Saracens 26 - 8 Connacht

Final preseason match this evening.

Saracens:
Goode, Strettle, Powell (Taylor 55), Barritt (Mordt 60), Short, Farrell (Hodgson 41), De Kock (Spencer 41), Gill (Carstens 41 – Vunipola 60), Brits (George 55), Nieto (Du Plessis 55), Borthwick (Botha 55), Botha (Kruis 41), Melck (Fraser 55), Saull, Joubert (Wray 60).

Tries: Short (2), Saull
Convs: Hodgson
Pens: Farrell (3)


Connacht:
Gavin Duffy (capt); Tiernan O’Halloran, Eoin Griffin, Henry Fa’afili, Brian Tuohy; Matthew Jarvis, Frank Murphy; Dylan Rogers, Ethienne Reynecke, Rodney Ah You, Michael Swift, Mike McCarthy, John Muldoon, Johnny O’Connor, George Naoupu.
Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Denis Buckley, Jamie Stephens, TJ Anderson, Ray Ofisa, Paul O’Donohoe, Niall O’Connor, Dave McSharry

Tries: O'Halloran
Pens: Jarvis

The game was only 70 minutes due to bad light but Saracens looked good.

Connacht seemed to enjoy using spoiling tactics at the breakdown.

Infringing numerous times in the first half but no yellow card was shown bizarrely.

Saracens dominated possession and territory for large parts of the game. There seemed to be little Connacht could do as they were under relentless pressure throughout the game.

14-3 at half time for Saracens showed they were clearly in control.

The set piece was very solid which was pleasing to see.

3 tries in 70 minutes isn't a bad haul. Shame play stopped just before an attacking scrum near the Connacht try line.

The replacements overall gave a bright performance. Hodgson made an instant impact with a huge looping pass which created the space and opportunity for James Short to score in the left hand corner just after half time. Ben Spencer, the young Cambridge scrum half got the ball out quickly.

George Kruis didn't look out of place in the Saracens 2nd row when replacing Botha. Managed to snaffle a Connacht lineout too.

The other replacements didn't look out of place.

Strettle looked lively but is having difficulty getting over the try line. In comparison James Short scored two tries though the first one was essentially a walk in.

The backrow didn't seem to miss Kelly Brown and Jacques Burger too much. Justin Melck in particular had a very good game. He took the restarts very well, made some big tackles and made the offload for Saull to finish off a slick move.

It was much better than the performance against Bedford.

Will be interesting to see who is picked at fly half. Simplistically it is defence (Farrell) vs attack (Hodgson).

Overall a pleasing performance but the extra try for the unofficial bonus point win would have been nice.

I think this Connachtr side will take a while to gel, they lost key players, and replaced them, the replacement will take a wile to bed in. They also expanded the squad, and it'll take a while for them to get to know each other and Playing styles.

Overall though Connacht aren't the same team that got the reputation as woodenspoon champions, it'll take a while to shake of this tag, but anyone underestamating them will be in for a surprise.

Kingshu don't forget 8 of the Saracens squad were at the HC. The 2nd half the Saracens academy players were brought on.

I haven't heard of any of the Connacht lot. Didn't think the no 7 had a very good game for you.

Any professional sportsman who underestimates the opposition is a fool. It's alright for us fans to though!

Connacht will need to take some big scalps first.

That backline is starting to look pretty lethal with Hodgson in there, is Powell over the worst of his injury and back to full fitness?

beshocked wrote:I haven't heard of any of the Connacht lot. Didn't think the no 7 had a very good game for you.

Johnny O'Connor. HC winner with Wasps a number of years ago.

You are right Sam.

Yes Powell is back and looking good.

Barritt went down with an injury though. Don't think it's too serious though.

I still think Saracens are kicking too much though. Kicks should only be done from the 22 in my opinion.

I would be a little bit worried if I was a Wasps fan for the first game as it seems their entire backrow is crocked - Dan Ward Smith,Tom Rees and Joe Worsley are all allegedly injured so I expect our backrow to have some fun in the london double header.

Nice to see Andy Saull scoring tries again. Justin Melck played well. Ernst Joubert is a fine no 8.

Kicking is ok if there is an end product to it, George Ford's bouncing kicks leading to line outs in the opponents 22 are great. Nothing else on? Let's apply some pressure and use our good line out. Nothing on their full back isn't great, big up and under and let the flankers rough him up. This pointless kick to an open space rubbish annoys me. Even with a well set defence if you give possession to a creative player, they will punish you.

It's how Manu scored against Sarries at Welford Rd and it's how Short scored against Tigers at HQ. I would imagine that Hodgson will give you great tactical options from the boot as he's a bit more savvy than Goode and Farrell are currently, I say currently because after a season of tips from Charlie they'll start to flourish a bit more.

I hope so Sam. If Hodgson can help Farrell become more attacking he'll be excellent.

True Hodgson does seem to offer a lot of variety.

ooh I don't expect Connacht to beat a team like Saracens, especially away from home.
would expect Sacacens to be winners even with youth players coming on.

but Connacht will need to take some big scalps first, they do have an impressive record against Leinster, (much better than Ulsters), and I expect this year they will win some games people weren't expecting them to.

They have an interesting start, away to a Treviso missing many WC call-ups while they've only lost one player.

If these three preseason games stand them in good stead for the opening weekend they might be dangerous. But they're still learning each others names, so maybe not.