Saracens shrug off salary cap crowd shaming to succeed at Gloucester
Saracens overcame their troubled week to record a deserved 21-12 win over Gloucester and the salary cap shaming antics of the crowd at Kingsholm.
The London club were fined over £5million and deducted 35 points for breaching the salary cap but the team seemed unaffected as it was business as usual for the reigning Gallagher Premiership champions.
Nick Tompkins and Ben Earl scored tries for Saracens, with Manu Vunipola adding three penalties and a conversion.
Gloucester’s tries came from Tom Marshall and Lewis Ludlow as Billy Twelvetrees added a conversion.
Saracens were greeted with a chorus of boos as they took to the field, with a group of home fans in The Shed waving fake money.
When the game started, the first penalty went against the visitors and the award was met with a loud rendering of, ‘Same old Sarries, always cheating’, which persisted throughout.
A 50-metre burst from Jason Woodward and an excellent raking kick from Danny Cipriani were the main features of the opening 10 minutes, which Gloucester dominated, but despite the concession of three penalties the visitors’ defence held firm.
Saracens were able to relieve the pressure with an excellent 50-metre touch-finder from full-back Matt Gallagher and then had the first chance for points but Vunipola pushed his penalty attempt wide.
A knock-on from Fraser Balmain gave Saracens a platform in the opposition 22 and when Gloucester were penalised at the first scrum of the match, Vunipola gave his side the lead with a simple penalty.
That was the only score of an evenly contested first quarter but a poor cross-field kick from Cipriani soon gave Saracens another opportunity, which they took when Tompkins forced his way over from close range.
Gloucester responded with an excellent individual try from Marshall. Ben Morgan made 30 metres to put the defence on the back foot before scrappy passing saw the ball eventually reach Marshall.
He took his chance in style by evading one defender, chipping the full-back and then going on to win the race for the touchdown.
Cipriani missed the touchline conversion before two penalties in quick succession from Vunipola gave his side a 16-5 interval lead.
After the restart, Saracens lost prop Ralph Adams-Hale, who was stretchered off with a leg injury but they looked to overcome this setback when Nick Isiekwe finished off a driving line-out only for the TMO to rule it out for an obstruction.
It mattered little for almost immediately, Saracens had another line-out and this time they made no mistake to get Earl on the score sheet.
Gloucester made wholesale changes which paid dividends as it allowed them to dominate the final quarter and they were rewarded when Ludlow forced his way over, but the hosts could get no nearer.
The match in pictures:
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments