By The Saracens
May 2 2022

Sarries travelled to Sixways knowing that a five point victory over struggling Worcester Warriors would give them one foot and 4 toes into a home semi-final. Northampton’s heroic win over Quins on Friday night meant that an 8 point gap would be created at the end of hostilities with just 2 games remaining. Sarries’ points difference is so good that in effect just 2 points would need to be garnered from the 2 remaining fixtures (home to Saints & away to Gloucester) to ensure another game at StoneX: and that assumes Quins taking 5 points from their 2 remaining games, (home to Gloucester & away to Exeter). So a great chance to almost put that one to bed and concentrate on Europe for a couple of weeks, all being well. 

MMc currently has the luxury of selecting from strength. Even without Maro, who was still not quite over his knee injury, and Loz who seems to have mysteriously disappeared, there was plenty to choose from and the luxury of giving arguably the player of the month for April, Alex Goode, a week off. It was all coming nicely to the boil for a big end to the season. Billy was making his 150^th appearance for the club. Wuss welcomed Matt Kvesic back after 7 weeks. Having played (and won) a Premiership Cup semi-final just 3 days ago, Wuss could be forgiven for taking their eye off the Premiership ball a bit.

Sixways was basking in the spring sunshine and a decent crowd was there to welcome both sides. Faz set Elliot Daly up for a lovely break into the Wuss 22 but his pass to Maitland was a poor one. Sarries were back on the offensive from a 5m lineout when quick ball from George put first Segun then Earl almost through before Faz and Koch played basketball and Malins dodged a couple of Wuss defenders and scored with less than 5 minutes played. Faz added the extras. It was all Sarries and McFarland could have scored a 2nd but Daly’s pass was just forward. Finn Smith took 3 back after Earl was penalised for an off the ball tackle. The respite was temporary when Wuss overthrew a lineout which was gratefully received by Ben Earl and there was no stopping him scoring his 8th try of the season from the half way line. Faz missed a tricky conversion.

Seward dropped the restart and Sarries won a penalty from the scrum. It was eminently kickable but Faz plonked it in the corner. The inevitable maul was well defended initially but the ball squirted out the back and Davies found Tompkins who set Segun alight for the short trip round the corner to score a 3rd try in the first quarter. Faz missed again from an almost identical position.

Wuss finally got their hands on the ball for a few phases but Sarries defended well. Christian Judge, hotly rumoured to be returning to North London, was putting himself about a bit. Wuss couldn’t break down the Sarries defence though and in the end Smith took the 3 on offer.

Jackson Wray came on for a Christie HIA (Christie didn’t return). Sarries did enough to frustrate a Worcester team lacking much in the way of penetration without themselves getting out of 2nd gear (except for Tompkins who was doing a Stonewall Jackson and allowing nothing to pass). Eventually Jamie George appeared with the ball, made a break then kicked ahead only to land a most improbable 50:22. He was probably as surprised as anyone but presumably he was blowing so much that his lineout then went astray.

Sarries continued to be profligate with penalties but Worcester struggled to take advantage, making too many schoolboy errors. Sarries seemed a bit hard done by when referee Anthony Woodthorpe called penalty advantage over, after less than 30 seconds, when the ball was kicked into touch. Maybe he thought it was a knock on advantage which would have been more appropriate. This led to another Wuss penalty and another 3 points. A superb kick from Daly gave Sarries an attacking maul as the clock went red. Segun looked to have scored but was just held up and the half time score was 9-17, flattering to Wuss but you felt Sarries had plenty in the tank.

The bonus point try wasn’t long coming when a kick pass from Faz set Tompkins off. Daly found Malins with a lovely cut out pass and there was no stopping him. Faz made it 3rd time lucky and Sarries were now leading 24-9.

Sarries toyed with their opponents, rather wasting a superb long touch finding penalty from Daly. It was time for some changes with Baz replacing Mawi and a whole host of replacements for the home team. McFarland seemed to have scored when Wuss took a quick throw which McFarland caught but was deemed offside. It was all a bit muddled really. Wuss hadn’t formed their lineout and no one had any idea about numbers but Mr Woodthorpe and the TMO made the call. Fortunately on a day Ike this it wasn’t really going to matter.

Callum Hunter Hill replaced Wray, Maitland and Segun combined well and almost made it but in the end Daly threw an inch perfect looping pass for Malins outside him and Malins did his stuff perfectly for his hat trick. Faz converted and Taylor replaced Maitland. Wuss replaced their front row

Faz made up for a dodgy drop in his own 22 with a superb clearance to touch. Wuss got marched forward 10m for backchat (so it’s not just Sarries) and Clarey and Van Zyl replaced Koch and Davies. Into the last quarter and Sarries messed up another lineout (OK it didn’t matter today but they have to sort this for the weeks ahead). Taylor’s pass went astray when Malins would have been in. Then Malins was culpable when his pass to Segun was less than perfect. No doubt it’s hard to retain concentration in one-sides games like these. Jamie George took his leave for Pifeleti. Billy tried an intercept which was a certain try if he’d hung on to it. Manu replaced Faz (a sure sign MMc was happy with the situation). Manu’s first action was a delayed pass which allowed Malins to run on to the ball from deep and no one was going to stop him from scoring his 4th try of the game. Manu added the extras. The game was dead and buried so it was probably not surprising Sarries switched off a tad and allowed Wuss a consolation try through Tom Howe although it won’t stop MMc from being livid.

The match ended with the score 16-38. Sarries scored 6 tries, barely breaking sweat. Tompkins was superb as were the ‘Bristol Boys’ Earl & Malins (who had to be man of the match with 4 tries). No wonder Brizz are missing them so much but their loss is Sarries’ gain. Earl looked to have a bit of a sore knee - hopefully nothing serious as he’s really on song right now and we can’t afford to lose him. Malins has 15 tries in the Premiership this season and is now ahead of George McGuigan (Ben Earl is on a not so shoddy 8 – for the nerds among us, 26% of Sarries’ Premiership tries this season have their origins in Bristol!).

So the Premiership now takes a break for a couple of weeks and thoughts turn back to Europe and a trip to Kingsholm on Friday night. Team selection will be interesting and tell us much about Sarries’ ambitions for the rest of the season.

A home semi-final has been almost secured. Just a couple more points needed to be absolutely certain but home or away, I doubt if any of the other clubs will relish playing Sarries.

And finally how pleasant to watch the game on PTV. What a breath of fresh air are Flats (and in this instance Shillcock): inciteful, unbiased, informative, amusing commentary. LOL and co could learn a lot from these guys.

WORCESTER

Heward, Humphreys, Morris (Beck), Venter, Howe, Smith (Searle), Simpson (Chudley); Sutherland (Waller), Annett (Miller), Judge (McCallum), Batley (A Kitchener), G Kitchener, Hatherell, Hill, Kvesic (Lewis)

SARACENS

Malins, Segun, Daly, Tompkins, Maitland (Taylor), Farrell (M Vunipola), Davies (Van Zyl); Mawi (Barrington), George (Pifeleti), Koch (Clarey), Isiekwe, McFarland, Christie (Wray) (Hunetr-Hill), B Vunipola

SCORERS:

Worcester (16): Try Howe, Conv Searle, Pen (3) Smith

Saracens: (38): Tries: Malins (4) Earl, Segun; Conv: Farrell (3), M Vunipola

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe