By Rupert Thacker
May 8 2005

Saracens advanced to the Wildcard Final on Friday evening, overcoming Worcester 28-10 by scoring three tries to one in a scrappy game at Vicarage Road. I'd love to describe the first 5 minutes, but I can't as I was late - the faces on the assembled Fez implied that I'd missed nothing though, in fact one suggested that I'd done well to arrive late. The only discussion point was as to who was wearing more fake tan, the Starlites or Steve Lander.

And the rest of the first half that I did see was, at best, average fare. Both sides were error prone and, although Saracens were starting to get the upper hand at scrum time, this was negated by a return to the old failings at the lineout of a lack of control and therefore little quality ball.

The first points were from a Nicky Little penalty in the 15th minute, Tommy Hayes having already shanked one wide for the Warriors. All the running from the Saracens backs was lateral, Worcester had little ball to demonstrate whether or not they could run in a straight line, Steve Lander kept blowing his whistle for whatever he saw at the time - a smaller-than-expected crowd were getting bored. And then, on 35 minutes, salvation in the form of a try from Kevin Sorrell; the Warriors turned the ball over 35m from their own line, it was taken on by Mosese Rauluni, recycled quickly and, finally, a back took a straight line to score the try. Another Little penalty made it 11-0 at half time.

With uncontested scrums now a feature of the game, the second half was a strange affair. It was never edge of the seat stuff, it was never really in doubt as to who was going to win the game, but there were moments when Sarries threw it around as if it were a 7s Festival rather than a knockout game to enter next season's European Cup.

Worcester were accomodating visitors, happily turning over ball on a regular basis. From one of these turnovers came Saracens second try - Iain Fullarton scooping up the ball to fall over the line and provide Glen Jackson with the opportunity to show the faithful how to kick a touchline conversion.

Seven minutes later, another turnover, another try. This time, a 75m movement featuring Ben Skirving, MTC and some quality recycling gave Ben Johnston a clear path to the posts - simple conversion and game over at 28-3. A late gift for Worcester in the form of a Tommy Hayes try made the final score 28-10 but there was never any doubt that Saracens were going to be victorious. In truth, however, a step down on the performance levels of the past few weeks and the level will need to be raised for the next and final game.

Before we turn our attention to Twickenham though, a word for the Worcester supporters, who were a credit to their club. Loud, even when it was a lost cause, supportive and obviously enjoying themselves - it's a shame that their team couldn't provide them with the type of performance they deserved having traipsed to Watford on a Friday evening.

And so to Twickenham to play either Gloucester or Newcastle Falcons for a place in next year's European Cup. It should be a good day out, see you there!

Saracens
Tries: Sorrell, Fullarton, Johnston.
Cons: Jackson 2.
Pens: Little 2, Jackson.
Team: Castaignede, Johnston, Sorrell, Harris (Bartholomeusz 65), Vaikona, Little (Jackson 48), Rauluni (Bracken 59); Lloyd (Randell 55), Cairns (Ibanez 48 ), Visagie (Yates 31), Raiwalui (Chesney 43), Fullarton, Skirving, Hill, Vyvyan.

Worcester
Tries: Hayes.
Cons: Hayes.
Pens: Hayes.
Team: Delport, Pieters (Sampson 43), Hayes, Lombard, Hinshelwood, Brown (O'Leary 50), Powell (Cole 63); Windo, Van Niekerk ( Vaili 55), Lyman (Sparks 16), Blaze, Gillies, Mason, Sanderson (c), Hickey.

Att: 5,168