London Irish snap Saracens' unbeaten run in feisty encounter
Newly appointed England coach Steve Borthwick watched on as Gallagher Premiership leaders Saracens lost their unbeaten record in a feisty 29-20 defeat at London Irish.
It was Saracens’ first defeat in 10 league matches as a poor start and ill-discipline cost them dear.
Both teams had a player sent off in the first half and each side ended up scoring two tries, with Paddy Jackson’s five penalties proving the difference as the struggling Irish recorded a third league win of the season.
London Irish captain Adam Coleman was first to be dismissed in the 16th minute as he thundered into the head off Saracens hooker Tom Woolstencroft, who appeared to be knocked out before receiving lengthy treatment and being carried off on a stretcher.
Saracens flanker Ben Earl was shown the first red card of his career 15 minutes later for a high tackle on Tom Pearson.
Ollie Hassell-Collins and Chandler Cunningham-South scored tries for Irish with Jackson converting both.
Kapeli Pifeleti and Sean Maitland scored Saracens’ tries, with Owen Farrell kicking two penalties and two conversions.
Irish began strongly to secure a line-out platform in the opposition 22. From there, they secured possession to test Saracens’ defence to the full before Benhard van Rensburg’s pass gave Hassell-Collins the chance to brush past Farrell’s tackle to score.
Jackson converted but his side suffered an injury blow when centre Will Joseph hobbled from the field.
The hosts then received two setbacks in quick succession. First Farrell’s penalty put Saracens on the scoreboard to reward a period of sustained pressure before Coleman was sent off, leaving the home side seemingly with a mountain to climb.
However they still picked up the next points when Jackson kicked two penalties in quick succession as decisions by referee Matt Carley were continually questioned by Farrell.
The Saracens skipper also queried the red card shown to Earl in the 31st minute with Jackson again on target with the resulting penalty.
But an out-of-sorts Saracens remained in contention when replacement hooker Pifeleti forced his way over.
Farrell converted but with the last kick of the half Jackson slotted over his fourth penalty, this time from the half-way line, to give Irish a deserved 19-10 interval lead.
Five minutes after the restart, Saracens scored their second try. A speculative chip through from Elliot Daly bounced awkwardly for Irish wing Lucio Cinti, with Maitland on hand to pick up the pieces.
The visitors looked set to take control but Jackson succeeded with his fifth penalty to temporarily keep them at bay, before Rory Jennings was fortunate to escape with just a yellow card for a high challenge on Billy Vunipola with 20 minutes remaining.
Worse was to follow for Irish when they went down to 12 players, with Rob Simmons sin-binned for collapsing a maul, but remarkably a ragged Saracens could not score in their absence.
On their return, Farrell kicked a penalty but Irish secured a thrilling victory when Cunningham-South finished off a flowing move to send Irish’s biggest crowd of the season home happy.
Comments on RugbyPass
The 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.
1 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
11 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
18 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
11 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
20 Go to commentsVern challenging this Blues side might be the edge they need to fulfill their potential. Convincing results from strong D and strong carries are hard to argue against.
1 Go to commentsLove seems to add a strong back field defense with speed to close the gap and tackle to his ability to attack, kick and pass (an accurate long pass). This sets him an edge over some of the other names - JRK in particular. Has to be said that Jordan and Stevenson have also been exposed defensively while Love has yet to face test match intensity. Spoilt for choice.
1 Go to commentsHe’s strung together a few strong seasons, I’d like to see him in the ABs and build some depth along with Reiko and ALB. Levi Aumua hasn’t taken the step we hoped to see but time yet.
2 Go to commentsWhere has our good friend Pecos gone!? Similar place to the Crusaders D, the abyss.
4 Go to commentsNice piece Nick. I haven’t seen much of the brumbies this year so will keep my powder dry on charlie, but clearly has the speed and footwork to be damaging in space. Similar to Samu, I’d worry about the size of our pack if the likes of Mcreight and Cale were in the b/row together. Maybe Cale could play a similar finisher role like Samu did for Rennie’s wallabies. Has Cale leapfrogged wilson in your eyes? He obviously has the lineout, but harry probably better (although not great) in the physical stuff and also has great hands in the loose. You’d have to say mcreight and valetini are shoe-ins at 7/8, so the question becomes who matches best with them at 6 and on the bench. I don’t know if he has a high enough ceiling, but id love to see wright given a shot based on how much bad luck he has had with injuries. He may also fit that no-nonsense graft/work rate irish approach…? If schmidt wants size and a 4/6 tweener then I’d probably pick Uru. On the bench I’d have no idea, Wilson if you want to give valetini a rest, and maybe hanigan/wright/uru as 6 replacements.
18 Go to commentsWho the heck is Billy Fulton?
11 Go to commentsCale has all the potential no doubt. So has Harry Wilson except for his dumb arse coach over the last few years who told him just to run at brick walls all the time. Valentini would be devastating at 6. As he was until some idiot thought oh yeah, move our best player to another position. Not mentioning any flightless or thank you names of course. I very much dislike claiming one player is the saviour, because injuries are so prevalent in the game these days as the players are bigger and faster, so the discussion should be who are at least the best two players in one position. For me it’s Harry Wilson and Cale at 8 at the moment with Valentini or Hooper from the Brumbies at 6. Great options. Seru Uru should be in the reserves too. A game changer.
18 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a card waiting to happen, Cane has been out with injury as well as playing in Japan, I think they’ll go with in-Japan-but-still-the-man Savea. Samisoni Taukeaho will be Captain after 2027, so he might get some Captain minutes against an Italy or Japan.
11 Go to commentsDissapointed that after 7 years Crusaders could not have found a coach that believed their system and improved on it. What was he expecting?
6 Go to commentsPlaying the boks twice in a season is the definition of an abusive relationship…Jenny, get help
1 Go to commentsWatching the SA series no AI will motivate players like a Human can cause no matter your IP if you lack the hype to be super human or the level to go to the deep dark places you simply can’t win big games. France Ireland All Blacks and SA will surely get this AI but the end of the day it's luck and believe that matters
20 Go to commentsGet him and we need more having just watched chasing the sun series building test teams takes a lot of time and pain. We have to believe we can win the 2027 RWC. Whilst you at get Rod McQueen as Rugby Director. Is he still around?
18 Go to commentsRather AI than the disastrous and disappointing human errors of the last RWC final.
20 Go to commentsI still think Swinton is a better 6 than Valentini or Leota as he works harder in D and is a way better lineout operator. His carrying has improved out of sight over the last 12 months too. I’d be happier with: 6 - Swinton 7 - FMR 8 - Bobby V
18 Go to comments