipline.  The national team were beholden to their penalty-count last year, and English rugby looks no cleaner this season.  There were three sin-binnings and a sending-off, a penalty-try and countless scrums (often reset) and penalties today (plus a yellow-card yesterday in a game where all the points came from nine penalties).  Whether the refereeing of the game is getting stricter, or players are becoming more cynical, there is no positive spin to be put on it.

Secondly, the attractiveness of English rugby is still in decline.  There were moments today – maybe not sublime, but pleasing to the eye.  However, the endless, aimless kicking that marred both games today is to rugby what the Somme was to the art of generalship.  Everyone wants to see a running game, which isn’t going to happen for the same reasons that not every football team plays like Arsenal (and Arsenal haven’t won anything in years).  But if you have to play a pressure game, at least kick well.  It’s easier to be negative when you’ve seen two scrappy games.  It was good not to have to see uncontested scrums, but too many end up in penalties or free kicks anyway.

Still, Saracens second in the table is something that I think we can take forward.

 

Tri-Nations

Rather surprisingly, Australia have put an end to South Africa’s unbeaten run in the Southern Hemisphere competition.  Actually, Australia’s record against the Boks in Australia is very good, but seeing the South Africans take their foot off the pedal before the competition is completely sealed is an unusual sign of complacency and to be honest, an indictment of coach Pieter de Villiers.

 If You’ve Read This Far

You must be a real fan, of something.  Anyway, I enjoyed this article about putting values back into the game, which is not a kneejerk reaction to ‘bloodgate’ but apparently a pretty serious attempt to cut down of increasing incidences of disrespectful behaviour towards referees and sportsmanship.

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article6822827.ece

 We’re on our Way to Wembley Now!

 

Rugby 09/10

What to look out for in the new rugby season, and why it’s worth the bother.

It’s the best of times and it’s the worst of times.  There’s an intro loaded with cliché value, but it really has been true of this summer.  The engrossing heroics of the British and Irish Lions in South Africa gave us some of the best rugby, and best drama since at least the 2007, if not 2003 World Cups.  Yet, the sport has been tainted by disciplinary after disciplinary. 

Sergio Parisse, Alan Quinlan, Schalk Berger – what do they all have in common?  They’re all dynamic loose forwards, talismanic to their clubs and countries.  Wrong, they have all been cited for eye-gouging, and been given disgracefully short suspensions.  Bath have lost five players because of illegal substance use and now everyone in England knows at least one rugby club – Harlequins, and at least one joke about fake blood.

In this article I want to escape the confines of the team-by-team prediction format.  It will be done by experts in every major newspaper and anyway, I couldn’t claim objectivity!  What I will do is hazard a guess at what this season might be remembered for, if at all.

Cheating

One incident from last season has already taken over this one.  When Tom Williams went off with a ‘blood injury’ in Harlequin’s Heineken Cup Semi-Final, everyone knew that he’d cheated.  Rugby is a long way behind WWE in realism, and that really is saying something.  Quins have been lucky to escape sporting sanction this year – they may have been fined nearly £300,000 and had Tom Williams banned for four months, but they have not been kicked out of European competition, nor been docked points (yet), nor lost many players in the mean time.  Admittedly, Dean Richards leaves a big gap, but his credibility is now in such shreds that far from being the England heir-apparent, it is unclear that he will ever coach top-class rugby again, even after his three-year ban expires.  Anyway, to have played on with him would have been to shame Quins even more, and it is the moral burden that most journalists suspect will strangle their season and will hopefully deter others from similar crimes.

Inside of the game, more attention will be paid to another form of dodgy substitutions.  This year, the Guinness Premiership has imported from France the requirement that each team name a full front-row on its bench.  This is to prevent the practice of two props going off injured and forcing uncontested scrums, which are as they sound.  Naturally, clubs have brought in props, but it will be interesting to see whether this change makes a difference to the quality of scrums.  Also, I have to say it; Wasps, you did this so many times.

Big Venues

On Friday, at a windswept Edgeley Park just outside of Manchester, the new Guinness Premiership season begins.  Sale take on Leicester, a grudge match stoked by big ambitions.  It will be a back to basics affair, but a much needed one after a summer of embarrassment.  For the rest of the season, however, rugby’s profile will grow, a fact reflected in the venues.  The next day, 50,000 fans will pack Twickenham, and the place will probably sell-out for the Final in Spring.  Saracens will play at Wembley – possibly twice, and Leicester will almost certainly make use of the Walkers Stadium again, if repayments on their recent development at Welford Road don’t preclude it.  Rugby’s profile is still growing, and so will the crowds, hopefully.

Hands-On Rugby

This is something that I can’t swear by, but I do think that you will see more attractive rugby this year than in previous ones.  The likes of London Irish have been building an attractive attacking brand for a few years and last year’s second-placed finish will embolden them.  Leicester also found that flair was a route to success through Sam Vesty, who takes the ball forward in a manner that the more considered Toby Flood probably wouldn’t.  The return of Ben Cohen, to the Sale of Charlie Hodgson also bodes well for some good tries – despite disappearing off the radar, he hasn’t quite lost his talent.  Dare I say it, Saracens can even play a bit and Wasps’ Danny Cipriani may be the most overrated player in the game (seriously, he has barely any positional awareness), but he’s still alright.

On the other hand, Sale have lost Chabal, an icon of the English game, and Luke McAlister.  Worcester have brought in Willie Walker, not noted as a running fly-half.  Leeds probably won’t offer much in the way of rugby, nor in results, I’m sorry to say.  I predict Bath will struggle this year, not only because of the disruption caused by events at the end of last season, but because in the aggressive Butch James and the shaky Ryan Davies, they still don’t have a fly-half who can set their backs flowing.  Only time will tell what the return of Olly Barkley means to that part of the West Country, while in the part he is leaving, Gloucester have replaced Ryan Lamb, who never lived up to his promise, with Carlos Spencer, who hardly promises anything any more.

If all of this is about fly-halves more than anything else (apologies to the fat bastards), it’s because (a) they matter, and (b) we are now entering the post-Jonny Wilkinson age.  Now setting the French Top 14 alight, probably as a result of playing with someone of Kris Chesney’s quality, Wilkinson will only be playing rugby in England during the international window.  No change there, then.

The Resurgence of the Home Nations?

This year’s Six Nations was disappointing for those who remember it.  Ireland got the Grand Slam, but England, Wales and France all misfired.  This year should see more stability for the first two after a morale boosting Lions tour.  The Welsh were arguably the stars of the tour, especially Jamie Roberts but their nominal captain, Ryan Jones will have to rebuild his career after being left out, starting with the Ospreys.  If England can solve their disciplinary problems, i.e. Phil Vickery, they have the chance to build a really good team.

First, however, they have to play these guys;

The Tri-Nations Champions-Elect 

The Top Four

Leicester

Irish

Northampton

Saracens

A Final Note

One thing I don’t want to happen this season is the touted-retirement of Gavin Henson.  Henson was a player of some potential and is still young, so if his ankle doesn’t give out, I’m sure he has more to give.  In Jamie Roberts, he has a challenger to bring out the best in him.  If it does happen, you can be sure to hear from me.

Enjoy the rugby!