Saints upset Saracens in gritty affair at Allianz
Responsible for putting the cat among the pigeons at the top of the table this week were Northampton, whose 20-15 victory over Saracens tightened the standings within the top five. What was more remarkable was the lack of a try for Mark McCall’s men, who had to make do with five penalties from the boots of Ben Spencer and Alex Goode, while Saints crossed twice through Steven Myler and Lee Dickson. Saracens’ current ‘rough patch’ will likely come to an end next week however, when they face London Irish.
Worcester drew blood in the latest bottom-of-the-table clash, beating Newcastle 15-14 at Kingston Park. Andy Goode was uncharacteristically spotty from the tee, but did convert two penalty chances in the first half to give the Falcons an early lead before Worcester drove over for the game’s first try through Dewald Potgieter, moments before half-time. Warriors wing Bryce Heem continued his promising debut season by scoring in the 60th minute to stretch Worcester’s lead to 15-9, helped by an earlier Tom Heathcote penalty. Inside the final ten minutes, Newcastle benefitted from the rolling maul, shoving Dan Vickers over the line but, with Goode off the field, Craig Willis pushed the final conversion wide and gave Worcester their first league away win in two years.
Elsewhere, Gloucester posted a surprising victory over red-hot Wasps by 13-10 and Bath alleviated some of their recent gloom by beating London Irish 25-17. Sale beat Harlequins 29-23 to draw level with Quins and Gloucester in the table, while Exeter finished off the weekend by failing to go ahead of Saracens at the top, falling 31-27 to Leicester despite a 21 point second-half comeback.
Aviva Premiership Star Man: Tom Croft
Leinster continue to nip at Connacht’s heels
Connacht resisted a late comeback from Edinburgh to win 28-23 and retain their narrow lead at the top of the Guinness PRO12. AJ Macginty and Jake Heenan scored in the first half after both sides failed to convert try-scoring chances, giving Connacht a 14-0 halftime lead. Edinburgh struck back through Chris Dean after the break, although Bundee Aki’s almost immediate reply put Connacht comfortably ahead by 21-5. Two further tries from Edinburgh, through Damien Hoyland and Cornell Du Preez, brought the Scots back to within a score but Connacht were again quick to parry and riposte, having one try disallowed and then putting Eoin McKeon in for the bonus point try. Edinburgh grabbed a consolation point with the last kick of the game.
Leinster preserved both their unbeaten home record in the league and their stingy ‘tries conceded’ count against Ospreys, winning 19-16 and restricting their Welsh visitors to one five-pointer. Dan Leavy scored Leinster’s first try, the only one of the first-half, and it was supported by Ian Madigan’s kicking display which added 12 points before the break for a 16-3 lead. In a second period that they won 13-3, Ospreys capitalised on the hosts’ missteps, first adding a penalty through Sam Davies and then with a Dan Baker try after an hour to bring the sides close at 16-13. Baker continued to rampage but found no way through, and Madigan and Davies exchanged penalties with Leinster clinging on to their win to extend their victorious streak in the PRO12 to four matches.
The other fixtures saw Ulster shut out Zebre 32-0 and Munster put up a similarly impressive scoreline against NG Dragons, winning 26-5, as both Irish sides push their way into late season contention. It was a mixed bag for the remaining Welsh teams however, as Scarlets held onto third place with their 24-15 defeat of Treviso but Cardiff fell 20-27 to Glasgow Warriors.
Guinness PRO12 Star Man: Dan Baker
Reshuffle in Top 14 elite
It was all change at the top of France’s domestic league, with Racing 92 moving into top spot once more after beating Agen 38-13. The first half was a relatively well-balanced affair with Bernard Le Roux scoring Racing’s first try to go with an earlier Dan Carter penalty, and Agen replying through a George Tilsley score. Virgil Lacombe gave Racing a 17-10 half-time lead with his first of two tries but in the second half Agen lost three players to yellow cards after Corentin Braendlin’s first half sin-binning and Racing cantered to victory. Lacombe completed his brace, with Joe Rokocoko and Juandre Kruger also scoring in the rout.
Thanks to Toulon’s 14-19 loss at the hands of La Rochelle, Clermont Auvergne were able to leap-frog last-week’s top team by beating Grenoble 45-12. Noa Nakaitaci gave France coach Guy Noves something to think about, finishing with a hat-trick to go along with tries from David Strettle, Jonathan Davies and Enzo Sanga, as Clermont outclassed their opponents in every facet. Two tries from number eight Rory Grice made the scoreline slightly more favourable for Grenoble, but took nothing away from Clermont’s five-point haul.
Toulouse and Brive played out a 21-21 draw with a remarkable ending, Sebastien Bezy having a game-winning conversion charged down for Toulouse. Stade Francais continued their torrid league season with a loss against Pau by 19-12, Bordeaux Begles recorded a big win against Oyonnax 48-20 to stay in the mix in fourth place and Montpellier narrowly defeated Castres 22-19, thanks to an Akapusi Qera try.
Top 14 Star Man: Noa Nakaitaci
Super Rugby finds its feet
The Chiefs followed up their opening weekend victory over the Crusaders by coughing up a surprise defeat against the Lions by 36-32. With little to no defensive play from either side, eight tries were scored in a back-and-forth contest. The Lions led for much of the match, thanks to tries from Malcolm Marx, Courtnal Skosan, Ruan Combrinck and Warren Whiteley although the Chiefs did snatch a brief lead in the second half. Their try-scorers were Tom Sanders, Damian McKenzie, James Lowe and Brad Weber, the latter of which brought the Chiefs to within four points. The New Zealanders won two penalties on the Lions’ try line within the closing minutes but no points were forthcoming.
The Brumbies came out on top of their all-Australian clash with the Waratahs, winning 32-15 and breaking a four match losing streak against the ‘Tahs in the process. Christian Leali’ifano opened the Brumbies’ account after nine minutes with a close-range try, which was answered by Israel Folau. The Wallaby full-back beat Joe Tomane on the way to the line for his first try of the Super Rugby season. 8-8 at half-time, the teams exchanged tries once more with Tomane crossing for the Brumbies before Nick Phipps hit back. A 69th minute penalty try for the Brumbies proved the turning point with Nigel Ah Wong landing the final blow.
The Highlanders made amends for their loss in Round 1 by narrowly beating the Hurricanes 17-16, thanks in large part to a phenomenal performance from Malakai Fekitoa, while the Crusaders beat the Blues 28-13 and the Bulls were too much for the Rebels, winning 45-22. Los Jaguares came down from their dream start last weekend with a 15-19 defeat at the hands of the Sharks, the Stormers and Cheetahs played out a 20-10 Stormers victory and the Reds fell to the Force 22-6 in a dire game in Brisbane, that has seen Reds coach Richard Graham shown the door just two games into the season.
Super Rugby Star Man: Malakai Fekitoa
Try of the Week: Nigel Ah Wong’s first Super Rugby Try after Joe Tomane’s miracle pass. Honourable mentions go to Kieran Read’s try following Nemani Nadolo’s super-bosh on Matt Duffie and the solo effort from Christian Wade that tore apart Gloucester’s defence.
Hero of the Week: Jean-Baptiste Pejoine, the Brive scrum-half who charged down Sebastien Bezy’s last-second conversion to save a draw for his side. Bezy will be having nightmares about this for years.
Video credit:
Villains of the Week: The entire squads of the Reds and Force for giving us a dismal slice of Super Rugby pie this week. The game stunk, and even tarnished the reputation of World Cup hero Ayumu Goromaru who was unconvincing in his first start at full-back for the Reds.
By Fraser Kay (@fraserkay)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
16 replies on “Best of the Weekend: Saints & Gloucester upset apple-cart”
The problem with Super rugby is teams just don’t know how to defend very well 😉
Would the refereeing in the Aviva class as villain of the week. Apparently the whistle blower at Sarries Saints mystified just about everyone including tv commentators, players, spectators and possibly himself and from reports I’ve heard from Tigers/Cheifs there was a lack of consistency there in cardings?
Only caught the last 10 minutes so can’t comment on the quality of the reffing. Was mildly surprised the Sarries didn’t role the dice and go for the win at the end deciding to secure the bonus point instead.
I wasn’t at the game or saw it. What’s undeniable is was it was another bad day at the office for Sarries and they are missing Faz and Charlie. Nils Mordt isn’t a prem class stand off unfortunately. From the guys I know who were there, they are laying blame firmly at Saracens poor performance. However, the referee didn’t, by all accounts, cover himself in glory and seemingly allowed himself to be influenced by Dickson whilst deciding to ignore Barritt.
Yeah Nils Mordt is pants and I’m always happy to see his name on the team sheet when they are playing us.
Harsh to criticize a ref when you haven’t seen the game yourself.
I wasn’t criticizing the referee.i was asking the question, based on reports given, as to the performance of the refs in both this game and Tigers Cheifs.
The ref was absolutely shocking Jez!! At one time I thought Barritt was just going to chin him, as he simply wouldn’t listen or talk to him to discuss any issues. I would love to know what the penalty count was?
The lack of consistency in the Tigers/Chiefs game wasn’t just in cards but in penalty tries. A truly shocking display.
Having caught up with the highlights of the weekends games it semi I may be justified in highlighting the inconsistencies of the reffing. Spencer yellow card was fair, but Dickson got away with exactly the same offence and more than once. And deliberate knock ons allowed to go in Tigers game when a dubious penalty try given against Cheifs.
It seems there is a new breed of refs coming in with little or no experience of playing the game, leaving them unable to use empathy in their desicions. This results in them reffing as if there are rules instead of laws.
Pretty much every single Premiership referee has played the game to some degree – several to a very good (regional/county) level: http://www.premiershiprugby.com/premiership/referees/premiership_rugby_referees.php
So to accuse them of having no empathy for the game is hugely wide of the mark and does a massive disservice to the mist difficult job in rugby. All referees have off days, just as players do. By the end of the season, I can almost guarantee you that the dodgy decisions for and against your team will have evened themselves out. (The real issue is the use of the TMO, but let’s not get into that here).
Rather than calling out the referee, why do you think Sarries lost again? It seems losing Gustard has been a massive blow, but equally their attack was pretty blunt. And Mordt’s decision to kick the ball out at the end instead of chase the win was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen on a rugby pitch!
Jamie I was at the Sarries game at the weekend, and I’m not normally one to criticise the ref, but I thought he had a shocker. The thing that annoyed me most was his lack of willingness to talk to Brad Barritt about the issues, whilst on the other hand both him and his assistants were talking to, and at times even seemed to be taking instructions from Lee Dickson. If you’re willing to talk to and listen to one captain, surely you should extend the same courtesy to the other.
Lee Dickson was habitually telling the assistants where the kicks had gone out of play, and actually walking back down the line with the assistants to where he wanted the line out taken. I don’t necessarily have an issue with this, as a lot of players do it and it’s part of the mind games during a match, but I do have an issue with the officials who actually listen to these players, and can’t make up their own mind where the ball went out, and follow the players instructions.
That’s fine Dazza, I accept that he probably had an off day – happens to every ref now and again. My issue was with tarring all referees with the same brush and claiming they lack empathy (I’m aware that wasn’t you).
I’m certain that at some stage this season Sarries will have the rub of the green and you’ll just chalk it up to good luck. These things tend to stick in the memory a lot longer when you’re on the wrong end of them!
I have already said Jamie that the blame lays squarely at Saracens door. The loss of the vast majority of first team players to international squads, injury (Charlie is a huge loss with Mordt playing) and suspension has hit them hard it is true, but that doesn’t excuse the performance (and recent other games vs Wasps for instance). Sarries are going through a blip at the moment.
However, the referee performance was not good at all, and this was replicated in other games, but particularly the Tigers game. I don’t disagree that refs do as good a job as possible but this shouldn’t put them above criticism, provided it is meant constructively. My assertion that some refs don’t seem to ref with empathy is meant that way and I’d hope ways could be found to help, in particular the younger guys (Maxwell Keys in particular) to develop that empathy.
And on the question of Saracens attack, there were signs of a willingness and ability to attack, none more from this blogs favourite whipping boy, Alex Goode. The fact that Saints, and in particular Lee Dickson, were able to infringe with limited disciplinary sanction, a liberty not extended to Saracens with Spencer being binned on the single occasion he infringed (a period in which Saints took control of the scoreboard), is also a contributory factor to Saracens loss.
However, you are correct, probably these ‘injustices’ will even themselves out over the season and yes, Saracens should have changed their game plan to deal with the refs performance.
Also I don’t think losing Gustard has been that much of a blow. All the coaches and players know the systems he put in place and to a degree they are still working.
What has made a big difference is losing most of our starting forwards to the Six Nations.
Whilst we had Jamie George back for this game (he played a blinder!!) we were still missing 4 of our best players from the pack.
As McCall has said several times, we new this would happen, and we have probably been quite lucky to get away with two wins, two losses and a drawer in recent weeks.
This weekends game in New Jersey against Irish is another potential banana skin as you’d think Irish will be pretty hyped up!!
The Toulouse kick should clearly have been taken again. There were at least two Brive players who had not retreated behind the goal line before the kick was struck.
Is it me or was Bezy’s kick going to hit the cross bar anyway. Seemed too low to go over regardless of the charge.
Defenders have one foot over the tryline so technically offside