By Innings
December 18 2023

This was not a game that most will have expected Sarries to lose.  Connacht are seen by many as the impoverished cousins in the shadow of the three more storied Ireland clubs in the URC. They have less stardust of their own to sprinkle around.  However, with Bundee Aki as the highest profile of their back division and Finlay Bealham with profile in the front row, they have at least two of the high-achievers around which ambitious squads can be built.  They would certainly arrive at the Stonex with a degree of urgency that promised risks, mistakes and rewards, the latter not least for their own supporters and the Sarries faithful.  However, few sides arrive in that patch of North London with high confidence.  (Saints do of course, they have the most respectable record playing there, notching up, if I understand correctly, a third of all the wins achieved by visitors.)

It would be easy to look at Sarries injury list, with perhaps six of the squad who would have been looking to start this game unavailable.  However, in team sport one player’s disappointment is another opportunity. 

Connacht kicked off, and treated us to the collector’s item of a catch fluffed by Theo McFarland.  It should have given Connacht an early attacking platform, but French referee M. Luc Ramos deemed that the scrum half delayed the put-in needlessly and Owen’s clearing kick removed the immediate threat.  Actually, it did a lot more than that, because Sarries dominated for the next five minutes, ending when excellent distribution delivered the ball to Juan-Martin Gonzalez, hovering on the right wing.  With thirty metres to cover, and only three Connacht players attached to his person at any time, it should never have been close to a score, but J-M has clearly not been studying probabilities properly, and he twisted and turned, always maintaining his forward movement, to touch down.  It would not be an easy conversion, but Owen is not wearing his best boots these days, and the conversion was, as they say at the fairground “Close, but no coconut.”  5-0

Connacht came back within five minutes.  Jamie’s uncharacteristically very crooked throw gave a scrum, where Mako was found to be doing something, or not doing something, who can tell with scrums?  Connacht ten, Jack Carty, in his 200^th appearance for the club, who had a good game throughout, places a peach right onto the five-metre line, from where a drive for the line gives Bundee Aki a score from the fall to the line.  I believe that hookers, in particular, see this sort of behaviour by backs as an affront to the established trades union rules, but Carty completes the phase with the conversion.  5-7.  It was bound to be noted by many that the site of Owen complaining to the referee about Connacht’s excessive celebration at this moment was delightful irony.

For some several minutes we were treated to much huff and puff from the wolf-pack, but no houses were blown down.  The effort told on the visitors, and M. Ramos was to offer Owen the choice of two penalties, one being effectively an easy shot at goal, with the other a good chance of perfect line-out position.  A little nerve-steadier proved a good decision.  8-7. 

Once again, Connacht came back strongly. I think it was Sean Maitland who was caught out by a tricky tussle, that gave Connacht a penalty.  Another line-out, twelve phases of pick-and-go, ending with a try, converted by Carty.  8-14.

It is clear that Owen is running on high emotional octane fuel, and within just a couple of moments, Shayne Bolton’s tiny push on an already heavily brought-down Owen leads to a disproportionate response.  Owen simply cannot help himself as he turns a minor, and deliberate wind-up into an easy penalty for Carty to convert.  8-17. The grin on Bolton’s face is enough to confirm that Owen has fallen for a very simple piece of cheese in a very ordinary mouse-trap. 

From the restart, a loose gather knocks the ball forward, where an off-side player seeks to recover the situation.  The penalty gives a good line-out position, but the ensuing maul is a lottery, and the scrum is for Connacht.  They concede a penalty, Sarris pick and go, Connacht offend, Owen goes back to the corner, and this time the maul has some real commitment, giving Jamie a comfortable ride to the line.  Owen is still wearing the non-kicking footwear, and another two points are left on the shelf.  13-17.

Half an hour has gone, actually rather quickly, which suggest that I am being entertained by the ebb and flow of the game. With ten minutes remaining, it would be better if Sarries could get something to close the gap. The players think so as well, and a penalty given away by Connacht under pressure after a tackle brings another three points, 16-17, but as Connacht are thinking of half-time, they fluff their lines on the re-start, give a penalty for Owen to place in the corner.  Another drive with attitude, and Jamie emerges again, with his second for the day. Conversion missed again, but half-time with the score 21-17 is a satisfactory result.  A fair few Connacht players are noticeably tiring already.  As has so often been the case at the Stonex, energy spent in keeping Sarries in the first forty can be missed later.

The second half begins with the sort of raised tempo that we had seen just before the break.  Pressure on the Connacht line is looking hopeful.  In fact it is Alex Goode, perhaps twenty metres from the line who is sitting at first receiver.  Owen, next in line is gesturing, suggesting a pass wide.  Connacht defence half-checks, Alex threads a little grubber through, and the inevitable score could have come from either Nick Tompkins or Ollie Hartley. There is no reason why either could not have scores, but Nick saw that Ollie had the better opportunity to gather and did not get in the way.  28-17 is a lot better-looking than 13-17 fifteen playing-minutes ago. 

In the next meaningful moments, Jamie, perhaps frustrated that a centre, albeit a Connacht one, has scored a drive-over try, seizes a loose pass, and makes a break to make most centres’ highlights reels.  He has slowed a trifle, allowing support to arrive, so when he’s tackled, Cian Prendergast is inevitably caught with hands over the ball.  Given the lack of other Connacht defence and the blatant show of the offence, he is bound for a yellow card.  Directly in front of the posts, Owen is given, and takes an easy three points.  31-17.

Sarries are running hot now.  Within four minutes, again threatening the line, quick ball from a breakdown arrives with Owen.  He delays revealing his choice for just the tiny moment that cause defences to hesitate, and then fires a perfect pass to Sean Maitland, lurking somewhere in the next parish.  Sean has some little to do, but the improbability of a very late 23 metres pass, that could possibly have been intercepted by two Connacht players, was the difference between a try and being bundled into touch.  Good conversion from wide out.  38-17

Within two minutes, one of the Sarries benchmen, Ivan van Zyl, replacing Aled Davies, has turned over a loose ball, getting it wide to Lucio Cinti.  The latter has been industrious in defence, but given limited opportunity to show anything in attack.  He makes no mistake, and if his marginally larger Argentinian colleague can score from thirty metres out, with Connacht players hanging onto his coattails, why should he not?  Big, very quick and with great running angles, of course he scores. Right in the corner, it’s another tough attempt for Owen, not successful.  43-17

Yet again, Connacht reply.  They need to, the Prendergast yellow card period has cost 15 points.  A frenetic period of two or three minutes sees Bundee Aki involved three crucial times, and the whole ends with a well-worked, and well-finished try for JJ Hanrahan. Carty is missing little, and not this one.  43-24 

Pleased by this score, Connacht are slightly in celebration mode, and we see yet another little threaded grubber, this time by Nick Tompkins, again followed through by Ollie, again converted by Owen.  50-24.

We still have about fifteen minutes to go, and Connacht may not expect to win but a try BP is on the cards.  If they could get that, the target of an LBP might also be achievable.  They arrive at the line, are threatening, but Sarries relax, celebrating an apparent turnover.  M. Ramos is unmoved, the celebratory cake turns to ashes in the mouth as Connacht’s Joe Joyce takes advantage of the switch-off to score.  50-29

As might be expected in this topsy-turvy game, Sarries respond yet again, this time forcing another penalty from the restart.  Kick to the corner, drive to the line, and this time it is to the credit of replacement hooker Theo Dan.  Owen misses the conversion again, his fifth miss of eleven shots today.  55-29

The last seven minutes should have been routine for Sarries,  the job’s done, shut up shop and take the points.  A blocked running line as Alex Lewington chases up his own kick looks very similar to one that cost Alex Goode a yellow card last week, but this one attracts no sanction.

Eighty minutes, the gong has gone.  Sarries have a scrum, so can win the feed, kick the ball out and be done.  I cannot fathom the headless decision to try for an eighth try, when clearly half the team is not expecting it to be attempted.  Inevitably JJ Hanrahan takes an intercept pass, and puts Prendergast into a gap for a closing score, converted.   55-36 is not unsatisfactory, but it could and should, have been 55-29. 

What does this mean for the pool?  Four of the six sides have played two, won one and lost one.  Bordeaux-Bégles are clearly not messing around, but we know that travelling to Pretoria’s Bulls is no picnic.  Both sides have to see it a must-win, often not a happy mind-set for French teams on the road.  Sarries then have the journey to Bordeaux, which won’t be easy if Bordeaux are on a three-from-three record.  I do regret the decision that means the traditional home and away round robin format has gone.  Why can we not hope to see the B-B and Bulls at our gaff?

It seems to me that Sarries have mended a lot of what was wrong in the losses this season thus far.  I like the added dimensions to the backs’ play, and have high hopes of Cinti, Hartley and Parton.  I hope that the last, in particular will be fitted into the squad.  J-M Gonzalez is a force of nature and must be persuaded to stay on after this season.

Many of our old guard are approaching the time to look elsewhere, but I seem to see many of the replacements whom we may yet appreciate for the years to come.

Saracens: Goode; Cinti Luna, Tompkins, Hartley, Maitland; Farrell, Davies; M Vunipola, George, Clarey, Itoje, McFarland, Gonzalez, Christie, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Dan, West, Mulipola, Tizard, Knight, Van Zyl, Parton, Lewington.

Connacht: Porch; Ralston, Farrell, Aki, Bolton; Carty, Blade; Duggan, Heffernan, Aungier, D Murray, Thornbury, Prendergast, Oliver, Boyle.

Replacements: Tierney-Martin, Buckley, Bealham, Joyce, Butler, McDonald, Hanrahan, Kilgallen.

Referee: Luc Ramos (FFR)