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Farrell on form as Saracens make inroads into points deduction
By Online Editors
England captain Owen Farrell kicked 20 points on his return to club duty as Saracens began to chip away at their daunting Gallagher Premiership points deduction with a 25-12 win at Bath.
The champions came to the Rec at near full strength for the first time since accepting their 35-point deduction and £5.4million fine for breaching salary cap rules. Bath had plenty of territory but lacked the kind of quality possession that Saracens created for the game's only try, finished off by wing Sean Maitland on 33 minutes.
Maro Itoje and Billy Vunipola were also making their first appearances for Saracens since the final on November 2, while Elliot Daly made his debut at full-back following his move from Wasps in the summer.
The home side, hampered by knee injuries to skipper Charlie Ewels, England wing Anthony Watson and number eight Zach Mercer, handed the captaincy to World Cup winner Francois Louw. Sam Underhill, another of the tournament's eye-catching performers, joined him in the back row.
Disappointing in the first two rounds of the Heineken Champions Cup, they were looking to recover the form that yielded morale-boosting home wins over Exeter and Northampton. They had won the last three meetings in the league against Saracens.
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Priestland kicked Bath into an early lead after Mako Vunipola was penalised at a Saracens scrum put-in. Farrell levelled the scores on 10 minutes only for Priestland to kick his side back in front from short range. With referee Karl Dickens strictly policing encroachments on the offside line, Farrell made it 6-6 on 17 minutes.
Bath generated a lot of the steam rising off the two packs in the cold night air. They won plenty of rucks but never slickly enough and the only reward for a long spell of pressure was a third penalty for
Priestland after Daly's no-arms tackle on Semesa Rokoduguni.
The 9-6 lead was short-lived as Saracens suddenly added power and pace to their game and Itoje made a telling burst in midfield. Quick ruck ball found Maitland in space on the left wing and the Scotland international touched down after a sublime sidestep.
Farrell converted and added a 40-metre penalty which gave the visitors a 16-9 advantage at the break.
There was a lucky escape for Bath soon after the restart as they tried to run the ball out from their own line and Rokoduguni's clearance kick was charged down. Saracens kept the pressure on and Farrell landed his fourth penalty.
Full-back Tom Homer offered a glimpse of attacking potential with a searing 60-metre break but Saracens scrambled back to kill the threat. Priestland and Farrell then swapped penalties again to make it 22-12.
A tiring Bath were being regularly penalised at the breakdown, whether in possession or defending, and Farrell landed a sixth penalty.
A yellow card for cynical play ruled Itoje out of the last nine minutes but Bath could not earn even a losing bonus point.
- Press Association
WATCH: Going Pro, the RugbyPass documentary on Saracens Women’s rugby team as they defend their Premiership title
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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