Rugby Mad Blog

Yesterday’s game against Bath was a cracker. Saracens were without talismans in their team – Chris Jack has briefly gone back to NZ for a family commitment; Kevin Sorrell will be out for at least another 3 weeks with an ankle injury, and Captain Neil de Kock was pulled from the squad at the last minute to prevent a hamstring injury getting worse if played on, his place taken by Scrum Half Alan Dickens.

But despite facing a formiddable Bath side, the replacements and rest of the Saracens team held their hands (and heads) up to a man. They were strong in the tackles, dominant at the scrum (even scoring a couple against the head, despite being 6Kg lighter than the Bath bruisers). Glen Jackson was on song with the boot, scoring 6 out of 6 attempts at goal. And Brent Russell scored a brace of tries to help the Men In Black to an important 26-20 win.

[Brent Russell (the Pocket Rocket) shows Bath defender Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu a clean pair of heels]

There was plenty of adventurous play from both sides, and some great fast passes out of hand. Plus some big hits as usual!

[Bath hooker Pieter Dixon has trouble heading his way - in the form of two charging Saracens - Kris Chesney and Paul Gustard]

The much-vaunted new Bath signings Butch James [left] and Michael Claassens [right] also took to the pitch. James scored a lovely try in the 25th minute, but in the process dislocated his shoulder and will be out for 6 weeks. Ouch! Claassens was harries well by opposite number Alan Dickens, who has been short of game time for Sarries recently, but played a great match. (You can see more of my match photos here)

There were other casualties during the 80 minute too – temporary Captain Andy Farrell popped a rib and went off; Flanker Dave Seymour sustained a leg injury and forwards Fabio Ongaro and Hugh Vyvyan also took knocks. Due to Six Nations action next week, Saracens next game isn’t until 10th February, so there’s a few days to get the boys patched up before they face 11th-placed Worcester in Watford.

[Dave Seymour, another of the game's casualties, gets the ball out of a ruck]

Meanwhile, the Sarries coaching staff have made another big signing for next season, back rower Michael Owen [left] who will be leaving the Newport-Gwent Dragons for North London. Home-grown Ben Skirving has also extended his contract with Saracens until 2010. Initially overlooked by Brian Ashton for upcoming England squad, he’s now been called up after another injury hit the team – good luck to him over the next few weeks!

Talking of which, the Six Nations is nearly upon us once more. A lot of water under the rugby bridge since the last one. I’m pleased to say I’ll be going along to Twickenham for England’s first game against Wales next weekend. And I’ll be keeping a close eye on the other games too. Expext more posts soon!

The last post covered the end of the season matches, and I decided to go to the ECC Final, Bath Rugby against ASM Clermont-Auvergne at the Twickenham Stoop.

Bath Rugby vs ASM Clermont-Auvergne, ECC Final, 19th May

[Joe Maddock is tackled by Jamie Cudmore]

The game was a close-run thing, with a late kickoff, but it was a lovely summer evening for rugby. The light was really nice, and I was pleased with my photos from the game. Unfortunately, Bath couldn’t quite beat the Frenchmen, with Peter Short just losing control of the ball before it was grounded, and Clermont were 22-16 winners to lift the trophy [see below]

See more photos of the team and fans celebrating. It seems that Danny Grewcock couldn’t keep his temper in check during the game, and now faces a six week ban for striking an opponent. This rules him out of the World Cup warm-up matches on 4th and 11th August, and the start of the actual World Cup campaign, so I can’t really see him figuring very highly in Brian Ashton’s plans for the tournament.

Churchill Cup Finals Day, Twickenham, 2nd June

The first game with a morning kickoff, was the Bowl Final, seeing Canada take on the USA. Canada were very much in the driving seat, and ran away with the game, winning 52-10! Nothing much I saw worries me about England meeting the USA in the first RWC pool match in September, I’m afraid!

[Above, Canadian Flanker Adam Kleeberger is tackled by the USA's Chris Wyles]

Next up was the Plate Final, contested by Ireland A vs Scotland A. This was a very entertaining game, much closer than the try-fest of the first one, with the Irish eventually triumphing by a measly point, 22-21.

[Locks Andrew Farley and Mark Rennie engage in a bit of synchronised jumping]

The final proper was between England Saxons vs New Zealand Maori. Of course, this started with the obligatory pre-match Haka:

[The NZ Maori perform their own Haka, which is different to the one the Allblacks perform]

Another entertaining game, again close, but the Saxons managed to retain the upper hand and won 17-13. Good going, lads!

[The two packs prepare to hit in the middle]

So, that’s about it for the summer. I’m happy to say I have a ticket for the England vs France World Cup warmup game on 11th August, and will be back at Twickenham a week later for the more traditional start of season Middlesex Sevens Tournamet.

I might find a few things to post in the meantime, but don’t be surprised if it all goes a bit quiet for a few weeks!

It seems ages since I’ve done a blog, so this will have to be a roundup of the last few weeks.

Saracens vs Glasgow Warriors, ECC Quarter Final, 1st April

[Simon Raiwauli is tackled by Dan Parks]

Sarries won 23-19 to take them trough to the ECC Semi-Final.

London Wasps vs Saracens, GP match, 8th April

The next match was away at the Adams Park stadium in High Wycombe, for a Guinness Premiership match against Wasps.

It was a fantastic sunny day, and there was a party atmosphere in the car park and plenty of ale was had by all. Sarries lost out 27-26, right at the death. [above, Richard Birkett, takes a lineout ball, with Tom Ryder trying to get a hand to hinder him]

Sarries vs Quins, GP match, 13th April

The next week, it was back at Vicarage Road for another Guinness Premiership game.

[Yatesy puts the ball up his jumper and goes for a trundle]

Sarries were on good form again, and won 33-19, putting them in a good position going into the final games of the season.

Saracens vs Bath Rugby, ECC Semi Final, 22nd April

[Danny Grewcock gets some unwanted attention from Kris Chesney]

It was a tough game, and Sarries just missed out, going down 30-31, and putting Bath through to the final with Cleremont-Auvergne.

Despite that disappointment, Sarries season ended on a high in 4th place of the Guiness Premiership, and putting them back into the Heineken Cup for next season – now the wrangling between the various factions has been ironed out!

Do you realise what the date is? Remember what you were doing this time three years ago? Ah, glory days…

Now, we have to look forward to the weekend’s games and dream about what it would be like if we were still ranked #1!

Andy Robinson‘s picked the team for Round 2 against the Springboks, and he expects great things of Andy Goode. We certainly need a solid contender for the Number 10 shirt, now that Charlie Hodgson has joined Jonny in the injury camp.

Sheridan’s also got an extended time off with injury – so that’s three Sale big hitters now on the sidelines – Scotland back rower Jason White also sustained a serious knock during the game against the Pacific Islands, and is out for at least nine months. Sale must be worried that this triple whammy could well hinder their Guinness Premiership title defence.

Indeed, Saracens are equal on points with Sale in the Premiership right now, hovering at number six. Sale are at five only by virtue of having won one more match than Sarries:

As you can see, Sarries are not short of point-scoring ability either – they have the biggest tally so far, and fly-half Glen Jackson is the top points scorer in the Premiership (for the second year running) – he’s currently on 116 to Charlie Hodgson‘s 80, and poor old Charlie is unlikely to be scoring any more this season.

Bath and Worcester are struggling at the bottom of the table – Bath having only won two games out of 8 so far, and Worcester none. Something had to give – Worcester have just announced they’ve parted company with coach Anthony Eddy. More good news for Sarries, perhaps, as they are playing Worcester on Sunday at home. I’ll be at the match and will post some photos as soon as I can.

I had planned to visit Bath this weekend for their match against Connacht, but circumstances conspired against me, so I didn’t get to go in the end. Looks like Bath broke Irish hearts with an injuery-time try to level the scores, and Chris Malone put the conversion away for Bath to take the spoils, 21-19

Meanwhile, in the south of France, Saracens beat Narbonne 37-20, and came away with a bonus point to boot. I wasn’t able to attend that either, but I was keeping an eye on the game via the live updates webpage at saracens.com. It was quite fun watching for something to appear on the screen and shouting at my monitor when we scored a try!

Neil de Kock scored two tries, Jackson went over once, and the forwards battered Narbonne into conceding a penalty try. All in all, a good evening! Here’s a picture of Neil hounding the opposition scrum, from last week’s defeat of Glasgow Rugby.

But not such a good night for poor old Josh Lewsey, who twisted his knee during Wasps’ defeat to Perpignan. Let’s hope no more of the England boys go down with injuries before Andy Robinson has a chance to pick his team against the next week. I’ve got tickets, and I’m raring to go!!

Last Week:
Saracens couldn’t seem to get themselves together against Cardiff Blues. It was an EDF Energy [Anglo-Welsh] Cup Match and somehow, despite going in at half time up by 22-15, Saracens contrived to loose the match 29-40 by the time 80 minutes was up.

They didn’t have any sort of shape, and a couple of silly mistakes gifted the Blues scoring oppourtunities. All very frustrating.

Still, my pictures weren’t too bad. Here’s the Blues’ Captain Xavier Rush doing his stuff, with Andy Farrell on as a substitute for Sarries.

This Week:
Sarries ran riot against Bath, scoring SIX TRIES (yes, that’s Six), and ending up on the right end of a 55-23 scoreline! How did they do that? Dunno, but I don’t half wish they would do it more often!

Bath’s forwards are usually noted for their grunt, (left, three of the Big Bruisers line up for a scrum – Andy Beattie, Danny Grewcock and Peter Short) but this time round, they were being pushed all over the park. We had tries from Wingers, Centres, a rumbled-over drive by the forwards, and a great display of putting the opposition under pressure. Glen Jackson (man o’ the match) scored 23 points on his own via the boot. Everyone looked cohesive and the Neil de Kock/Jackson combo seemed to work really well. Seymour was sniping round the fringes again and our lineout was solid.

It means that, as of today, we’re now 6th in the table (see below), but have scored the most points in the Premiership – 157 so far. Bristol (still top of the table) have scored just 136. However, they’ve only conceded 76 points, whereas Sarries have 111 against them. So it looks like we need to get working on our defence, since it’s obvious we can score tries!

Great stuff guys, let’s see more of the same next week! We’re hosting Glasgow Warriors for the first European Challenge Cup pool match this Sunday. It will be great if they can keep the momentum going.

Finally, here’s a couple of pictures from the Members’ Bar after yesterday’s match – former Saracen/England Scrum Half Kyran Bracken presents the Man of the Match Champers to Glen Jackson.

You can also see more photos from the game at rugbypix.com – there are a shameless number of a certain Bath No 5 – I don’t care! He doesn’t play against Sarries very often, as he’s usually away on England duty when the Saracens/Bath fixtures are scheduled. So I made the most of it

The season kicked off in style on Saturday at Twickenham, with the London Double Header and 51,000+ fans shouting for their team. That’s one thing I love about Rugby – get the fans of say, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham packed together all over a stadium, and there would be chaos. But the four Premiership London rugby clubs can enjoy a day out at HQ with friendly rivalry, banter, singing and some silly mascot challenges on the pitch, without a hint of aggro.

Anyway, on to the games. They were both close. Quins were unlucky to go down by one point to London Irish, 20-19. There seemed to be a lot of kicking going on in that game. The weather had threatened a downpour, but it didn’t actually rain much at all. Just very windy – maybe their game plan had been biased for the wet and they were surprised when it stayed dry!

That’s a taster for the game, you can see more from the Irish v Quins match on my dedicated rugby photography site.

As for Saracens vs Wasps, Sarries went down by 2 points in the end, after having lead by a point at the break. Another kicking-heavy game, but there were a few tries scored – sadly for me, too many by Wasps!

Saracens played some of our new boys, notably Argentinian Winger Tomas de Vedia and Italian Hooker Fabio Ongaro. Here’s a photo of our new-look Fabio Front Row:

There’s more from the Sarries vs Wasps match, plus loads of others, at rugbypix.com.

As for the other matches over the weekend, Bristol gave Worcester a walloping. Sarries are away at Bristol next weekend – eek! Newcastle went down to Northampton, and Bath lost to Gloucester. The positive out of that match was Danny Grewcock scoring two tries! He’s obviously raring to go this season, which is great news for Bath and England.

Andy Robinson appears to have picked an exciting team to face Australia on Sunday. I really hope they can make an impression, it would be great to have more options come the World Cup.

The two Toms are on the wing – Voyce and Varndell – and both have bags of pace given enough room and the ball in hand. Just to prove a point, here’s a photo of Mr Varndell scoring under the posts after just 28 seconds of the match between Leicester and Bath at Welford Road last season. He doesn’t hang about!

Not rugby related, but I was browsing the silliness on the Halfbakery earlier, and two fab ideas stuck in the mind – first one was a suggestion to change the Eurovision Song Contest rules and make everyone sing in Esperanto. Genious! And the other one that caught my attention was the “I’m Not Crazy” sign for people talking on their bluetooth headsets on the phone. Some of the annotations to that one are priceless.

In her comment to one of my recent posts, Vixxxie1 raises an interesting question – does my presence at any given game act as a talisman or the Albatross-like kiss of death for the team I’m supporting?

This set me thinking, so I had a quick look at the stats for the games I have been to. It can get a bit confusing as I have several teams which I like – and my support will change depending who’s playing (fickle creature that I am!).

It basically goes like this – first choice for country is of course, England (or the Lions every four years). In the Premiership, it has to be Saracens, then Bath. But then I’ve been to a game between London Irish and Wasps and who was I rooting for then? Not really sure. Wasps, probably! So these figures (as with any stats) should be taken with a pinch of NaCl (that’s a chemically geeky joke, for those not in the know).

To summarise, if Saracens are playing then I’m gunning for them (although if its against Bath then my attentions get distracted by a certain Second Row beef), otherwise its Bath. The stats for Bath and Wasps were only counted when Sarries weren’t playing them, to give their totals below (Lost column includes draws too):

Team Won Lost % Won
England 3 3 50%
Lions 0 1 0%
Sarries 12 11 52%
Bath 1 2 33%
Wasps 2 1 67%

So what to make of it all? Not a lot really, except to say it’s a fairly small sample! And my presence doesn’t seem to make any difference either way. Maybe I should start supporting Wasps on these figures? No, I thought not…