Saints vs Saracens - Friday 1945

[Which Tyler]

That penalty gives Saints a 9 point lead but if they'd opted for the 5m scrum they've been dominant there all game so the Sarries backrow has to stay on and Saints first phase play surely good enough for a try.

IMO...
2 score lead or 2 score lead.
Take the points, rather than the potentlottery in the scrum

[Adam_P]

Fucking get in. Expected more tries - not great for my fantasy team!

[Which Tyler]

Fantastic!

[Banquo]

the scrum wot done it

[Banquo]

Coles was excellent

[FKAS]

The Ice Man not kicking tonight. Could be a significant blow for Sarries that.

………. and Mels said you don’t have a sense of humour

[FKAS]

That penalty gives Saints a 9 point lead but if they'd opted for the 5m scrum they've been dominant there all game so the Sarries backrow has to stay on and Saints first phase play surely good enough for a try.

IMO...
2 score lead or 2 score lead.
Take the points, rather than the potentlottery in the scrum

The scrum would have taken more time out the clock and then given Saints the chance to run a first phase move an 11 or 13 point lead would have meant Sarries need two tries. Instead of a try and a penalty. The significant chance of Saints also getting a scrum penalty which would have made the first phase move a free play would make it even better and potentially eat more into the clock.

Didn't matter in the end as Saints got the job done.

[Adam_P]

I normally enjoy a good moan about the ref, and I definitely shouted at him a few times during the game, but thought Ridley was very decent

[Danno]

Sarries would maybe have more to moan about, the mauls were a bit loose. But Sir had a good game, been quite impressed with him when I've seen him this season

If we could get Dickson and Carley back to national games only we'd have grounds to complain about the standard of international refs

[Beasties]

Saints winning just fills my heart with joy.

[FKAS]

I normally enjoy a good moan about the ref, and I definitely shouted at him a few times during the game, but thought Ridley was very decent

I don't particularly rate Ridley but thought he has decent last night. Stayed consistent at the breakdown where Sarries just didn't adapt. Sarries fans might have a moan about a couple of the scrums though, when Saints got on top they got all the decisions even when some of the angles weren't particularly straight.

It was a good end to end game and sir played a part in enabling that.

[twitchy]

Well done saints. It seems like an end of an era for sarries with the player departures.

[FKAS]

Well done saints. It seems like an end of an era for sarries with the player departures.

Very much so. Looks like the current era were running out of gas though. Neither Vunipola nor Farrell were at 100%. Sarries have got some good players coming in as replacements but how quickly they can get them up and running will be a real test for McCall. Particularly at halfback where Johnson is young and Burke hasn't played in the Prem before and the incumbent 9s don't exactly set the world alight.

[Which Tyler]

Well done saints. It seems like an end of an era for sarries with the player departures.

It really does.
Does this mean we can stop hating them as salary cap cheats? Or does the continued presence of McCall, Itoje and Daly keep that alive?

Time will tell, I guess.

[Puja]

Saints winning just fills my heart with joy.

A win for the good guys. Good for England too, in several respects: confidence in the Saints youngsters in not losing another semi, reward for the best attacking team that will hopefully guide more of the same from England, a rare weekend of rest for Maro Itoje.

Puja

[Banquo]

I normally enjoy a good moan about the ref, and I definitely shouted at him a few times during the game, but thought Ridley was very decent

I don't particularly rate Ridley but thought he has decent last night. Stayed consistent at the breakdown where Sarries just didn't adapt. Sarries fans might have a moan about a couple of the scrums though, when Saints got on top they got all the decisions even when some of the angles weren't particularly straight.

It was a good end to end game and sir played a part in enabling that.

Sarries bossed the breakdown first half, but then got frustrated when Saints adapated; Ridley did actually penalise Waller for a bad angle even when they were well on top. He was very quick on the whistle at scrum time, very few re-sets- which was good in terms of game flow I guess and set the scene and disrupted Sarrie awkward at scrum time routine.

[Mikey Brown]

I missed this, as I seem to miss all rugby now, but how did any of the England prospects get on?

The only snippets I’ve seen are Furbank’s magic pass to Odendaal and Farrell turning on the pace to leave Ethan Waller in the dust and grubber through for Lewington.

Obviously Curry won’t be near 100% but he looked fit and moving okay when he got on?

Is Davison in the picture at tight head?

[Banquo]

I missed this, as I seem to miss all rugby now, but how did any of the England prospects get on?

The only snippets I’ve seen are Furbank’s magic pass to Odendaal and Farrell turning on the pace to leave Ethan Waller in the dust and grubber through for Lewington.

Obviously Curry won’t be near 100% but he looked fit and moving okay when he got on?

Is Davison in the picture at tight head?

Furbank threatening going forward, and magic pass as you say. Freeman was good in the air, bit shaky positionally in defence, not much to do in attack. Sleightholme's tackling was poor, looked dangerous going forward and nearly created himself a try. Dingwall was solid and put some nice passes in and one that Mitchell could have scored from (Gonzalez amazing cover tackle...worth watching for that alone). Fin Smith was pretty tidy. Mitchell got MOTM but I didn't think he was that good- got scragged a few times and went the wrong way a few times too- always challenging tge defence tho. Langdon was excellent bar some sloppy throws. Davison very good at scrum time, less so in the loose. Coles was very good, high energy high tackle count and good at the lineout. Pearson was a bit disappointing tbh.

[FKAS]

I missed this, as I seem to miss all rugby now, but how did any of the England prospects get on?

The only snippets I’ve seen are Furbank’s magic pass to Odendaal and Farrell turning on the pace to leave Ethan Waller in the dust and grubber through for Lewington.

Obviously Curry won’t be near 100% but he looked fit and moving okay when he got on?

Is Davison in the picture at tight head?

Furbank threatening going forward, and magic pass as you say. Freeman was good in the air, bit shaky positionally in defence, not much to do in attack. Sleightholme's tackling was poor, looked dangerous going forward and nearly created himself a try. Dingwall was solid and put some nice passes in and one that Mitchell could have scored from (Gonzalez amazing cover tackle...worth watching for that alone). Fin Smith was pretty tidy. Mitchell got MOTM but I didn't think he was that good- got scragged a few times and went the wrong way a few times too- always challenging tge defence tho. Langdon was excellent bar some sloppy throws. Davison very good at scrum time, less so in the loose. Coles was very good, high energy high tackle count and good at the lineout. Pearson was a bit disappointing tbh.

Agree with that.

The only concern I had with any of the England cohort was that Freeman struggled to get into the game in attack and that Furbank looked iffy under the high ball, came for two or three and caught none of them. Minor things really. Good day at the office for the Saints.

With the injury to Chessum it's good to see Coles in such good form. Pearson has had injury issues, his lack form perhaps understandable.

[FKAS]

I normally enjoy a good moan about the ref, and I definitely shouted at him a few times during the game, but thought Ridley was very decent

I don't particularly rate Ridley but thought he has decent last night. Stayed consistent at the breakdown where Sarries just didn't adapt. Sarries fans might have a moan about a couple of the scrums though, when Saints got on top they got all the decisions even when some of the angles weren't particularly straight.

It was a good end to end game and sir played a part in enabling that.

Sarries bossed the breakdown first half, but then got frustrated when Saints adapated; Ridley did actually penalise Waller for a bad angle even when they were well on top. He was very quick on the whistle at scrum time, very few re-sets- which was good in terms of game flow I guess and set the scene and disrupted Sarrie awkward at scrum time routine.

Sarries did disrupt really well at times but towards the end of the first half they gave away kickable points from trying their luck at the breakdown and putting hands on the floor. Ridley was hot on that and as the Sarries jacklers started to fatigue the consistent officiating there started to really tell against them.

[Puja]

Langdon was excellent bar some sloppy throws.

I'll take umbrage with that - none of the stolen lineouts were due to sloppy throws; they were all excellent defence or poor calling. I'd say he was just excellent, without the caveat.

Puja

[Adam_P]

Thought Theo Dan made an impact when he came on too. Think we might be in a similar position with England hooker/captain as when Hartley was in place and George was coming up. I don't think George is the best hooker available, but will his experience and captaincy keep in him the side for longer than he should be?

[FKAS]

Thought Theo Dan made an impact when he came on too. Think we might be in a similar position with England hooker/captain as when Hartley was in place and George was coming up. I don't think George is the best hooker available, but will his experience and captaincy keep in him the side for longer than he should be?

George does have a size advantage on the other two which does help, not often you find someone his size and that mobile. As good as Langdon was last night there was a couple of occasions when he carried hard into a couple of carriers and got spotted. George has the extra mass to generally avoid that but obviously then doesn't have the explosive ball in hand option the other two do.

I do agree there is a danger of George staying in as he starts to decline but I don't think we've hit that point yet.

[Mikey Brown]

Thanks for the rundown.

Is George considerably bigger than the other options? Dan looks like quite a unit. He doesn’t even seem that mobile anymore though I do agree it makes sense to keep him in place and demand another hooker takes the shirt from him.

Good to hear smarty pants Coles is doing well. I guess he’s fighting Ewels for the fourth lock spot at the moment, but obviously the better long term choice.

That Gonzalez tackle was ridiculous, it doesn’t quite make sense how he caught up with Mitchell but maybe he was a bit knackered at that point.

I’ve just realised I was asking how Tom Curry got on, which is obviously a different game only happening now and annoyingly I can’t see that one either.

[FKAS]

All Rugby stats have Jamie George roughly a stone heavier than the other two.