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Saracens boss Mark McCall described Gloucester’s improvement under George Skivington as “remarkable” after his team suffered a 54-7 Gallagher Premiership defeat at Kingsholm.
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Gloucester missed out on the play-offs, finishing fifth after Northampton secured the remaining spot by crushing Newcastle.
Saracens, who will host Harlequins in the play-offs next weekend, rested England internationals like Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Billy Vunipola and Elliot Daly, and they fell to their second-heaviest defeat in Premiership history.
“Their improvement under George has been remarkable, really,” McCall said.
“Their squad isn’t that much different, to be honest. They’ve got a real back-bone now which wasn’t there before.
“They do the fundamentals very well, and they have got firepower to burn on the outside. They are going to be a real force to be reckoned with.
“It is always disappointing when you lose by that margin. I am not sure if the score reflected the effort we put into the match, to be honest.
“They were incredibly clinical when they got down our end. Their rolling maul was too good for us today. They scored at least four tries from the rolling maul. We huffed and we puffed.”
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Saracens showed 15 changes from the team that beat Northampton a fortnight ago, and McCall added: “I was the the person who made all the changes to the team.
“We had taken the decision to rest our XV for next week, and we will see next week whether that has paid off or not.
“We took a decision over what was best for us, we felt, and we will see next week whether that is a good decision or not.”
Gloucester were outstanding throughout, setting up a comprehensive success through first-half tries from hooker Jack Singleton, flanker Jordy Reid and full-back Santiago Carreras.
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Saracens had no answer, with Gloucester superior in all departments, and second-half tries were added by Singleton, replacement hooker Santiago Socino, Ollie Thorley, his fellow wing Louis Rees-Zammit and flanker Jack Clement, while fly-half Adam Hastings kicked seven conversions.
A Max Malins try and a Manu Vunipola conversion provided Saracens’ solitary points, although the cavalry will return to face Quins.
There was also some good news for England head coach Eddie Jones ahead of next month’s Australia tour, with Gloucester wing Jonny May making a second-half comeback appearance after five months out injured.
Reflecting on the result, Gloucester head coach Skivington said: “Sneaking in the play-offs would have been ideal, obviously, but I think in terms of what we could control I thought it was a really tight-knit performance.
“We wanted to get some maul drives going and our defence to be top-notch. We wanted to give a proper performance. The rest of it was always going to take care of itself, and it hasn’t fallen our way.
“I thought the boys stuck to process really well. I am very proud of them.
“Sometimes when you get ahead, it is very easy to ease up, but out of respect for everyone who comes here week in, week out, it was important to stick to what we are about.
“There is a huge amount for us to work on. If we want to be a top team year after year, we’ve got to get better in a lot of areas.
“The foundation is that we have a really good group of players who work really hard. There are good people, good leaders in there.”
On May’s return, meanwhile, Skivington added: “It was great to have Jonny out there, to get a little bit of a run-out and get rid of those cobwebs.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Will rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
2 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
2 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
3 Go to comments