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George the unlikely hat-trick hero as Sarries too good for Wasps
By Peter Hanson
Jamie George scored a hat-trick as Saracens piled the misery on depleted Wasps with a comfortable 38-19 victory at Allianz Park to move top of the Premiership.
Wasps headed into the match with several key players missing and had to name full-back Rob Miller at fly-half in the absence of regular 10s Danny Cipriani and Jimmy Gopperth.
And England hooker George was the unlikely hero as Sarries – for whom Brad Barritt made his 200th appearance – made it 18 straight home Premiership games without defeat, while consigning Wasps to a fourth straight loss - their worst sequence of defeats since 2014.
Sarries were fast out of the blocks and Chris Wyles dotted down in just the seventh minute after latching onto Alex Goode's excellent grubber kick before turning provider, his quick thinking setting up George to score under the posts.
Alex Lozowski stretched the lead to 15-0 off the tee, but Wasps got themselves on the board when Marty Moore scored off a driving maul.
However, three more Lozowski penalties either side of the break took the match away from Wasps, before George added a second off a maul and completed his treble from a line-out drive.
Jack Willis marked his first Premiership start with a try and Josh Bassett scored with the last play as Wasps rallied late on but the damage had been well and truly done.
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Latest Comments
Italians defended well. Luckily the scrums went well for the ABs.
Go to commentsYou were 'valuing' the players by you saying "they are not greats" though, I was pointing out another reason why they are greats, inside the team I mean (which is more important to selections on the pitch stuff).
Someone like TJ would be bitterly disappointed he didn't play on this end of year tour. He is still good enough to come on in that France game and ensure the team get the victory (with regards to how well Ratima had been playing). At the very least this is a 'sorry you didn't get that chance' offering, he's not here to get token farewell games, he will be playing to try and prove that he should have been on the pitch last week.
The other decision to play your best over the future is really personal though so can agree with your reasoning. Just sharing a slightly different perspective. I'll have to check the ratings and see how they went.
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