Sarries new star.....

By TheSaracens
November 2 2023

Although a trip to Kingsholm isn’t for the faint-hearted, largely thanks to the antics of the bovine-sounding hoard that inhabits the “notorious” Shed (think football matches in the Seventies), last Friday evening was made very pleasant indeed by a large contingent of Sarries fans being  made extremely welcome pre- and post-match by a local club, Spartans RFC, who threw open their doors for us and sold us what was reputedly the cheapest beer to be had in the centre of the city – just five minutes’ walk from Kingsholm. There’s a lovely little privately-owned cinema nearby and a few of us had a look round there before going to the rugby club – it was a real step back in time…much like visiting Kingsholm albeit in a different way…. There was a brief pre-match panic when news reached us in the Spartans bar that there had been a power failure in some of the stadium’s floodlights, with an attendant conspiracy theory that the lights had been sabotaged to allow everyone to stay in pubs and watch England’s World Cup bronze playoff with Argentina, but all was well as the problem was fixed and we strolled round to Kingsholm.

Sarries’ squad for the evening, the mixture of youth and experience we’ve seen in our games so far this season, was boosted by the return from his World Cup exploits of Eroni Mawi, who further enhanced his burgeoning reputation with some fine performances during Fiji’s run to the quarter-finals joining up with the already reintegrated Nick Tompkins, although our other returnees, Theo McFarland and Marco Riccioni were not in the squad (shoulder injury and return to play protocols respectively) and Alex Goode had been moved back to his customary full-back slot to accommodate Manu Vunipola, and Hugh Tizard was back following an injury. Another welcome sight was Ivan Van Zyl on the bench after recovering from his broken finger.  Sarries’ injury list continued to deplete further a squad still short of the nine players still in France.

Sarries were facing a slightly unfamiliar Gloucester line-up, although given our results so far and Kingsholm always being a tough place to leave with a result, it was quite hard to see us getting that much-need first win; thankfully, Billy Twelvetrees, who always seemed to play very well against us, has departed to Ealing Trailfinders.         

With Sarries fans fearing another disappointing 80 minutes as Gloucester looked the sharper and stronger of the two sides, a flurry of scrums showed their early dominance and on 5 minutes Barton opened the scoring with a penalty for 3-0.

Lewington briefly threatened with an attempted chip and chase from Lewington, but Gloucester continued to press for more points – a penalty was kicked deep into Sarries’ territory and an agile Isiekwe stole the line-out, while Mercer put red and black hearts in mouths by powering over for what everyone thought was a try, only to be adjudged to have lose control of the ball. Phew.

Sarries stirred at last, upped the ante and having forced a series of penalties a breakthrough came on 24 minutes when a line-out close to the line set up a maul which was pulled down, but from the ensuing melee Willis, who’d impressed everyone since his arrival, crossed the line – an assured conversion from Lozowski adding the extras for 3-7, with the home crowd quietened for now.

This was a different Sarries from the Exeter and Bath games, and within 5 minutes our lead had increased when Lewington again kicked forward and although from where I was sitting it looked like the ball was going dead, he’d nonetheless won the chase with an equally speedy Thorley who couldn’t secure possession, allowing Lewington to plant the pill for our second score, Lozowski converting for 3-14.       

Gloucester were still seeing a lot of possession, however, and both sides suffered a setback when Mako was yellow-carded just after the half-hour for making head contact with McGuigan who couldn’t continue and was replaced by one-time (well, two-time) Sarrie Jack Singleton.  

Half-time, and a much-improved performance from Sarries with Willis impressing yet again and Lewington also reaping the rewards of a hard-working display although Gloucester still looked the physically stronger of the sides with Mako looking tired and under pressure. Hadfield, in one of his first games at top level, was doing OK.

Gloucester began the second half as they’d started the first, and with Mako still in the sin-bin they pushed hard to get back on terms with phase after phase of pressure, Sarries meeting fire with fire though and showing that, despite the capitulation at Sandy Park, defensive strength remains in the club’s DNA; the siege was broken, for now at least, by a penalty against the home side.   

10 minutes into the second half the momentum shifted back to Sarries, with Lozowski missing narrowly with a long-range penalty before Willis powered over the line for his second and deserved score, after stealing a loose ball and smashing his way past the last defender – Lozowski atoned for his miss just a few minutes earlier by taking the score to 3-21 and it had all gone quiet over there in the Shed….

With the better part of half an hour to play, Gloucester were not ready to lie down and threw everything at the Sarries line in phase after phase, culminating on Jordan breaching our defences only to be held up. Mark McCall must have been purring.

With 15 minutes left, Lozowski made the job still harder for a frustrated Gloucester by kicking a penalty which took Sarries’ lead to more than three converted tries at 3-24.

Gloucester still kept going, assisted by a yellow card for Van Zyl (who’d earlier replaced Davies) who’d committed something of a professional foul in killing the ball, but Sarries’ superb defence once again held out, another siege after Gloucester’s penalty bring broken by a turnover.

The late stages of the game saw Sarries regain the initiative and go hunting for a much-needed bonus point and although Hartley made a good run deep into Gloucester’s half near the 80 minute-mark, Gloucester were able to turn the ball over and find touch to end the game...in front of a silent and emptying Shed. Childish I know but shutting them up felt good. 

Repairing back to the Spartans bar, I reflected on a much-improved Sarries performance, feeling that the makeshift squad had started to gel and that maybe - with hindsight - the Exeter debacle was just a stop on the journey, well though Chiefs had played. We’ll see.

Also did anyone watching the game notice what I did? That Aled Davies, about whom doubts remain even though he’s into his fourth season at StoneX, was superb under high balls that came his way..

Tom Willis deserved the Man of the Match award and could I feel be the signing of the season - although I can't wait to see Juan Martin Gonzalez and Lucio Cinti in action for Sarries. 

I was delighted to get back to Spartans in time to see the latter stages of the England-Argentina game where Owen Farrell, Ben Earl and Theo Dan scored all of England’s points, giving us some justification in claiming that Sarries finished third in the World Cup….well, if some in the East End can claim that West Ham won football's equivalent competition, why not???

TEAMS:

Gloucester: Morris, Hearle, Harris, Atkinson, Thorley, Barton, Varney; Ford-Robinson, McGuigan, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Thomas, Tuisue, Ludlow (c), Mercer.

Replacements: Singleton, Elrington, Knight, Jordan, Clement, Chapman, Llewellyn, Hathaway.

Saracens: Goode, Maitland, Lozowski, Tompkins, Lewington, Manu Vunipola, Davies; Mako Vunipola (c), Hadfield, Judge, Hunter-Hill, Tizard, Isiekwe, Christie, Willis.

Replacements: Crean, Mawi, Clarey, Stonham, Knight, Van Zyl, Hartley, Parton.

Referee: Adam Leal