photo by Daniel Davis

By The Saracens
February 6 2022

It was Bath’s turn to visit StoneX on this first weekend of the 6 Nations. Both teams resembled a collection of leaky pipes held together with plasters and chewing gum. Who would need to call a plumber and whose mastic would hold water? The players were not helped by a gusting and somewhat capricious wind coming mostly, but not always from the south west. At least it didn’t rain! The new West stand looked splendid and how good to see it being populated by spectators for the first time.

Sean Maitland, released by Scotland and celebrating his 100^th game, led the team out accompanied by his 3 little ones. Once they were safely returned to the stands, Sara Cox blew her whistle and Bath kicked off with the wind (mostly) behind them. Sarries put down an early marker winning a penalty at Bath’s 2^nd scrum. The pack were certainly up for this. Unfortunately Sarries handling errors were letting the side down but as they were so dominant at the scrum it didn’t really matter and Sarries were soon rewarded with a penalty kick in front from the next Bath scrum which Loz duly slotted for a 3-0 win.

Sarries pressed home their advantage with a lovely drive by the pack from their own 22 to the Bath 10m line. Ms Cox signalled advantage as Woolfie headed for the try line off-loading to Van Zyl who was tackled just short. Advantage over though (fair enough – I think referees play advantages far too long, especially in the 22). Ben Spencer, who was superb for Bath today (please come back Ben) landed a splendid 50:22 but Bath weren’t able to press home the advantage as Sarries won a turn-over. Manu broke clear, off-loading delicately to Loz but once again the move ended in a knock on.

Bath finally won the ball on their own put in and this triggered a good period of attack for the visitors. They opted for a tap penalty close in but Billy managed to get himself under Nathan Hughes and the ball was held up. Billy was on fire today – maybe Hughes brings out the best in him? I have to comment on Hughes’ hairstyle – just dreadful! You need to put it out there on the field to carry off that sort of barnet (especially in Barnet) and sadly Hughes was a shadow of himself today. For the final quarter he was out on his feet.

Bath managed to keep the pressure on, winning a series of attacking line outs. Sara Cox was getting increasingly annoyed with the Bath forwards for the length of time they were taking to form the lineout, egged on by the crowd. Sarries’ defence held though and eventually the ball was cleared. Mike Williams hobbled off to add to Bath’s injury woes and was replaced by Nahum Merigan. Meanwhile Woolfie and Christie (who was excellent today) broke clear and good handling from the magnificent Theo McFarland and Tim Swinson won an easy penalty for Loz in front of the posts. 6-0.

Sarries made a mess of the restart and Ben Spencer landed a long penalty kick for Bath to bring it back to 6-3. Spencer seemed to be everywhere taking on all the kicking duties, fly half duties, scrum half duties, full back duties – he would have been in the scrum as well if he could. The wind interfered with Manu’s restart and the ball seemed to be heading back towards him giving Maitland a difficult take. Jonathan Joseph appeared to be in trouble with his ankle – so it was interesting when he left the field a few minutes later for an HIA. No comment as to where his brain might be. Not surprisingly he didn’t return.

Sarries won an attacking lineout again but Woolfie blotted his copy book as Bath stole the ball and Spencer landed his 2^nd 50:22. More lineout dalliance and Alex was seen chatting to Ms Cox. Bath were again unable to take advantage of a good attacking position and excellent work by Vincent won a Sarries penalty. Sarries worked their way upfield and Lewington had the chance to break but was turned over. Christie stole the ball back again and Sarries got themselves deep into attacking territory with the help of 3 penalties, the last of which ended up in the corner. The forwards drove over. Bath’s taps were leaking badly but eventually the plug came out when most of the Saracens team joined the ruck and a whole pile of bodies fell over the line. I couldn’t see the ball and I don’t think the TMO could either but presumably the referee’s on field decision was “try”  because the 5 points were awarded and Woolfie took the credit. Loz’s conversion attempt was wide but 11-3 looked far more comfortable. Sarries won a penalty from the restart as we headed for half time. Again successive penalties went to the corner. Billy wanted the tap and go but his young cousin Manu swiftly removed the ball from him and put it back in the corner. Once again the whole team piled in to drive the ball over for try number 2. Woolfie again came up with the ball. Loz landed the conversion and as the teams retired for a half time break, Sarries had a comfortable 18-3 lead.

So an encouraging first half. Manu looked much sharper and seemed to be running the show. Van Zyl was having his best game for Sarries. In fact the whole team seemed to be up for this. Meanwhile Bath were in need of support from their sponsor Dyson – a good vacuuming over.

Sarries started the 2^nd half with the wind behind them, although the strength of the breeze seemed to have dropped a bit. Sarries were on the attack again – some lovely hands led to a Lewington break down the wing but eventually Goodey’s no-look pass out foxed everyone. Before long Sarries put together another good attack wining a penalty in front which Loz landed for 21-3. Loz was involved again shortly after with a super break and although Bath turned the ball over, Sarries quickly regained possession and this time Goodey and Earl combined delightfully to allow Goode to evade Cam Redpath and touch down for the 3^rd try. Loz didn’t land the extras but 26-3 was looking good. Bath decided to call in the cavalry with Morozov replacing Caldwell and Dunn replacing Du Toit. (Dunn’s hairdo rivalled Hughes’ in absurdity). Woolfie messed up the lineout and Bath cleared. More attacks from Sarries. Theo broke free again but his pass to Loz was awful when Earl was free and would undoubtedly have scored. Lewington broke again and once again found Theo. He looks amazing with the ball but again the final pass let him down. He needs to go to off-loading classes this week.

Bath replaced Harmer-Webb with Prydie and Manu committed the cardinal sin of missing touch from a penalty. Rokoduguni set off through most of the Sarries defence until Van Zyl, last man standing, proved that brain can overcome brawn by going low and holding tight until his mates arrived resulting in a Sarries’ penalty. Finally Sarries won the lineout; Morris found Earl who found Goode who set Lewington running down the far touchline. The officials & the Bath defence were trailing in his wake which is perhaps why the try was checked by the TMO but one look was enough, the bonus point try stood. Loz landed a lovely touchline conversion and with 20 minutes to go, Sarries led 33-3.

Surely even Sarries couldn’t throw this one away. Bath appeared to have pulled the plug when Spencer, their plumber-supremo, left the field to be replaced by veteran Joe Simpson. Woolfie also departed for Ethan Lewis after a pretty good day at the office, just a couple of arrows off target and 2 tries to the good. Redpath had taken over the kicking for Bath and missed touch with his penalty kick. Maitland departed to loud applause (although to be honest it wasn’t his best performance), to be replaced by Obatoyinbo with Lewington swapping wings, and Mako made the slow trudge to the dugouts with Baz replacing him. Koch departed for Sam Wainwright. We now had a very fair front-row with delightfully bleach-blond props either side of a sparse-haired Lewis. Ben Earl, once again very solid, was replaced by Sean Reffell.

Meanwhile the wonderful Saracens marketing team advertised the Quins game on SATURDAY 13^th Feb on the big screens! Oh dear. Fortunately the announcer was able to correct the error. Baz instantly won a penalty but Manu again missed touch. After a superb first half he was less convincing in the 2^nd. Fortunately Simpson’s clearance wasn’t great so Sarries didn’t lose too much ground. Theo appeared with the ball which he managed to hang on to, handed off a couple of Bath defenders and sensibly decided not to pass but touched the ball down himself for a lovely try. Loz again added the extras for 40-3. As the clock wound down, Sarries emptied the replacements bench with Van Zyl (best game so far) being replaced by Ruben de Haas, and Loz taking a deserved break with Brandon Jackson joining the fray. Bath managed a rare trip into the Sarries 22. Rokoduguni got a bit of try line fever and knocked the ball on in the tackle. He seemed to have gone down cold and not surprisingly Sara Cox instantly blew for medical help and which point Roko magically rose from the dead and appeared extremely annoyed that Ms Cox had done the only thing she could have done to protect a player she thought had a head injury. It really summed up Bath’s day.

Billy finally took a break to be replaced by hooker cum prop Kapeli Pifeleti now taking on the role of back row (you need to be versatile at Saracens these days). Pifeleti instantly made a lovely break finding Obatoyinbo but sadly the move broke down. Bath continued to waste what little possession they had Simpson eventually put the ball straight out. The match ended with an exhausted Nathan Hughes (to be honest he’d been struggling for the last 20 minutes) allowing Reffell to relieve him of the ball and it was all over.

So all in all it was a good day, at least for Sarries. It would be hard to pick a man of the match – Woolfie’s 2 tries, Theo getting better and better, Christie knocking on Scotland’s door (possibly open with the injury to Jamie Ritchie), Loz brilliant as always, Goodey back to his best, Lewington fast and dangerous, Mako and Koch a class pair, Swinson putting in a great performance, Billy just amazing, Dom’s speed and tackling way above his weight….I feel bad for not mentioning everyone but my man of the match was Ivan Van Zyl who was not the worst scrum half on the pitch today (and that’s saying something because Ben Spencer was immense and had all his fingers in Bath’s leaking dyke) but that tackle on Rokoduguni was special. Let’s not get carried away. There were still a lot of errors and a better team would have taken advantage of the seepage but you can only play what’s in front of you and Sarries looked pretty good today. Meanwhile Bath are in urgent need of Pimlico Plumbers. Ben Spencer looked a class above everyone else in blue and white. But Bath need more than one plumber to fix these holes in their tub.

Just a word for Sara Cox. I thought she had an excellent game. She was calm, clear and consistent. Best of all she let the game flow. The best referees are pretty invisible during the play and that was Sara today. Of course there were a couple of debatable decisions but she got most things right and I love the balletic way she signals her intents. My only slight criticism is that she allowed the Bath line-out dalliance to go on for too long (the main reason the match lasted almost 2 hours) but all in all well done ma’am, that was a good performance. Ditto Sarries.

SARACENS

Goode, Maitland (Obatoyinbo), Lozowski (Jackson), Morris, Lewington, Manu Vunipola, Van Zyl (de Haas); Mako Vunipola (Barrington), Woolstencroft (Lewis), Koch (Wainwright), McFarland, Swinson, Christie, Earl (Reffell), Billy Vunipola (Pifeleti).

BATH

Rokoduguni, Hamer-Webb (Prydie), Joseph (Butt), Redpath, Muir, Ojomoh, Ben Spencer (Simpson); Cordwell (Morozov), Du Toit (Dunn), Rae (Verden), McNally, Will Spencer (Dingley), Williams (Merigan), Coetzee, Hughes

SCORERS

Saracens Tries: Woolstencroft (2) Goode, Lewington, McFarland; Conv: Lozowski (3); Pens: Lozowski (3)

Bath Pen: Spencer

Attendance: 8,487 

Referee: Sara Cox