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Saracens make light work of Gloucester
Tom Parton scored the earliest hat-trick in Gallagher Premiership history as Saracens eased to a 46-24 victory over a much-changed Gloucester at the StoneX Stadium.
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It took just under 21 minutes of the game for Parton to run in the first three of the seven tries Sarries scored as they consolidated their place in the top four and put their Investec Champions Cup thrashing against Bordeaux Begles behind them.
They were helped by Gloucester making 11 alterations from their European Challenge Cup quarter-final win against the Ospreys, although winger Josh Hathaway did claim a hat-trick of his own for the visitors.
It took Saracens seven minutes to open the scoring when the ball went through the hands of Aled Davies, Owen Farrell and Alex Goode before Parton finished down the left, with Farrell converting from out wide.
Parton made it a double in the 12th minute when he was found in acres of space by Goode after he had been picked out by a long pass from Farrell, who again added the extras.
A quickfire hat-trick for the former London Irish man was then completed when he nipped in again down his wing after Davies had broken away from a driving maul.
Sarries thought they had secured the try bonus point after half an hour when Tom Willis burrowed over, but a knock-on by Ben Earl at the preceding ruck led to the score being ruled out.
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The hosts were, however, playing with an advantage and ensured they finished the attack with three points as Farrell knocked over a simple penalty.
It took less than two minutes of the second half for Saracens’ 22-0 half-time lead to be extended when Theo McFarland rose above Jake Morris to gather Farrell’s cross-field kick and score Sarries’ fourth try.
To make matters worse for Gloucester, they had Albert Tuisue sent to the sin bin for making head-on-head contact with Rotimi Segun.
Having been denied earlier, Willis did get on the scoresheet in the 57th minute when he was given an armchair ride to the line off the back of a driving maul.
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Gloucester finally got themselves on the board with an hour played when Hathaway chased down a neat kick through from hooker Seb Blake to score.
Normal service was quickly resumed, however, when Manu Vunipola went through a gaping hole down the centre before his pass put Olly Hartley in the clear.
Saracens soon had their seventh try when Hartley timed his pass to put Lucio Cinti into the corner on the left.
The Cherry and Whites belatedly rallied late on as Hathaway completed his treble by cashing in on a couple of loose Sarries’ passes before Blake went over off the final play.
Comments on RugbyPass
Kok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
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