By Jason Harris
February 9 2003

Saracens scored two tries late in the second half to add respecability to a losing 34-25 scoreline that most certainly flattered the Men in Black. Northampton had already wrapped up five points by completely outplaying their visitors in the first half and keeping them at arms length in the second. It was definitely a case of too little, too late from Saracens in both halves. They waited until injury time in the first to score their opening try; a lucky one after home scrum half Matt Dawson showboated a little too much.

A misplaced reverse pass missed its intended target and gave Darragh O'Mahony the opportunity to scorch 60 metres up the left touchline. O'Mahony drew the final defender to give the scoring pass to Thomas Castaignede who looked very out-of-sorts during the entire match.

Before that rare, brief Sarries foray into enemy territory, Northampton had scored two tries of their own to set up a 20-11 half time lead.

Ben Cohen grabbed the first with one of his trademark wide-out catches from a cross-field kick. The England wing showed great strength has he dragged several Saracens defenders over the line and grounded the ball just before it was carried dead.

Dawson scored the second after a short charge by no8 Grant Seely. Paul Grayson for Saints and Andy Goode for Sarries scored the remaining fist half points with two penalties and two conversions and two penalties respectively.

There was more bad news for Saracens after cenrte Kevin Sorrell was taken to hospital after colliding with Abdel Benazzi early in the first half. The England A man has reportedly broken his nose and been concussed, so he could well miss his chance to cement his place in the national second-string for the forthcoming shadow 6 Nations tournament.

To go in at the half just nine points adrift certainly pleased Saracens after almost every man from one to 15 was outplayed by his Saints opposite number. The notable exception was Kris Chesney at no8, whose strong running, good positioning, strong defence and the ability time and again to bail-out the retreating Sarries scrum by picking up the ball and making forward progress made him the stand-out player on the Sarries side.

Saracens started the second period with more purpose. Goode and Castaignede sending some probing grubber kicks behind Saints wings Reihana and Cohen and setting up some good field position. But this territorial advantage counted for nought as Northampton plundered the Saracens lineout with some great steals from Connors and Lord.

After that early fightback, Northampton once again settled down into their routine of close support and wide-out attack and camped themselves inside the Sarries 22 for most of the third quarter.

Inevitably, the defence yielded. Tom Smith was denied a try after it was ruled out by referee Dave Pearson for crossing. Smith, however, didn't worry that much as he did get his score on 58 minutes.

The Scottish prop must have felt like Moses as the waves of the Saracens defence parted in front of him as he crossed the line from a five metre lineout. Grayson added the conversion to put Saints three scores ahead at 27-11.

Further relentless Northampton pressure led to the sin-binning of Tim Horan for persistent offside and while the Australian was sitting out his ten minutes on the touchline, Saints clinched their bonus point with a try from Grant Seely.

The no8 went over in the right-hand corner after his side took full advantage of the extra man now at their disposal. Grayson, who had an immaculate day with the boot, closed the Saints account with his sixth goal of the day.

Northampton then took their foot of the accelerator and let Saracens get back into contention, though the job was already done and there was no way that the visitors would overhaul their hosts.

Great work from replacements Craig Yandell and Morgan Williams set up Chesney for a bullocking 30 metre gallop under the sticks and Goode wriggled through the Saints from five metres out during injury time to score at the posts himself. The conversions were formalities and the ex-Leicester man finished the match with 15 of Sarries' 25 points.

Another disappointing performance from Sarries who were given a lesson in set-piece, support play and - dare I say it - fitness from Northampton, whose win has effectively cut off the top half of the table from Sarries and the five sides below them.

There are now nine points between Sarries in seventh and Wasps (who play their game in hand against ninth-placed London Irish on Sunday) in sixth and the best they and the rest can now hope for is the last Wild Card playoff place.

And with only seven points separating the bottom half dozen, the possiblity of relegation is genuine enough if the Men in Black continue this four game losing slump. There are six games left to ensure survival and perhaps clinch that final playoff berth. Four of the games are at home and four will be against teams below them in the table.

Sarries start the run-in against rock-bottom Bath at the Rec on 1 March hoping that their recent good run down there will continue and that they will get a four-point boost while their next opponents will be left staring at National Division 1 oblivion. But in order to do that, they'll have to improve markedly on Saturday's performance which was very much second-best.