By Kat
August 20 2007

What is the purpose of the Middlesex Sevens? Is it, as the ‘Fish claims, “The traditional opener to the new season” Or is it a chance for rugby starved fans to get together, while their team provide some on-pitch entertainment? Saracens and their fans better hope it’s the later, because the display by the Men in Black at HQ looked a little ominous as a curtain raiser for the main GP season.

Saracens were drawn in a group with Bath - lacking many of their stars to international duty, and the newly promoted Leeds, in theory Sarries should top the group. First up was Bath. From Kick off, things looked promising. Saracens ran deep into the Bath half and were looking at the first try scoring opportunity, but failed to make it count.  Possession was lost and Bath got their first score. Bath then ran in 19 unanswered points, the early kick-off had caught Saracens sleeping. This first game gave Gaffney plenty of pointers on areas of the game that still need work in the remaining weeks of pre-season.  Numerous handling errors from the Men in Black were unfortunately a feature of the match. At times it looked like we were trying to play basketball, as passes dribbled along the ground. Passes that did not go low generally went high or got knocked on, much to the increasing despair of the watching support.

To add to the despondency of the fans the strategy employed appeared to have been deduced on the bus from Watford; “Give it to Del and see what happens.” Finally this came good as Haughton ran in for our first try before half time. The second half was a slight improvement and the Sarries defence did manage to avoid letting Bath pass the white powder at all during the second seven minutes. Saracens did manage to add to their tally, with a cute run by Alex Goode was followed by a touch down by Seymour. The conversion was good, but the resulting 14-19 score-line to Saracens was a little flattering.  

If handling errors characterised the first game, Saracens failed to come out the dressing room for the second. Leeds Carnegie, the premierships newbie’s had a point to prove in their first outing of the competition and Saracens failed to put up any kind of defence. Soon the Yorkshire men were 14-0 up and it looked like Saracens were bombing out of the competition and destined for an early bath.  An inspired run, again from Goode, gave the supporters hope as he dove under the posts and converted to give us 7 points. However after a spell of shocking defending, Leeds ran in an additional try to finally nail down the coffin of Sarries chances in progression to the quarter finals.

 There were precious few positives, However, Goode made some inspired running lines, Seymour played well and our new Fijian signing, Sakiusa Matadigo, looked worth looking out for in the 15 man game, with opposition tacklers bouncing off him in a similar way we have seen Johnston plough through people. Oh Yes - And Wasps got knocked out before us ;o)

After a flat end to last season Sarries supporters were looking forward to the sins of Anger, Pride and Greed displayed on the pitch. Unfortunately all we saw was Sloth. This left no alternative than to head to the bar and indulge in a bit of Gluttony!