Tom Willis brace brings Saracens first Premiership win of season
Saracens number eight Tom Willis scored two tries in a 24-3 victory over Gloucester to ensure the reigning champions did not begin their Gallagher Premiership title defence with a hat-trick of defeats.
After losses to Exeter and Bath, Saracens were unfancied to come away from Kingsholm with a win but they took advantage of Gloucester’s first-half profligacy to ultimately run out comfortable winners.
Alex Lewington was also on the try-scoring sheet for Saracens, with Alex Lozowski converting all three and adding a penalty.
A kick from George Barton was Gloucester’s sole response.
Saracens conceded two scrum infringements in quick succession, which allowed Barton to kick his side into a sixth-minute lead.
Despite the near-perfect playing conditions, the opening 15 minutes were disjointed as both sides were guilty of needless handling errors.
However, Gloucester had much the better of that period in terms of possession and territory, aided by their opponents incurring the wrath of the referee at almost every scrum.
From another malfunctioning set-piece, Saracens conceded possession and the hosts looked to have capitalised when Zach Mercer forced his way over, but TMO replays showed the number eight had knocked on before touching down.
As a result, Barton’s penalty was the only score of an error-ridden first quarter.
It took Saracens 24 minutes to enter their opponents’ 22 but, when they did, they took their first scoring opportunity when Willis finished off a lineout drive. Lozowski converted and somehow his side held a four-point lead.
Two minutes later Saracens stunned their hosts by scoring a second. More careless handling from Gloucester saw the ball run loose for Lewington to twice kick the ball forward and then take advantage of a favourable bounce to score.
Gloucester’s woes continued when their talisman Mercer was forced off with an injury to be replaced by Jack Clement, but they soon received a boost when Saracens captain Mako Vunipola was booked for a head-high challenge on George McGuigan.
McGuigan left the field for a failed head-injury assessment but despite relentless pressure, Gloucester could not benefit from Vunipola’s absence and remarkably trailed 14-3 at the interval.
At half-time Saracens changed their tighthead, with Alec Clarey replacing Christian Judge before, five minutes after the restart, Vunipola returned from the sin bin without any damage done to the scoreboard.
Lozowski missed with a long-distance penalty before Gloucester gifted possession in their own 22 for Willis to brush aside two tacklers and score.
Gloucester were in trouble and made four changes in an attempt to reverse their fortunes, with Josh Hathaway coming on for his Premiership debut.
The young wing looked lively with a couple of promising runs but Saracens sealed victory when Lozowski made no mistake with a 45-metre penalty.
With six minutes remaining, Saracens replacement Ivan van Zyl was yellow-carded for a deliberate offside but it made no difference as Gloucester lacked the attacking nous to make it count.
Comments on RugbyPass
The URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“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 comments