Saracens 31 - 26 Ospreys

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Saracens (23) 31
Tries: Gill, Joubert, Wyles Cons: Farrell 2 Pens: Farrell 4

Ospreys (13) 26
Tries: Beck 2 Cons: Biggar 2 Pens: Biggar 4


Saracens edged an entertaining Heineken Cup pool contest at Wembley but a bonus point kept Ospreys in contention.

Sarries led 10-3 after an early Rhys Gill try before the first of Ashley Beck's two scores saw the Welsh region level.

But Saracens led 23-13 at the interval after a second try from Ernst Joubert and three Owen Farrell penalties.

Chris Wyles' try put them 28-16 up but Beck's second and Dan Biggar's fourth penalty rewarded the visitors' efforts.

The two sides will meet again at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea next Friday with qualification still very much up for grabs, Treviso's victory over Biarritz earlier in the day leaving the pool wide open.

Just an aside, the BBC website updates were sh!te last night. They said Bowe scored the first try, and that the match was played at Vicarage Road.

The defence would have worked if a defender had commited to putting more pressure on Hodgson. His long mis-passes is what allowed Sarries to gain ground. Fairplay, Saracens used their backline to great effect.

Btw, the BBC and it's journalists has been an epic fail for years now. That crook Murdoch could get someone to do a better job I bet.

maestegmafia, The coaching team needs to be changed. The same mistakes appear every season.

OD

I know it is such a shame...

There are bits and pieces where you see the teams potential, the influence that our excellent academy has had but all too often the team look under prepared compared their opposition.

This weeks performance could well have been attributed to several of the team being included only two days before the match having spent weeks out injured or with the national squad but there is more to it.

We need to see consistent selection in the back row... We are lucky to have several quality players available, but cramming five into the pack was a poor call.

I admit I thought it looked like a clever decision before the match. But I was wrong.

I think the Ospreys are turning into a Home team like the Dragons.
Luckily Benetton Treviso beat Biarritz Olympique 30-26 , which still gives us a chance of qualifing but frankly we have had to rely on other teams to keep us in the hunt.

If we beat Saracens at home next week, and get a winning bonus point over Treviso at home as well we can still qualify as second place.

Saracens have pretty much wrapped up this pool now though, all they need to do is beat Treviso away and a awful Biarritz at home and their top of the pool.

I think you are underestimating Biarritz and in particular Treviso's abilities at home...

Ospreys have a lot of work. Away to Biarritz is the trickiest game ahead of them..

maestegmafia wrote:I think you are underestimating Biarritz and in particular Treviso's abilities at home...

Ospreys have a lot of work. Away to Biarritz is the trickiest game ahead of them..

I'm not sure what to make of Biarritz at all, they have played 15 games this season, won 3, drawn 2 and lost 10!
Secondly I'm not sure how interested they are going to be last match up knowing they are already probably out of the competition, they might well just concentrate on not getting relegated from the French Top 14 considering they are bottom of the league at the moment.

They are already 3 points adrift of Lyon who are 13th in the league and 5 points off 12th placed Perpignan, when you consider LYon have already gone to Biarritz and got a draw you wonder if Biarritz may start to panic a bit.

Thay have had some real wallopings lately for mid ranked French teams and confidence is on the floor for them.

"If we beat Saracens at home next week, and get a winning bonus point over Treviso at home as well we can still qualify as second place." -- AlynDavies, if we fin ish second, we won't qualify because we'll have insufficicient points. We're on 7. A win against Sarries and Treviso could add 8 -10 pts, which would put us on max of 17 for the match against Biarritz away. Hard to see us beating Biarritz away -- all French teams are strong at home and quite frankly Biarritz were the better side against us at the Liberty, so we were lucky to win that one (as recall, Balshaw had a try denied near the end that shoudl have been given).

Ian Evans, unless he was injured, should have started against Sarries. He was our best plauer against Aus and he's suffered injuries for the last 2 -3 seasons and is starting to show what he can do. His Wales form should have ben rewarded. Yet another very poor decision from the coaching team responsible for selection.

From an 'I was there' persepctive, I think the scoreline was closer than most of the match, but Ospreys came back well from mid way through the second half. The two keys to their improvement were the sin binning of Farrell and the substitution of Britts - after Sarries had been full of ideas and creativity for the first hour, they sat back and your guys did a good jiob of building the pressure.

WTF was Biggar thinking putting the ball in touch with 20 seconds left on the clock?

Two best moments of the game - Biggar's chip through for Bowe before the first Os try (had a bit of luck that Bowe's pass was deflected to Beck for the simple run in, but the weight on the kick and the seeing of the space had a touch of class), and Britts back of the hand flick pass to Wyles to score Sarries 3rd try.

Saracens can be a very frustating team to watch. Played excellent rugby in the first half - very positive but in the last 25 minutes reverted back to aimless kicking. Real loss of intensity.

Brits and Hodgson do make a huge difference to our attacking firepower as predicted. Brits was a constant menace - always getting over the gainline. Hodgson was exactly as a playmaker should be.

When both went off we lacked the ability to score that elusive 4th try.

Actually most of what I have said went as it should. When Saracens play positive rugby,take risks etc they are actually a very dangerous team who can score tries. I said Saracens should target the O's lineout they did just that - the reward was a try in the 3rd minute.

If you are winning by 12 points playing a certain way why change plan?

Owen Farrell had a very poor game - he got sin binned which proved very costly, he gave away an easy kickable penalty and missed about 3 kicks. I am now under the belief that as a fly half he simply hasn't got the attacking ability needed. When Hodgson went off the game turned into a kicking contest.


Credit to Ospreys should be given. In the first half they really relished running with ball in hand and it made an excellent spectacle. That no 15 looked very sharp and good indeed. Despite being behind the entire game (bar the first 2 minutes) Ospreys were dogged and hung in there. Saracens never seemed to truely shake them off though they should have.

In the end I was quite disappointed with the result. I genuinely feel Saracens could have got that 4th try and prevented the O's that losing bonus point. Opportunity lost in my opinion - could regret that.

The two keys to their improvement were the sin binning of Farrell and the substitution of Britts

Couldn't believe it when they subbed Brits and Hodgson. Those two were key to the platform they were building in the game. With Farrell moving up to 10 Sarries lost the ability to have a wide play maker swtiching their point of attack which was pulling the Ospreys defence all over the shop. Farrell's yellow card was the third use of the shoulder I've seen from him this season. His dad should have a word as he was playing well before then and his absence hurt his side.

Dummy Half are you going to come to Swansea for the Return Fixture?

I am disappointed in the way we played, Ospreys let themselves down badly. Selection might have been an issue, I thought the Backrow style back five looked like a good idea, in hindsight I preferred it when Gough came on. I would rather have seen more positionally specific experience in the pack.

As DH says above, watching the match Sarries looked as though they did enough to get away with more than a seven point lead and they let themselves down but not doing that. Kind of a shinning light out of the match.

If you take the old adage that home advantage is effectively seven points in the bag already then the Ospreys should win at home next weekend. Biarritz away is a big game not impossible, certainly thought Sarries should have done better out there.

But the game that everyone foolishly takes for granted is that Sarries will beat Treviso in Italy...! Hopefully after you have seen them earn a draw out of the Ospreys and beat Biarritz you will realise that they are not the push over you all presumed.

Yes maestegmafia of course Ospreys were rubbish. It's the only way opposition can beat "the one true region". You seem to forget you were playing the English champions. I said not to underestimate us and you still are! I told you what Saracens were capable of and they outplayed you for 50 minutes scoring 3 tries.

I thought before the game you relished having 5 backrowers in the side. When you come up against a lineout run by Borthwick you shouldn't be complacent.

He might not have been effective on the international stage but as a club player,captain and lineout operator he is excellent.

Saracens have an excellent away record. They have crushed Treviso already. Saracens do not lose many matches as you have just found out. Will Treviso away be a walk in the park? Of course not but everyone knows Saracens are definitely capable of getting the 4 points minimum.

beshocked wrote:
Owen Farrell had a very poor game - he got sin binned which proved very costly, he gave away an easy kickable penalty and missed about 3 kicks. I am now under the belief that as a fly half he simply hasn't got the attacking ability needed. When Hodgson went off the game turned into a kicking contest.
.

That's a pretty big admission from you there mate. You were always one of Farrels staunchest supporters. Owen is a pretty good player for his age but he gets an arm chair ride beyond your awesome pack which has allowed him to look good, whilst sitting back and not really attacking. This has lead to his propensity for kicking the ball away... but when you've got a team who can win the ball back at the restart why wouldn't you?

Sarries should have won that game by a lot more than they did, as they looked comfortably incontrol, were never really in any danger of losing the lead, but silly errors let O's keep chasing. Taking Brits off was baffling as he was having a great game and breaking the gainline constantly.

Think they will be disappointed not to have racking up a BP win there.

Metal Tiger I like to say it as it is. I have been a staunch supporter of Owen as you know but I want him to learn from Charlie. You need to be able to attack. Saracens generally flourish in attack when they have a proper experienced playmaker like Glen Jackson was and Charlie Hodgson is now.

Yes Saracens will be disappointed. The 50 minutes was heartening though. Nice proof of what Saracens are capable of.

A try bonus and preventing O's the losing bonus is definitely an opportunity lost. Credit for O's for continuing to chase though. They hung in there.

Well done to Sarries for winning a good game.

Two very different halves; Ospreys made a lot of unforced errors in the 1st half and had poor discipline, while Sarries were spreading the ball well at times (felt they didn't make quite what they should out of a couple of overlaps, though) and looked good for the win. I thought the tide turned a bit in the 2nd half, and it looked as though Ospreys might even sneak it in the end. Hodgson going off made Sarries look a bit toothless. But overall, the result was about right.

Great crowd, lovely stadium, but what on earth was that stuff with the guys in pyjamas running across the field?