Sospan Fach

By Sully08
January 18 2017

After the drama and undeniable spirit not to lose last week we all headed down the M4 for round 5 of the champions cup v Scarlets. Coming back to draw like that with 14 men doesn't happen every week - does it? 

Already down a number of high profile players, late withdrawals from Sean Maitland (wife in labour) and Chris Wyles (hamstring) saw Nathan Earle start on the left wing and Matt Gallagher come onto the bench. 

Early Scarlets pressure was not rewarded due to an early penalty miss and then their captain Owens just lost control at the line and the first of a few lengthy TMO discussions finally got the game going again at 0-0. After 10 minutes Figallo who struggled to get the right side of the ref all game was penalised at the scrum and Dan Jones stepped up to kick the first of three successful penalties in the first half. 

Soon after the restart a Sarries penalty was kicked to the corner but Scarlets defended the initial onslaught before a second attack down the left wing saw Wiggy find Lozowski who skillfully flicked the ball onto Nathan Earle to score in the corner. This was finally confirmed following another lengthy TMO discussion on whether the flick was forward or not (despite the stadium announcer already calling the try!). Our own captain Owen missed a tough kick from the touchline in a swirling wind but at 5-3 we were hopefully well set. 

However the remainder of the first half saw a succession of turnovers mainly against Saracens at the breakdown. Brits in particular seemed to fall foul of Scarlets tactics to target the breakdown. Although Maro Itoje did make an important turnover of his own in front of our posts to relieve one period of Scarletts pressure. 

After 28 minutes the TMO came into play for a third time following a highish tackle by Nick Tompkins. After much deliberation a penalty and talking to seemed the right sanction. The rest of the half saw more penalties for Scarlets and one exceptional tackle by Wiggy with Dan Jones scoring his third penalty following unintentional offside by Brits and the half ended with Farrell missing another penalty given for Barclay coming off his feet (again). 9:5 at half time and clearly some work to reduce turnovers in the second half. 

However the second half didn’t start well with Brits turned over again, Ashton knocking on just outside the 22 and Figallo penalised for bringing down the scrum. Jones slotted the kick and at 12:5 down it was looking like a tough day in the office. 

Step forward Burger who supported by Farrell made some go forward fast ball and Lozowski’s run and inside pass found Ashton to finish and with Farrell’s conversion we were back all square. 

Back came Scarlets and after a line out on the 5 yard line a few drives were contained before a miss pass from Aled Davies to Scott Williams exposed a large gap in our defence for the no 12 to touch down under the posts. 

Both sides were emptying their benches now and Skelton on for Rhodes gave the TMO more work to do when he was stopped just before the line. However the overhead shot suggested he had just made the line. However no try was the decision and following a knock on Sarries were to be frustrated yet again. 

With a seven point lead a drop goal attempt after 70 minutes by Dan Jones was missed and from the 22 Spencer made a swift run into their 22 leading to a penalty for offside that Farrell slotted (just) to make the score 19:15. 

After 73 minutes a late tackle by Kock on, Sarries bound, Liam Williams saw Jones slot his fifth penalty and a losing bonus point seemed all we could hope for at this late stage. Further set back followed when Skelton was yellow carded for a flick to the face to their number 7 who certainly made the most of the incident 

So for a second week running Saracens down to 14 needed a converted try to draw the match. Step forward Owen Farrell who made a couple of line breaks selling a dummy or two before releasing Chris Ashton off his shoulder to finish under the posts with nearly 82 minutes gone. Having won the ball back with a minute to go that last 3 minutes Saracens demonstrated yet again why they are Champions and left us celebrating a second successive draw. 

Scarlets will no doubt feel they deserved more from the game but credit Saracens for their amazing ability to refuse to lie down and accept defeat. 20 points in the Pool means we have qualified for the quarter finals but we will need a win against Toulon next week if we want the chance to host a quarter final in April. And with Toulon needing a win to qualify it should be a classic battle of attrition in front of a full house next week. 

Saracens team 
15 Alex Lozowski - 14 Chris Ashton - 13 Marcelo Bosch - 12 Nick Tompkins - 11 Nathan Earle - 10 Owen Farrell (c) - 9 Richard Wigglesworth (Spencer 68) - 1 Richard Barrington (Lamositele 51) - 2 Schalk Brits (George 51) - 3 Juan Figallo (Koch 51) - 4 Maro Itoje - 5 Jim Hamilton - 6 Michael Rhodes (Skelton (57) - 7 Schalk Burger (Brown 71) - 8 Jackson Wray 
Replacements; 16 Jamie George - 17 Titi Lamositele - 18 Vincent Koch - 19 Will Skelton - 20 Kelly Brown - 21 Ben Spencer - 22 Tim Streather (not used) - 23 Matt Gallagher (not used) 

Yellow card Skelton (78) 

Scarlets team 

15 Liam Williams - 14 Johnny Mcnicholl - 13 Hadleigh Parkes (J. Davies 68) - 12 Scott Williams - 11 Steff Evans - 10 Dan Jones - 9 Aled Davies (J.Evans 68) - 1 Rob Evans (W.Jones 73) - 2 Ken Owens © (Elias 68) - 3 Samson Lee (Kruger 64) - 4 Jake Ball (Price 79) - 5 Tadhg Beirne - 6 Aaron Shingler - 7 James Davies - 8 John Barclay (Boyde 68) 

Replacements; 16 Ryan Elias - 17 Wyn Jones - 18 Werner Kruger - 19 Tom Price - 20 Will Boyde - 21 Jonathan Evans - 22 Aled Thomas - 23 Jonathan Davies 

Scoring Sequence 3-0 D.Jones penalty;3-5 Earle try; 6-5 D.Jones penalty;9-5 D. Jones penalty;12-5 D. Jones penalty;12-10 Ashton try;12-12 Farrell con; 17-12 S.Williams try; 19-12 D.Jones con; 19-15 Farrell pen; 22-15 Jones penalty; 22-20 Ashton try; 22-22 Farrell con: 

Sky Man of the match - Scott Williams 
My Man of the match - Alex Lozowski - do we know what an exceptional talent we are developing here yet? Faultless performance at 15 under the high ball and in his carrying and creating throughout the match. 
Honorary mentions for many including Jackson Wray who carried exceptionally all day and Burger who worked tirelessly to regain equality at the breakdown. Ashton for his finishing and both our second rowers who worked so hard for 80 mins.

Scarlets v Saracens Match Report

Discussion started by TheSaracens.com , 18/01/2017 08:29

TheSaracens.com
18/01/2017 08:29

Indolent publisher eventually gets to put this on the front page.

Derbyshire complemented Sully on the report.

DG pointed out that it was sticky in the Namnibian bush ... or something like that



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017:01:26:14:10:26 by sutton_sarrie.

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TonyTaff
18/01/2017 08:40

I tried to merge the threads, but the function is playing up, so I resorted to deleting the other thread.

Visits to this thread will earn picopennies for the Saracens Foundation, which was not the case with the original.

It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!

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Sully08
18/01/2017 08:55

A number of themes in here that have since merited their own thread from Brits turnovers to another Alex to challenge for the England 15 shirt and the outstanding Jackson Wray

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