What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:03:15:22:43:37 by Darraghgirl.

If Morris is back for Saturday then that is very well timed! Not sure who else would be in line, Hartley maybe as he was on the bench last week. I’m very wary of this Newcastle side, they’ve got a strong back row and a hard centre pairing. Blamire is a great young player too. They’ll be looking at this a great opportunity to break their losing streak that goes back to 2009. With Sale away up next then two rest weeks this is a match we need to win to keep hold of the top spot.

Absolutely, this is going to be very tough. Small but unlikely chance we’ll get Isiekwe back like we did for the reverse fixture last year. What has happened to Josh Hallett and Brandon Jackson?

Quote:

The Bard
What has happened to Josh Hallett and Brandon Jackson?

Good question. Brandon picked up an injury in one of the Prem Cup games, which is a shame because he looks like a real live wire prospect, with a potentially big future. No idea on his recovery progress.

Hallett was playing for Ampthill not long ago- was up for try of the week. Can only assume he’s injured. Shame as he’s in the Tompkins/Morris mold of packing a punch for his size!

Saracens Men team to play Newcastle Falcons:

1 Eroni Mawi
2 Theo Dan
3 Alec Clarey
4 Tom Ellis
5 Hugh Tizard
6 Andy Christie
7 Ben Earl
8 Billy Vunipola
9 Ivan van Zyl
10 Manu Vunipola
11 Alex Lewington
12 Olly Hartley
13 Alex Lozowski
14 Rotimi Segun
15 Alex Goode (c)

Replacements:
16 Kapeli Pifeleti
17 Robin Hislop
18 Eduardo Bello
19 Cameron Boon
20 Toby Knight
21 Aled Davies
22 Josh Hallett

23 Sean Maitland



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:02:24:12:05:28 by Sarriebone.

Newcastle Falcons team v Saracens (Saturday, 2.30pm, StoneX Stadium)

15 Elliott Obatoyinbo,
14 Adam Radwan,
13 Matias Moroni,
12 Matias Orlando,
11 Ben Stevenson,
10 Brett Connon,
9 Michael Young (captain);
1 Logovi’i Mulipola,
2 Jamie Blamire,
3 Trevor Davison,
4 Greg Peterson,
5 Sebastian de Chaves,
6 Philip van der Walt,
7 Gary Graham,
8 Callum Chick.

Replacements:
16 Ollie Fletcher,
17 Adam Brocklebank,
18 Mark Tampin,
19 Freddie Lockwood,
20 Carl Fearns,
21 Sam Stuart,
22 Tian Schoeman,
23 Pete Lucock.

Big chance for Manu on Saturday. The coaches have in effect picked him ahead of Sean Maitland for this game. I really hope he has a great game.

Again with the number of players away on international duty, those injured and the increased restrictions imposed by the salary cap we really are down to bare bones with a smattering of the gun 1st XV available. Billy, Ivan, Ben, Alex L are probably the only four if everyone was available.

I shall be renewing my season ticket but the English rugby authorities really do need to get their act together to improve the club offering.

What news of Jackson Wray?

This really is ‘Operation Clingfilm’. Don’t think we’ve ever been stretched so thinly before…

Well I can (and I suspect you can) remember Don Barrell playing at flanker when he was an 18 year-old schoolboy at Watford Boys Grammar. He turned out to be a decent player but that seemed pretty thin at the time



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:02:24:17:13:33 by AlanE2.

Yep, I was at Northampton away when Don played (in and around his A levels) and we had Kyran Bracken at 10! https://www.premiershiprugby.com/report/inspired-saints-sink-sorry-saracens/#report

Quote:

The loss leaves Saracens stranded in 10th position on the table. Their recently-purchased band of reinforcements just can't arrive soon enough …

I can't stress how much better things are today, even if we lose tomorrow.

The back row looks pretty good!

Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade

🌻🌻🌻

I think it all looks good considering who we're missing AP.

Mentions of both Hallett (who played well earlier this season) and Hartley, who is the young centre we signed from Wasps when they went under, above and both with feature. I've not seen Hartley play but stats suggest he's a pretty tall lad and young enough that he has the potential to put some more muscle on his frame. It will be instructive to see how he goes at 12. I think we'll need lots of communication from Lozo and Manu as Falcons Pumas centres would be a challenge for anyone.

Great to see Clarey back in the XV and Bello too who I was beginning to wonder if I'd just imagined Sarries signed.
I guess it's because he joined late? but Earl should be captain from now on when he's available and Farrell isn't IMO.
Great chance for Manu and I hope we give him a chance to control things.

Last week the Falcons board seemed elated at what a fair few described as the strongest Falcons team they'd seen available for a while. For whatever reasons it didn't stick against Bristol and even though there still seems a fair bit of doom and gloom on their board that side only has a few changes (including our ex-own Obatoyinbo in for penny at F from the side they were optimistic about and rightly so in my view.

Our lineout was much improved last week and with de Chaves currently the leading lineout stealer I believe we'll need good options and arrows. Their backs including those Pumas and Radwan will punish loose kicks.

Last week was encouraging in many ways. The same commitment, not gifting a 3 try lead, no white line fever and actually passing to players who could score a try out wide and we have a great chance.
COYS and COYS down at Glaws too. Minus Harrison it's going to be tougher but I hope the Women can get a result and shake up the top 2

Quote:

nedrichards
Yep, I was at Northampton away when Don played (in and around his A levels)

Quote:

The loss leaves Saracens stranded in 10th position on the table. Their recently-purchased band of reinforcements just can't arrive soon enough …

Ooh now that's a teaser; I wonder who the recently-purchased band of reinforcements comprised. Most things before the 2009 Revolution seem to have been consigned to the dustbin of history on sarries.com so we can't look there. I thought it might have been when Sale became our Northern feeder team, but this report is from March 2006, and I think that was earlier.

Sorry I know this is wandering rapidly off topic.

Weirdly the report is dated 2006, but the match itself is from 2004! So I think you're right as the season after was when Cairns, Sanderson, Fullarton, Harris etc. all joined from Sale.

More importantly for the 04-05 season we signed Glen Jackson, Hugh Vyvyan, Tevita Vaikona, Dan Scarbrough....

Love this from the Falcons board:-

"Hopefully the players will be introduced to each on the journey down this time. And I'm hoping the forwards will have been treated badly in training this week so that they are full of anger and energy come 14.30 tomorrow. This team can beat Sarries tomorrow but they must start full of energy and purpose"

Sounds like they have problems too!

Good start, bonus point inside 30 mins.

Very impressive first game from Hartley. Dan's growing reputation enhanced too. Some poor handling at times but a very solid performance so far.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:02:25:17:31:14 by Static.

Nerve wracking second half, some good showing from the youngsters

Dreadful second half seemed very complacent. McCall will ream them out I suspect.

Not sure the second half was dreadful, just very frustrating. Must've been 75% played in their half and we probably left at least 3 tries out there. It must be easy to lose a bit of intensity when you're a less experienced player and so far ahead, particularly against 14 men. The most disappointing for me was the total switch off for their quick line out. You could hear CMK clearly saying ball still live but we had two or three players with their backs to the line. If any one of them had been alert that try would never have happened.

On the plus side, just how good is Olly Hartley???

Quote:

Static
Dreadful second half seemed very complacent. McCall will ream them out I suspect.

I thought that was one of the worst second halves I'd seen. A fair few departed before the end.

Didn't catch the game. Sad that a red card was called so early (rightly?) Looking forward to catching up but what on earth happened in the second half?

A very entertaining 1st half of rugby and a very disappointing 2nd half. I was disappointed with the intensity and some of the tackling in the 2nd half but at the same time very pleased with some of the speed and skills shown in the 1st half.
However cannot complain with 5 points in the bag and some of the youngsters also gained some useful experience - thought Hartley had an excellent debut at inside centre.

Quote:

OldMarovian
Didn't catch the game. Sad that a red card was called so early (rightly?) Looking forward to catching up but what on earth happened in the second half?

Yes

Wow. So we lost the second half 0-10 despite being a man up the whole time? Well done Falcons I guess.

Need to watch the game but what on earth was happening? Ofc great that young players got experience and ofc the 5 points but I'm very surprised at that.

Stats and highlights look good. Christies break and IVZ support line beautiful. Do we think Earl knew where Radwan was or was he just running on empty by that stage?

I too thought Earl wasn’t at full tilt going for the line when he got caught. Andy Christie excellent today, as were the second rows. We’ll certainly be seeing plenty more of Hartley. Theo Dan continues to impress and the scrum generally looked much better when Bello came on save two very frustrating early pushes.

Appalling second half. Felt like we were trying to do a lot of the champagne offloading without doing the basics first. Lineout wasn’t great, breakdown was a mess in their 22 and we were lethargic in attack. All against 14 men.

On the positive side of things I’m really impressed with Ellis, quietly goes about his business but every now and again he pops up with a turnover, would love to see him come in permanently: Christie was excellent, Dan too (possibly a touch shaky with his throwing but that will come with experience) and Hartley looks really promising. Although I would say with Hartley he reminds me a bit of Steward- a big unit who needs to make more of his size through contact. Mawi looks great in the loose, if he can get up to speed on scrummaging he’ll be an absolute gun of a loosey.

5 points are 5 points though- we needed that with a trip to Sale and 2 weekends off coming up.

From where I sit in the North Stand it was hard to see what was going on in the second half and how we could be so bad after a decent first half ….so many really basic errors - crooked throws into the line out , dropped passes and how did we get turned over so many times ?
I don’t think the players will enjoy the review on Monday !
Still , 5 points is 5 points …

Quote:

OldMarovian
Stats and highlights look good. Christies break and IVZ support line beautiful. Do we think Earl knew where Radwan was or was he just running on empty by that stage?

Don't think he knew. He had a big smile on his face and was just cruising. A blip, but still 5 points in a banana skin match.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023:02:26:07:38:34 by AlanE2.

AlanE2, absolutely.

Quote:

OldMarovian
Stats and highlights look good. Christies break and IVZ support line beautiful. Do we think Earl knew where Radwan was or was he just running on empty by that stage?

Whether he knew or not there's hardly a player in the league, let alone a forward, who can outrun Radwan. Hats off to Radwan for an outstanding try-saving tackle rather than criticism of Earl who, otherwise, had a pretty decent game.

Agree Roger. It wasn't meant as a criticism just a comment on whether he knew there was a defender there. I think the pass checked him too. As you say great work from Radwan (also the follow up jackal and his work on their last try from the lineout)

Relieved to get the 5 but to fail to score a single point with wingd behind against 14 men was a really poor effort. Credit to Newcastle for at sticking in there but that second half was pretty thin fare.

Quote:

OldMarovian
Agree Roger. It wasn't meant as a criticism just a comment on whether he knew there was a defender there. I think the pass checked him too. As you say great work from Radwan (also the follow up jackal and his work on their last try from the lineout)

Their try from the line-out was a simple run-in for him. If any of our chaps had clocked the ball was still live, as CMK had told them, the quick throw wouldn't have happened.

I can't remember another 5 point game where i have come away feeling disappointed.
Strange....
It's not the skill or endeavour, just on field leadership.

Despite Manu playing 10 it felt like Goode was running the back line and some of his decision making left a bit to be desired. Restarts aside his kicking from hand and tee wasnt great either.

I’m never been convinced Goodey is a captain. Why didn’t Earl do it again?
I think trying to be full-back, part time 10, kicker and captain is too much.

Quote:

The Bard
I’m never been convinced Goodey is a captain. Why didn’t Earl do it again?
I think trying to be full-back, part time 10, kicker and captain is too much.

Probably because Earl was away all week with England

In Goode’s defence his miss pass to put Lewington in was a thing of great beauty.

The game was somehat stressful. I think I enjoyed last weeks chase and eventual loss more than this weeks win. We are normally a second half side but we didnt find the mojo under the oranges.

Quote:

Eurosarrie
I can't remember another 5 point game where i have come away feeling disappointed.
Strange....
It's not the skill or endeavour, just on field leadership.

It's weird, I think we are blessed as Saracens fans, we are one of the most consistent teams in the Premiership/Championship and with that brings high expectations. We all know sport throws curved balls every now and then and maybe it's my age but I'm just totally content with the big picture at Saracens - with the one caveat about the existential problem rugby has in this country as a whole right now.

My wife has told me that she's considering ending our marriage due to my utter obsession with rugby.

I'm begging her for one more try!

yeah i think as fans we need to remember we have been relevant in most years since 2010 apart from our relegation.... which has already be done to death.. we are lucky as a club, not all supports get this stability, i just hope continued sponsorship deals and the new stand are there to help elevate the causal and non casual drop of 2k supporters this year.. no point bemoaning the odd poor performance in a win over our club not existing..

Ninjafez - supporting Sarries and cleaning their signs since 2006!

Quote:

Happy Sarrie
It's weird, I think we are blessed as Saracens fans, we are one of the most consistent teams in the Premiership/Championship and with that brings high expectations. We all know sport throws curved balls every now and then and maybe it's my age but I'm just totally content with the big picture at Saracens

Excellent point very well put. I don't know about anyone else but I was hoping for a point from Tigers away and Falcons at home felt like a huge banana-skin. Once the game finishes it's easy to forget those pre-game feelings and get lost in what might have been.

That said ...

I've now watched the game and it's possibly one of the most confusing games I've watched for a while. I'd love someone who really understands the game and how we're trying to play to explain it to me because I'm lost.

That is a game Sarries could (let's be honest, should, given Falcons butchered two trys) have lost playing a man up for almost 3/4 of the game and I still can't quite work out what was going wrong? In fact there were loads of things that were going brilliantly and problems we've had previously that were solved in this game.

The positives first.
Pretty much everyone played well. There were the odd moments here or there but no one had a shocker IMO.
Christie was absolutely magnificent. Massive credit to him as a player and the coaches as tbh I felt like McFarlands injury was a body blow this season and whilst he is a rare talent who will be missed performances like that from Christie make it much easier to take as a supporter. Connected with that all three in the backrow had excellent games and Billys passing game was great. The communication in supporting lines between them was also brilliant to watch.
The pack as a whole played very well. Lewington is on some kind of incredible streak of form right now.
It makes a huge difference with IVZ starting but tbf when Davies came on he was quick around the field and his passing was crisp. I thought, one fumble and poor kick aside Manu had a great game. He takes the line on like neither Farrell or Goode do and he ran some lovely lines off Billy. Distribution very good too. Hartley was a revelation and not only is his physicality an obvious asset we saw a good passing, offloading and short kicking game too.
There was some really good series of play with great handling and I really like how the play-makers; Manu, Lozo and Goode varied the game, passing, short-kicks, longer kicks etc. It really kept the Falcons defence guessing.

Now the confusing part. I've watched the second half and can't really pin-point what or when it went wrong. The most obvious thing was we went from a game in which we were controlling possession to one where Falcons had much more of it. That said we weren't kicking it down their throats so it felt like turn-overs were the issue, handling and lineout.
The former is something that will get better and better the more comfortable the players get with the game and each other I'm sure. There was maybe a bit to much "hot potato" rugby, where the intent seemed just to keep the ball alive and we then invariably seemed to force a pass. The lineout was much better last week but this week Falcons competed and we had wobbles again. It does seem to mainly be the accuracy of the throw rather than communication so the onus mainly feels like it's on the hookers to put the hours in.
Brits was a magnificent player not just because he was a phenomenally talented live-wire of a rugby player but because he was a great team player. A few players however talented need to remember it's a team game and other players can help them and the team as a whole win games.

One other thing, despite Goode being the captain it seemed to me that it was Earl who was providing the leadership on field, certainly he was the one I heard most frequently communicating with the referee. That said did the team play the second half the best way? I honestly don't know. I think maybe a man up you actually benefit from playing as if you're still 15v15 and wait till the space comes as it will. That said trying to play a tempo game we would have expected to tire them and befit from space that way. Not sure what the answer is and ofc we mustn't discount that Falcons were excellent in not only sticking in there but taking the game to us.

Blimey, all that rambling and I'm still not sure what the issue was!!

Can't wait to see the team for Sale in some ways I hope that we back much of the same team again. Would love to see Hartley given another run as we need alternatives to the brilliant Tompkins. I wonder if Sanderson will play du Preez at 13 again?

Ford has been called up to England so Du Preez will be back to 10.

I haven’t watched it back but my impression from the second half was we simply didn’t execute a lot of the basics right and tried to offload our way through Newcastle without earning it. Along with the lineout our breakdown work wasn’t good enough- we were turned over multiple times and we were getting a lot of slow ball. In turn that mean Manu was taking the ball standing still instead of running onto the ball.