Saracens
Toulouse too Big
By Jeremy O'Garibaldi
October 19 2013
I set off early (half-day) to drive to the Green man. Unfortunately the Friday night traffic in the area meant I never made it; having to give up and seek another place to park. Sorry about that Martin. However no complaints about the seat in the Club section on the second level, the view was fantastic. As the teams walked out you could see the difference in the sides. Toulouse were full of giants in the pack and even Billy V looked small in comparison with Gillian Galan and he wasn’t the only big lad on the French side.
Owens wanted to make his presence felt with a long lecture at the first scrum which took ages, but it was Toulouse and their desire to throw the offload and little inside passes that was making its mark. It wasn’t long before Sarries gave away the first kickable penalty, albeit from a long way out and McAlister’s attempt slid by. It seemed to me that Toulouse were more dangerous from broken play rather than when the Sarries defence was lined up in force and shortly afterwards a forced pass from the French let to a turnover ball. After a couple of phases the ball came out wide and Chris Wyles made a great break. After an exchange of passes with Ashdon he ran round under the posts.
From my seat the last pass looked forward and Owens went upstairs as he did for all the tries in the evening. In slow motion it was great skill from Ashdon to deliver a backwards pass and Fazlet added the two points. However it wasn’t long before Toulouse were again on the attack. Burger was penalised for not rolling away, but to my eyes he seemed to be on his feet playing the ball and the penalty should have been the other way around. It didn’t really matter as McAlister missed again this time hitting the post. The clearance was good, but not for long. Toulouse were playing some good rugby combining the power running of Galan with some slick offloading and direct running.
Galan had forced Picamoles out of the starting line-up and was good value for it. He reminded me of Dean Richards, striding through tackles and still offloading with two men on his back. The French made their way to just outside the 22 when Matt Stevens showed off again his diving skills. To be honest, I though him a bit unlucky. He arrived to a ruck and was about to reach out for a turnover when the ball came back quickly. As he extended to grab it, he ended up doing a belly-flop and Owens was probably laughing as he gave the penalty. Fortunately McAlister missed it
Sarries were playing on the back foot, but did have some attacks of their own and shortly afterwards Ashdon, who was on his own put through a clever chip and chase. He probably would have succeeded had he not been blatantly pulled back. Everyone in the crowd could see it, but Nigel ‘Munster’ Owens seemed to be looking elsewhere; so did his touch-judge. He was able to see some slight interference off the ball by Strettle well enough a few minutes later and added insult to injury by giving him a yellow card for it. I understand from reading reports that Strettle’s yellow was probably more for Steven’s swallow dive just before, as Sarries were on a final warning.
It was expensive as Toulouse kicked for the corner and drove over from close range. Their line-out was peerless all evening, as was Sarries; I don’t remember any being stolen. The initial drive seemed to be halted, but a second one put the hooker over and although you could not see the ball being grounded, Brits body didn’t quite seem to be underneath and the try was fair enough. No more misses for McAlister though, as Scrum-half Jean-Marc Doussain took the kick and it was back to all square. Sarries seemed to be struggling without Strettle and from the next scrum Toulouse ran over the defence and on their way to the line. The danger was cleared and Sarries seemed to up the
tempo for the next part of the game. The big guys didn’t like being moved around and for the rest of the half Sarries seemed in control as Toulouse tired. Fazlet had a long range attempt which went wide, but from the restart Sarries attacked and another penalty came. He made no mistake with the second. With Strettle back on and McAlister off injured the last 5 minutes of the second half saw another penalty for Sarries and they went in 13-7 up.
The second half started the same as the first finished and for ten minutes or so Sarries looked to have the match under control. Another penalty and with a 9 point advantage the subs started to make an appearance. This suited Toulouse far more than Sarries as each player they brought on was potentially better in the first instance and certainly fitter. As the big lumps that came on started to bring their physicality to the game, it was back to the first 20 minutes again when a fresh Toulouse were in command.
Getting the lions share of possession and keeping it was Toulouse’s game plan now and despite Sarries defence at its brilliant best, the French side made slow but steady progress towards the line. Around ten minutes of relentless forward motion, deep into the Sarries 22 and finally there was a turnover; Faz I gather. The kick to touch and possession gave some breathing space, but eventually was kicked away and the screw was turned again. Finally a penalty was given to the French side and the bonus point secured. With less than ten minutes left, Sarries seemed to have weathered the storm as the big Toulouse forwards were starting to time significantly.
Sarries came forward and put together a few phases then disaster. Rees Gill had the ball stripped from him on the 22 and with no full back at home. Huget ran and kicked long. Alex Goode picked it up, but nobody offered any passing options leaving him to be picked up and dumped over the line. The resulting 5 yard scrum groaned but the French were kept at bay. Picamoles picked up and seemed to be boxed in but he rolled and dived towards the line. Remember that Twickenham game where Ash got the bonus-point by putting down short and rolling the ball slowly forward until it touched the line. Picamoles did the same here and from close in Toulouse were 1 point up with an easy conversion.
Sarries came back, picking and driving forwards. Then a penalty halfway outside their own 22 and some backchat or running off with the ball meant Owens moved 10 yards forwards. Suddenly a quandary. With 4 minutes on the clock, would Sarries go for the corner, but no Faz was going to have a go. He lined it up and with all the breath of the West stand blowing it onwards, it ended up under the crossbar. Nobody followed up for a while and 30 seconds was wasted whilst the French waited to touch it down. Collecting the ball in their own half, Sarries tried again; another penalty. It was longer than the last one so kick to the corner. Lineout collected, Sarries knocked on. Was it all over, but the game continued until Toulouse knocked on. With 10 seconds on the clock a scrum on halfway to Sarries. Three times they tried and the ball was won and run. Get into drop-goal range.
I thought to be honest they might have been better off going for the try and slowly but surely six minutes or so of continuous play saw them near the 22. At times it was very odd and the game was like an Under7s game with everyone within 10 yards of the ball. Tomkins ran and almost broke through unable to make the offload, but Sarries kept control until inside the 22. Nigel Owens was never going to give a penalty despite the French #23 never actually being onside at any point. Faz had a go for a drop, but a hand half got to it and it never looked like making it. The ball was kicked to touch and the chances of Sarries topping the group are over.
So what’s left now in the Heinekin Cup. With probably 15 points almost certain in the 3 games against the minnows an away ¼ final against Toulon or even Toulouse again seems the best to hope for. Or perhaps we could not quite get enough points and get into the Amlin. It seems to me that Sarries chances of another Premiership title were increased significantly
Team line-ups
Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Wyles, Taylor, Strettle; Farrell, Wigglesworth; M Vunipola, Brits, Stevens, Borthwick, Hargreaves, B. Vunipola, Burger, Joubert.
Replacements: Brown for Taylor (48), Tomkins for Wigglesworth (48), Gill for M. Vunipola (62), George for Brits (62), Johnston for Stevens (62), Kruis for Hargreaves (70), de Kock for Joubert (48).
Not Used: Bosch.
Sin Bin: Strettle (19).
Toulouse: Medard; Huget, Fritz, Poitrenaud, Gear; McAlister, Doussain; Ferreira, Tolofua, Johnston, Maestri, Tekori, Nyanga, Dustautoir, Galan.
Replacements: Fickou for Poitrenaud (72), Vermaak for McAlister (35), Steenkamp for Ferreira (41), Picamoles for Tolofua (48), Lamboley for Johnston (60), Millo-Chluski for Maestri (41), Montes for Nyanga (60), Ralepelle for Galan (48).
Att: 61,428
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales), Assistant ref: Sean Bricknell (Wales), Assistant ref: Wayne Davies (Wales), TMO: Derek Bevan (Wales), Citing Commissioner: Richard McGhee (Scotland)
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Stumbleupon19/10/2013 21:47
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013:11:05:07:59:49 by TonyTaff.
Regardez mon visage. Suis-je bovvered?
Quote:Convex Hull
Thanks for that, I am still completely at a loss to understand how Owens missed that pull-back on Ashton.
Doh, 2 large Frenchmen in the way.
Good luck.
JA147
Quote:JA147Quote:Convex Hull
Thanks for that, I am still completely at a loss to understand how Owens missed that pull-back on Ashton.
Doh, 2 large Frenchmen in the way.
Good luck.
JA147
Doh, but not in the way of the AR, which I can confirm as I was directly in line with both Ashton and the AR, albeit 50 metres more distant.
I guess that it didn't occur to Owens to ask the AR if there had been any foul play, despite the huge shout of indignation from around 40,000 people.
Regardez mon visage. Suis-je bovvered?
Nous sommes l'armée noir et rouge !
It was a game we could of (perhaps should of) won.
There were long periods of the game where Sarries were well on top and Toulouse were almost in panic mode.There will be many games in the future where Sarries won't play as well as that but will win, and there will also be games where Sarries get more of the 'Rub of the Green'.
Still, learn by mistakes, onwards and upwards - bring on the Sinners.
We were beaten, but not out of it at any time.
I have good hopes for a win in Toulouse!
Quote:TheSaracens.com
Thanks Jeremy - can't have been an easy one to do.
Editors; I have been trying all evening to "Reply" on this thread but that only brings up the Rugbynetwork home page. Don't know if that is normal for a sticky. Anyway, my brain eventually moved sideways and here I am by "Quoting" a message. I have left the quote in as I agree with it. Now for my comments.
Loosing to a team by one point who had only been in the lead for 5/10 minutes due to a try scored by 2 or 3 blades of grass was hard. I think it would have less painful to have lost by 10 against a team who had been holding out for a longer period of time - although not so good for pool points so change that to 7! Anyway the result we got gives hope for the return match. Were we not winning more away matches than home ones a couple of years back?
I appreciate the Toulouse lineout was good but there was at least one occasion when Steve B intercepted one of their throws. Right in front of me and I remember the crowd approval. A somewhat rare event except for the last ten minutes. I remember thinking to myself during the first half that the atmosphere was even poorer than VR. Win or loose, I would rather have been at AzP. But I guess that the status quo is, at the moment, all part of the club strategy for development.
In the summer we "beefed up" with Billy and JJ. It actually counted for little as the size of that French team made Billy look like their scrum half!
Although we were never out of the game it was generally down to them not capitalising on their forward play. Once they got that sorted in the second half and with THAT bench we could not stop them going forward.
Face it. English teams have not got what it take in terms of resources to really compete.
I agree with the comment that this may help us focus on the league now.
Quote:Darraghgirl
You are correct, clicking on the "reply" takes you to the home page. Any ideas TT? However if you are logged in you get the normal posting box come up below the picture where you can write what you like!
One of the many shortcomings with the platform is that front page articles aren't available, or aren't available promptly. I've not found a solution. Logging in is a prerequisite to posting, in any circumstance.
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
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