Saracens
Connacht stamp on a Hornet's Nest!
By Innings
January 19 2014
From my vantage point opposite the players’ tunnel, it seemed an omen that the visiting Connacht supporters were unable to organise unfurling their emerald green giant banner in time to welcome their team onto the pitch.
As always, Sarries were well-drilled and the even larger Sarries emblem was exactly in place as the team appeared. I never understand why we celebrate the team’s arrival with a banner that marks the sponsorship of our main sponsor of ten years ago, but perhaps more recent sponsors have not seen the point of ensuring that they gain that priceless moment of exposure.
The game started as expected, with Connacht quick out of the blocks, opening the scoring early with a soft Sarries penalty. Scarcely had that score registered before Chris Ashton, as busy and hungry as he has been all season, put in a scintillating little shimmy to finish a well-worked and popular try in the south-east corner. Charlie Hodgson was unable to oblige with the extras, about which more later.
Almost by return, another soft penalty gave the lead back to Connacht, perhaps deserved at this stage as they had started at a hundred miles an hour and with considerable intent. Charlie was to convert a simple penalty and Sarries took the lead for the second time. Some excellent movement through the hands put David Strettle into the other corner, and Sarries could see open water between the sides at 13-6. Was this the try that Duncan Taylor would have scored if he had simply fallen over, but selflessly passed to Strettle?
It is rare to say that a single refereeing decision utterly changes the course of a game, but at about 35 minutes this happened. Sarries were working through the moves, taking the initiative and looking comfortable for a good win with a bonus point on the cards. Connacht’s main attacking weapon was the long kick to Alex Goode, and Goode’s main weapon was to take every high ball perfectly and then to combine his long returns and touch finders with some elusive and effective counter-attacks with ball in hand. Then came the game-changing moment. During a mixed-up melee on the Connacht 22, we saw a little light dancing practice by Connacht prop Nathan White, connecting with Brad Barritt’s shoulders at least once and grazing his head as well. Referee Leighton Hodges may wish to be seen as a decisive and commanding figure, witness his world-record six yellow cards in the Italy-Fiji game last year, but here he showed something between incompetence and indecision as he dithered, along with the TMO, over whether there had been an offence, and if so what it had been. In the end the non-decision was that there had been no clear and obvious event. This satisfied nobody, especially when a yellow card for White suggested that either Connacht were hard done by to have lost a player for no clear offence, or were very lucky only to lose Smith for ten minutes. Mr Hodges now lost the plot for about the ten minutes of White’s absence, and in a period of frankly wild action, Brits was awarded a driven-over try. A prolonged handbags contest followed, with Mr Hodges unable to impose his authority on any player involved. All the talk during the break was about the referee, generally that’s a sign that he’s not having a good day, and today he was not. But what would happen next?
We rather expected that the Sarries dressing room would be a very quiet and intense place. Still at 14 men, Connacht came out to play again. Within a minute a long ball to Goode gave him a platform, from which he made a long and scything break through several flailing tackles. Pass out to Strettle, who was in for his second of the day and the bonus point.
We now saw how Mr Hodges’ indecision had its far–reaching effect. Clearly someone in the Sarries dressing room had reminded the team of the old saying: Don’t get mad, get even. Sarries had decided to sting Connacht with a cricket score. The tackles went in with extra venom, the hand-offs were heavier and more effective, the carries more menacing and purposeful. With Connacht having given up on the long kicking game (they were now playing into the wind), the ball was in the hand more, and Sarries, in attack or defence, were more in Connacht’s personal spaces. I’ve watched many Sarries games over the years and can truthfully say that I have not seen a more focused and down-right bloody-minded 40 minutes from them. With four tries, a 17-point margin and Connacht beginning to wilt to their current form as back-markers in the RaboDirect, everyone knew that Sarries had more to offer.
Another couple of tries would round off a good day at AzP. A silly kick to Goode gave him space to get started on a run, and once he was running the Connacht ranks made like the Red Sea when Moses waved his staff, and Goode had started, created and finished what would have been the try of the tournament if it had been scored against anyone else. I think Kruis was next in a forward-created driven try that gave us our six. A new calibration and we thought perhaps eight would be a good number. Well, about fourteen or fifteen minutes later, Chris Wyles, newly on a substitute for the Excellent Duncan Taylor, Jackson Wray, recently on for Kelly Brown, and James Johnson, on for Matt Stevens, took us up to nine.
At this moment we put our calculators away and just knew that there was more to come. Another fine finish for Strettle, and on 80 minutes a slick move that saw Ashton with work to do, but only tired Connacht legs to avoid, splash down under the posts, to huge applause. His severest critic, again, would applaud that splash, because he even had time to look around and decide that there was no risk of being tackled or bundled into error.
I said that the kicking would come back into the story, and indeed it did. Charlie had a strange day at the office, taking his one penalty attempt but missing seven conversion attempts. Most unusual, and at least he will have taken heart from the support he got from the crowd, before, during and after his kicks as we willed him on to kick after kick.
One worry, that is still unresolved as I write, was the very brief appearance by Owen Farrell. His game ended as he trudged off, clutching a towel to what looked like a nasty cut to the head, but he was also carrying his arm awkwardly. Sarries and England will be looking anxiously for reassuring news.
I cannot say that my other worry was as serious, but where was Sarrie? Worryingly the wolf was much in evidence, but no Sarrie. Is this another change coming on us for no better reason than Sarrie pre-dates the existing management? I hope not, and not least because Sarrie is a popular figure among the younger supporters who are the club’s future season ticket holders.
So, what can one make of today’s game, the result and what it means to Sarries in the Heineken Cup? After half-time, the game was a contested training session, huge fun for the spectators, but scarcely a classic in this competition. One is entitled to ask what the ERC mandarins are thinking of when trying to present this cup as the showcase of the best of European rugby, when it’s clear that at least three of the sides in it would struggle to survive in either English or French top leagues. Does the try count matter? Not in least, we would have gone through in 8th spot after a 3-0 win. What does it mean to Sarries? I suspect quite a lot, because it showed that they can play a ruthless and brutal style when the mood takes them, and still score tries for fun. That mind-set could take them to Ravenhill and upset that apple-cart when they get there. The last word should belong to Mark McCall: "We are not a top two or three European side but we are a top eight team. We can step up and learn from defeats at Clermont and Toulouse and can win away." They can do that.
Team line-ups Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Taylor, Barritt, Strettle; Hodgson, Wigglesworth; M Vunipola, Brits, Stevens, Borthwick, Kruis, B Vunipola, Brown, Joubert.
Replacements: Wyles for Taylor (52), Farrell for Hodgson (59), de Kock for Wigglesworth (50), Barrington for M. Vunipola (55), George for Brits (50), Johnston for Stevens (50), Hargreaves for Kruis (58), Wray for Brown (63). Hodgson returned for Farrell.
Connacht: Duffy; Carr, Henshaw, E Griffin, Healy; Parks, Marmion; Wilkinson, Henry, White, Swift, Clarke, Browne, Heenan, Muldoon.
Replacements: O'Donohoe for Carr (63), Carty for Parks (50), Buckley for Wilkinson (41), D. Leader for Henry (59), Ah You for White (50), Kearney for Swift (50), Naoupu for Heenan (59). Not Used: Harris-Wright. Sin Bin: White (38).
Att: 10,000 Ref: Leighton Hodges (Wales)
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Stumbleupon19/01/2014 19:11
Thanks to innings for the write-up. Apparently all 4 games he's done have been won by a big margin so I vote he does them all now until the end of the season!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014:01:27:11:11:07 by TonyTaff.
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
Whilst admiring their courage, I did find it somewhat distressing.
Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade
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