Unwanted England star saves day as Saracens mount unlikely comeback
Saracens produced a magnificent comeback to seal a 45-39 victory over Northampton and maintain their unbeaten Gallagher Premiership record in a thrilling game at the StoneX Stadium.
Saracens looked sure-fire losers when rampant Saints led 39-17 after 52 minutes but – aided by two yellow cards for Northampton – the home side conjured up a miraculous recovery to leave Saints holding their heads in their hands as to how they ended up losers.
Sean Maitland scored two tries for Saracens, while Gareth Simpson, Josh Hallett, Ben Earl and Elliot Daly added one apiece, with Alex Goode kicking a penalty and five conversions and Alex Lozowski adding a conversion.
Fraser Dingwall scored a hat-trick of tries for Northampton with Mike Haywood and Courtney Skosan also on the try-scoring sheet. Finn Smith added four conversions and two penalties.
A third-minute penalty from Goode gave Saracens an early lead but it was Saints who scored the first try of the game when Haywood finished off a driving line-out.
The hosts then suffered two blows in quick succession. First prop Robin Hislop departed to fail an HIA before a well-timed pass from Rory Hutchinson created the space for co-centre Dingwall to crash over for Northampton’s second.
Smith converted both tries to leave Saints with a deserved 14-3 lead at the end of a lively first quarter.
Saracens were lethargic in that opening period but they sprung to life with an excellent try. On halfway they moved the ball wide for Daly to make the running before providing Maitland with an easy run-in.
Goode converted from the touchline before his side suffered another injury blow when full-back Malins left the field with a leg injury.
Goode was off-target with a 40-metre penalty attempt before the irrepressible Saracens captain Earl had a try ruled out by the TMO for crossing earlier in the move.
To compound a miserable five minutes for the home side, Goode was harshly penalised for a late tackle with Smith knocking over the resulting kick before the outside half made a clean break to send Dingwall racing away for his second.
Smith converted and added a penalty with Saracens’ woes continuing when they lost replacement prop James Flynn to another HIA failure, resulting in passive scrums.
The home side badly needed a response to stem the tide and got one when Andy Christie burst away to give Maitland his second to leave the hosts trailing 27-17 at the interval.
Two minutes later, Saracens prop Marco Riccioni became their fourth injury victim, being helped off with a leg problem to be replaced by Ethan Lewis and leave them with two hookers in the front row.
The game looked up for luckless Saracens when Dingwall completed his hat-trick to reward a neat round of passing with Smith missing the conversion to end a run of 17 successes since joining Saints.
A burst from Angus Scott-Young created a try for Skosan but Saints lost lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto to the sin-bin for a high tackle.
That was the boost that Saracens needed and they gave themselves a glimmer of hope when replacements Simpson and Hallett both scored converted tries in quick succession.
Salakaia-Loto returned from the bin to temporarily stem the tide but Saints scrum-half Tom James – seconds after coming onto the field – was yellow carded for a high tackle to set up a tense final eight minutes.
Earl raced over for a try that his man-of-the-match performance deserved before Daly completed the remarkable comeback with the match-winner two minutes from time.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why 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 commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments