By No.13
September 19 2005

No.13 reports on Saracens' trip to Sixways, home of the Worcester Warriors and apparent host of "the 1 pointer". Sixways is a great ground to visit and Worcester supporters were very friendly and welcoming. The sun was shining and all seemed set for a good game and a good day out. Rugby Times had us to win by 3 points. I suspect most of us travelling up to Worcester were a little more confident than that after last Sunday’s performance against Leeds and after the way our forwards had pushed Wasps scrum around at Twickenham.

The feel good factor started to fade when Cobus Visage did not appear in the warm up. We counted the Saracens players on the pitch and there were 23 (Kyran had come to help in the warm up) so Cobus was not waiting in the changing rooms. Teams were announced and we had Yates, Lloyd and Broster as our three props. We all knew that Worcester would take us on up front so this was bad news. Cobus has been hugely influential in the turn around in our performance since the middle of last season. Not only is he very good himself but he seems to give the rest of the forwards greater confidence.

Worcester kicked-off. They ran at us from all directions, aggressively and effectively. Our defence stood up to a fierce attack. They forced two penalties which Drahm, surprisingly, missed. Glen Jackson also missed his first penalty attempt. After about 15 minutes we started to get into the game. Richard Haughton picked up the ball from a Worcester scrum and ran half the length of the pitch. From the breakdown Glen Jackson put in a well placed cross kick which Dan Scarbrough collected to score the first of our tries in the corner. Our backs were looking pretty sharp and we started feel we were back in the game.

Then something happened on the far touch-line. Most of us were seated too far away to see but Kris Chesney got sin-binned as well as Alan Dickens and Worcester hooker Van Niekerk. We were down to 13 men with Kevin Sorrell moving to scrum half. Worcester got a scrum close to our line. When it broke up referee Dave Pearson ran under the posts to signal a penalty try. Pearson had a reasonable game overall but this was a complete over-reaction. It was far from clear that Worcester would have scored. They had lost one forward too, so a push over try was not a certainty. Still, 7-5 to Worcester. We came back aggressively, passing the ball around between backs and forwards. Ben Broster spotted a gap and almost got through but managed to off-load the ball to Jackson, on to Castaignede and Haughton ran in for another excellent try. Jackson converted. Before half-time Drahm kicked a penalty to keep Worcester in the game and we went in with a lead of 10-12.

Word went around at half time that Chesney had indeed triggered the incident on the far touch-line, in front of the linesman and referee and the press box. It sounded like a silly and unnecessary thing to do. Shortly after the incident we saw the first of a number of changes in our front row. For no obvious reason at that stage of the game Yates was taken off to be replaced by Lloyd.

We started the second half well. Our forwards were getting a grip on the game and the backs were attacking or counter-attacking dangerously. Castaignede at centre and Scarbrough at full back were threatening each time they got the ball and Haughton and Bailey were putting in some good runs. Castaignede got the third try and things were looking good. Worcester had still not crossed our line but they were competing strongly and, following an excellent phase of play, Drew Hickie scored in the corner.

We were getting into the final quarter and Worcester forwards were putting on some pressure. Ben Broster went off injured and Yates returned to the front row but only for a short while before he left the field injured. Taine Randell came on and with only one experienced prop on our side, scrums were uncontested. We took Lloyd off and replaced him with Ben Russell. A few Worcester supporters in the crowd suggested that this might be in our interest but that did not prove to be the case. Worcester kept the ball in the forwards and drove rolling maul after rolling maul towards our line. In situations like this you realise props do more that hold up the scrum. As we struggled to keep control, Worcester got a penalty and took the lead with about 10 min left on the clock.

We were still in the game and somehow we got the ball to the backs and with an excellent long pass from Castaignede, Scarborough ran in for his second try. We thought we were there at 18-24, but the Worcester forwards continued their drives and became increasingly difficult to stop. They made it about 3 or 4 minutes into injury time. Game over.

Without doubt, this had been an unbelievably exciting, nail-biting, game. How did we lose it with our four excellent tries versus the two they got for crossing our line? Well, Worcester has a much stronger team than last year. Their forwards had the edge over ours on the day. We did not control either the scrums or the line-outs and struggled to deal with their rolling mauls, so we failed to close the game down when we needed to. The merry-go-round substitutions of the front row did not make much sense either. Obviously, the penalty try did not help (do we blame the referee or Chesney?). Glen Jackson had a pretty good game in open play but we need to convert our tries and kick our penalties to open up a bigger gap in score line earlier in the game.

It is always disappointing travelling back after a game we should have won but congratulations to Worcester on an effective game plan well-executed and thanks to the Worcester supporters for a warm welcome.

SCORERS: Worcester: Tries: Penalty (28min), Hickey (50), Windo (80+3). Conversions: Drahm 2. Penalty goals: Drahm 2 (40+2, 68). Saracens: Tries: Scarbrough 2 (18, 74), Haughton (31), Castaignède (44). Conversions: Jackson 2.

SCORING SEQUENCE (Worcester first): 0-5, 7-5, 7-12, 10-12 (half-time), 10-17, 15-17, 18-17, 18-24, 25-24.

WORCESTER: N Le Roux; J Hylton, D Rasmussen, T Lombard (rep: G Trueman, 73), B Hinshelwood; S Drahm, A Gomersall (rep: M Powell, 58); T Windo, A van Niekerk (sin-bin, 24-34; rep: C Fortey, 58), C Horsman (rep: T Taumoepeau, 80+2), P Murphy (rep: T Collier, 62), C Gillies, S Vaili (rep: C Fortey, 28-35), P Sanderson, D Hickey.

SARACENS: D Scarbrough; R Haughton, T Castaignède, K Sorrell, P Bailey; G Jackson, A Dickens (sin-bin, 24-34; rep: M Rauluni 3-5, 68); K Yates (rep: N Lloyd, 29), S Byrne (rep: M Cairns, 59), B Broster (rep: K Yates, 52; rep: T Randell, 59), K Chesney (sin-bin: 24-34; rep: B T Russell, 62), H Vyvyan, A Sanderson, D Seymour, B Skirving.

Referee: D Pearson.

Attendance: 9,140.