Premiership Review - Saracens 49 - 10 Leicester Tigers

 

Ah the festive season.  Industrial amount of booze, bad food and parties.  Unless you’re a professional rugby player that is.  Nevertheless, Alllianz Park on Saturday was the setting for a clash between two of the league’s heavyweights in what was all set to be a Christmas cracker.  Perhaps nobody expected it to turn into a Christmas roast though. 

With the wind streaming horizontally into the faces of the visitors, you got the feeling that this might be Saracens’ half – and so it proved to be, but perhaps nobody expected them to play with such gusto and speed.  A Ben Youngs box kick was only casually chased by Matt Smith – a problem with Leicester’s territory game all day – allowing Alex Goode and Richard Wigglesworth to surge through the first line of Tigers’ defence and set up camp by the Tigers’ 22.  The speed of ball was superb and, with the Leicester defence caught alarmingly narrow, quick hands allowed young winger Jack Wilson to squeeze over in the corner for the game’s opening try.  A wonderful kick by Owen Farrell in gale-force wind made the score 7 – 0.

There was no escape for the visitors, either through their own doing – in the form of poor chasing on Youngs’ box kicks – or through nature’s, with Ryan Lamb only ever to make minimal distance with his attempted clearances into the wind.  They were kept pinned back in their own half through superb kicking from Farrell and Wigglesworth, and with the likes of Billy Vunipola and Kelly Brown carrying strongly around the fringes, the hosts had a total grip on the game.  Farrell added another penalty, but Leicester were lucky to avoid conceding more as their defence struggled to realign in the wake of Saracens’ lightening clean-outs in the rucks.  Lamb eventually got the Tigers on the board with a well struck penalty on 25 minutes, before Farrell responded shortly afterwards with a 3 pointer of his own.

With Tigers having no possession or territory of note in the game, it was hard to see where they could create opportunities from.  Luckily for them, Owen Farrell had a burst of Christmas spirit and generously presented it to the visitors, taking an age to clear his lines and allowing the impressive lock Graham Kitchener to athletically charge down the kick, regather and touch down beneath the posts.  Out of nowhere, Leicester were back in the game.  But not for long.  Kitchener, who had been a rock for Leicester in the set piece and defence before his try, hit Farrell late, causing Barnes to check the incident on the TMO.  It was one of those cases where, by the letter of the law, it was a yellow card, but in my opinion the laws are wrong.  It was a penalty for the late hit – although it was not malicious, as Kitchener was already committed – but it was in no way a yellow card, which was dished out for the most marginal lift by the Leicester man.  The fact was it wasn’t dangerous – just a very hard hit – and Farrell landed on his back.  Nevertheless, Barnes correctly obeyed the laws and yellow carded the second row – and what a crucial moment that turned out to be.  Down to 14 men, Leicester came under pressure from a rolling maul which crabbed ominously infield.  From that position, Farrell switched play from left to right, allowing Chris Wyles to feed Chris Ashton for a simple run in.  Where the man meant to be marking him, Miles Benjamin, was, I have no idea – possibly already trotting down the tunnel for halftime – however, the main issue with the score was the alleged forward pass that the TMO took about half an hour to rule on.  It was one of those cases where the viewpoint on whether it was forward or not depended on what angle you viewed the pass from – there were good arguments either way, but Barnes sided with the attacking team.  Farrell missed the conversion, but Sarries took a commanding 18 – 10 lead into half time.

Leicester, despite the last try, wouldn’t have been disappointed though with that scoreline – especially in the light of the fact Richard Cockerill had claimed that the wind was worth ‘15 – 17 points’.  Perhaps it was, but it certainly wasn’t for Leicester.  The pack started to rumble early on to try and wind down the clock for Kitchener’s sinbinning and build some pressure, but when Wayne Barnes bizarrely penalised Youngs for throwing the offside Steve Borthwick out of the way, the chance was lost and instead, Sarries charged up the pitch and claimed a great try of their own.  Following another strong maul from the pack, Wyles made good ground in the midfield, before quick recycling allowed Vunipola to crash through a gaping hole to go over from 5 metres out.  It was superb work by the Londoners’ pack, and abysmal by the Leicester side, with Austin Healey pointing out on TV coverage that the gap in the defence was due to Jordan Crane and other Leicester forwards walking back to the defensive line whilst the Saracens men charged past them at full tilt.

Leicester’s problems went from bad to worse as Terence Hepetema, on for Matt Smith at half time, made the unwise/moronic decision to attempt to tackle Vunipola with his face.  Unsurprisingly, he came off second best, and Leicester were forced to bring on winger Adam Thompstone in the centres as cover.  The Leicester pack, though, reinvigorated by the introductions of Tom Youngs and Marcos Ayerza, began to claim territory and started to batter the Saracens line with a succession of powerful rolling mauls, but Saracens were feeling particularly scrooge-like, presenting an impenetrable wall of defence which just would not be breached, with the likes of Ernst Joubert and Jamie George outstanding.  Time and time again, the Tigers were foiled by Borthwick and co.

The hope of gaining something from the game seemed to drain out of the visitors and, after Owen Farrell had been stretchered off following a bang to the head, Saracens delivered the knock out punch.  Neil De Kock easily outpaced Gibson round the back of the scrum and delivered a sumptuous scoring pass to substitute Jackson Wray to pick up Saracens’ bonus point try.  Further humiliation was on the cards for the Tigers though, as Sarries spent the last 10 minutes administering a thorough Christmas stuffing (sorry).  Following a yellow card to Thomas Waldrom, the hosts claimed a penalty try from a scrum before Ashton claimed his second, picking a smart line off an inside ball to dive over from close range, taking the final score to 49 – 10, and Leicester’s heaviest premiership defeat.

Saracens rightly enjoyed finishing their early Christmas roasting in the knowledge that they had sent out one hell of a statement.  They didn’t just beat the Tigers, they broke them – I have never ever seen a Leicester side give up, but with 15 minutes to go, that’s what they did.  Sarries were clinical, fast, aggressive and powerful, whilst Leicester were resilient in the first half before becoming abject Christmas Puddings in the second.  The lack of backbone in the final quarter of the game will ensure that Christmas spirit will be scarce at Welford Road this year.  As the memo from Richard Cockerill reads – Christmas is cancelled.