By Rupert Thacker
September 19 2004

Saracens made the long journey home from Stockport on Friday night with not even a losing bonus point, an undeserved return from what was a curate’s egg of a performance from the Men in White. Sporting their new all-white kit (red socks, for the connoisseur), Saracens lost the game in the first four minutes. From kick-off, Sale recycled the ball, a chip kick from Hodgson to Cueto and he was given a clear run-in from 22m once both Messers Scarborough and Kydd had failed to challenge properly to collect the kick. Three minutes later, more Sale possession led to the ball being swung left and Cueto again was given an unopposed run in to make it 10-0. Fortunately, Hodgson pulled and pushed the respective conversions wide of the posts. Whether Domino’s sponsored these 5 minutes is not known.

The rest of the game followed a pattern, with Saracens dominating the possession but being unable to do anything with it. Forays deep into the Sale half brought a drop goal from Mark Bartholomeusz and a penalty from Nicky Little (on for Bart, who took an ankle knock following a huge tackle from Chabal), but indiscretions for offside and ill-discipline gave Sale two penalties of their own to make it 16-6 at half time.

The second half was great if you were a forward at heart, poor if you were a back. It is no exaggeration to say that Sale were in our half twice – that’s all. Trouble was that they came away with 3 points each time and Hodgson rubbed salt into the wound with an injury time penalty to put the losing bonus point of out Sarries' reach. Three more penalties from Nicky were all we had to show for almost complete domination of the possession. 25-15, no bonus point and a long drive home.

So what went wrong? Two things – firstly, we failed to show up for the first five minutes of mayhem. 10-0 down after that time in a ZP game makes it very hard to change the game around. Fair play to Sale, they were up for it and caught us completely cold. Even after that start, we defended well and Sale never looked like scoring a try again.

Secondly, we still seem to have limited offerings in the backline. No doubt, our backline is full of individual talent – but for whatever reason, we seem laboured, predictable and in need of a cutting edge when working as a group. When you have as much possession and dominate a game like we did, to not even threaten the opposition try line once is almost criminal. This is something the coaches will need to work on hard this week, as a frustrating season of close losses beckons without this being addressed now. Sale defended well (CR Jones and Chabal put in some serious hits) but we should still have had the guile to at least create opportunities.

PS - an injury note; Cobus was helped off with about 10 minutes with what looked like a serious groin problem. All pray together now…..

Team : Kydd, Haughton, Johnston, Sorrell, Scarbrough, Bartholomeusz (Little 25), Bracken (Williams 65), Yates, Cairns (Ibanfez, 55), Visagie (Lloyd, 70), Raiwalui (Chesney, 60), Fullarton, Randell, Hill (Seymour, 55), Vyvyan.