Saracens
Match reports - 7s at the Stoop
Summer rugby
By Gryff
July 21 2010
So a break in the oasis of live rugby in the summer arranged by our friends at JP Morgan a new 7's tournament with Sarries in a group with the other 3 "London" clubs being played on consecutive Friday nights with a final in a month in Bath.
Early start Saturday morning so only way to go seemed to be to drive and face the dreaded Friday night traffic. An early start was made with the intention of stopping on way at a favoured restaurant for early eats and beating most of the jams. The traffic was fine what didn't work out was the restaurant who were on a restricted menu until 6 too late for us. We decided to push on to Twickenham and try to eat there. For years we have driven to Twickenham passing Marvellous Marvin's Fish & Chip shop and today it was open and was indeed marvellous!! The end result was that we got to Quins quite early and got a space in their gravel car park that was quite full. The tickets said gates at 6.30 but seeing people trouping in we thought we'd join them only to find that you needed a JP Morgan pass to join the corporate jollies. At 6.30 ish we trotted in and took a seat in the Etihad Stand near half way and some other Sarries supporters. The stand filled quite quickly whilst the stand opposite had a smattering of Corporate types! It was quite strange to have a group of Quins supporters in front, Irish family behind and some medical students in disguise but favouring Wasps, at least at start of evening next to us. A lot of initial talk about the strength of the Sarries squad as the first 10 names out of the squad of 12 all had representative honours. This ignored that it was U18 and U20s with Barrett, Mordt and Cato having England 7s experience. Looking at the other squads there were a few names such as Ryan Lamb, Andy Gomershall, Simon Keogh and a smattering of representative honours but nowhere as widespread as Sarries. Was this indicative of the strength of the Sarries Academy and Squad or purely that the other squads were not trying as hard? The pre match entertainment struggled to be entertaining - a race between supporters in giant balls and a tribute act called Almost Pink shouting her way through some songs! The announcer had been briefed to the buzz words for the evening of "inspiring rugby" - must have been on piece work the number of times used. There were some moans that the main bars were either not open or shut to Corporate but the queues weren't that bad, Mt Tom did well though [I have no idea what this means, either. Ed] it was a bit bizarre that the bar was one end of the stand and the food the other! A nice crowd had built probably more than expected and the sun was shining and the atmosphere was good; ready for the rugby. First match up was Quins against Wasps with Quins running out winners 15-5 looking quite in control and Chris York a large unit, usually number 8, standing out. Noticeable was the apparent random snatch of music being played for each score. Next up: Sarries v Irish. Lots of excitement from the Irish supporters behind at the appearance of a baby Armitage, Guy this time. The Sarries team looked strong and they clearly were looking to control the game playing Barrett and Luke Baldwin together as well as Nils Mordt and so it transpired Sarries swiftly took control with Barrett directing and Jackson Wray soon scoring in the far corner. Almost immediately a superb pass from Barrett put Wray back in to almost the same spot. Next came a superb individual effort from Barrett from a scrum 5 metres from touch. 40 metres out, he dummied and sped down the blindside to score. A real turn of pace! Two more tries in the second half to Mordt and Owen Farrell with the final score of 29-0 and much muttering amongst the crowd at the strength of the Sarries squad. Annoying to the other supporters Stand Up was played for every score with mutterings of why not The Mighty Quinn etc I suspect this was just good organisation by Edward and his team as opposed to some of the more bizarre suggestions being made. A short, about 10 minute, interlude with more entertainment and Sarries were back on against Quins not much rest but virtually the same start team trotted out with Jamie Hearn in place of the triallist Dave Vincent. Quins opened strongly dominating possession but the Sarries defence held firm and was to be a feature of the night. Virtually Sarries first possession 2 minutes in saw a sweeping attack result in good score for George Kruis - queue Stand Up! Barrett again showed his class kicking on from halfway and winning the footrace despite the very shallow in goal area! More of that song! Another score for George Kruis, finished well, ended the Sarries scoring before Sarries' line was finally breeched for a final score of 21 - 5 and Sarries through to the finals. Next two matches saw losses for London Irish and much muttering from the family behind though increasingly humorously. Wasps four try bonus point meant that the final match between Sarries and Wasps could be the pool decider as another 5 point win would see Sarries overtaken. Despite that Sarries sent out a changed team with no Barrett, Mordt or Cato in starting line up. It was business as usual for Sarries though with Kruis rounding off a great move and Sharp showing a great step to dance over from close range after the Sarries defence had pinned Wasps on their line. Luke Baldwin finished the Sarries scoring racing in from his own 22 to calls of "use the force Luke" from the crowd. Two late consolation tries for Wasps made the final score 19 - 10. Sarries had qualified well for the finals and look the team to beat. Even the other team supporters admired the skill set on show and the Quins supporters in front became very chatty explaining how he loved to see any "London" team win at Welford road, how he goes to every Premiership Final and thought ours was one of the best and that we could go all the way this time predicting a Bath v Sarries final. The med students beside us were singing away to Stand Up by the end of the evening. Have to say it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening made easier by Sarries taking it a bit more seriously than the other teams. It will be interesting to see what Tigers, Saints, bath et al do now. First piece of silverware in the cupboard as Regional J P Morgan 7s champions and the winning habit certainly doesn't hurt. Barrett showed he is a class act at 7s and it would be interesting how he might fare in the first team. Kruis and Wray had strong showings but overall it was a team performance. I saw the summary on ESPN where Peter Richards suggested we could strengthen or squad further for final but as Cato pointed out the squad is in France that weekend so we will have to wait and see.
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Stumbleupon21/07/2010 12:46
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010:08:06:12:09:15 by Kat..
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
I paticularly LOVE the Mr Tom's at The Stoop because one of them tried to ID me last year.
If Gryff hadn't written the article in Welsh before putting it through babelfish, I might have had a chance of deciphering what was meant
What we need are publishers more in tune with yoof culture
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
(couldn't find a dragon, daffodil or leek smiley what is sportnetwork coming too!)
and just for you
Is fearr liom beoir
He was included in the squad but failed to make the scoresheet
Should this be a bit of a concern; he may of course have been playing in the sweeper role and therefore unlikely to score
It's good to read about rugby instead of all this tedious TdF nonsense
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