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Manu Vunipola boosts Saracens to give England cousins reason to be cheerful
By Online Editors
Manu Vunipola’s nerveless late penalty handed reigning champions Saracens a dramatic 16-13 win over valiant newly-promoted London Irish at Allianz Park.
Vunipola’s cousins Billy and Mako may have suffered defeat in the World Cup final earlier in the day but the young fly-half ensured that the family would at least have something to celebrate as he put a patchy performance from the tee behind him to slot the decisive three-pointer.
That came only a couple of minutes after Ben Earl had crossed to draw Saracens level and while Vunipola missed the conversion, he soon earned redemption and broke Irish hearts.
The Exiles had built a 13-8 lead when Albert Tuisue ploughed over 10 minutes into the second half, but the visitors had to settle for just a losing bonus point.
London Irish started the brighter and looked like they had scored a try within two minutes when Ruan Botha finished off a powerful drive. However, it was disallowed for double movement.
Stephen Myler gave the visitors the lead with a penalty after nine minutes, but this was cancelled out five minutes later by Alex Lozowski.
The first half was full of end-to-end action and, in the 26th minute, Saracens scored the opening try. A rolling maul by the hosts enabled Titi Lamositele to score and give them the lead.
Saracens failed to convert and then saw their lead cut five minutes later with Myler’s second penalty of the afternoon.
Already bad conditions worsened after the break as both sides found handling and kicking complicated in driving rain and temperamental winds.
In the 56th minute, lots of pressure from London Irish close to the try line finally paid off as Tuisue scored following a rolling maul. Myler’s conversion was good, giving the Exiles a five-point lead.
Sarries took their time to respond to London Irish’s resilience in only their third match back in English rugby’s top tier but they finally made the breakthrough with three minutes to go.
Another rolling maul led to a try for Earl – his third in two games – although the conversion was missed twice by Vunipola, as it was ordered to be retaken following encroachment from London Irish.
The match looked all set for a draw until Sarries were awarded a penalty and, as the clocked ticked down, Vunipola kept his nerve to slot the decisive kick.
Saracens can now welcome back a slew of first-team players from the World Cup with two wins from three under their belts in the league.
The game in pictures:
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Latest Comments
Smith generally isn't well connected to his forward pods; doesn't do a great job of distributing to those around him; and has inferior positional and contestable kicking games than Ford and Fin.
When England have had success over the past few years, its been either through (i) defensive rugby backed up with smart tactical kicking or (ii) high possession attacking phase play based on quick ruck ball. George Ford was key to the implementation of (i) in the RWC, and in the 6N win over Wales, and to the implementation of (ii) in the 6N games against Ireland and France. Smith did great at (ii) when running at tired defenders at the end of the Ireland match, but has never successfully implemented that gameplan from the start of a test because he doesn't distribute or support his forwards enough to create consistent fast ball and build attacks over multiple phases. Instead, his introduction to the starting side has resulted in much more playmaking responsibilities being forced onto whoever plays 9. Alex Mitchell copes ok with that, but I think he looks better with a more involved playmaking 10 outside him, and it really isn't a gameplan that works for JVP or Spencer. As a result of that the outside backs and centres have barely touched the ball when Smith has been at 10.
This might not have been too much of a disaster, as England have seemed to be moving slightly towards the sort of attacking gameplan that France played under Labit and Quins play (I think this was especially their approach when they won the league a few years ago - but its still a part of their play now), which is based on kicking to create broken field rugby. This is (i) a sharp departure from the gameplans that have worked for England in the past few seasons; (ii) bears very little relation to the tactical approaches of the non-Quins players in the England team; and (iii) is an absolute disaster for the blitz defence, which is weak in transition. Unsurprisingly, it has coincided with a sharp decline in England's results.
Go to commentsThe Stormers sloppiness show that they are a poorly coached side. Fortunately for them, so are the Sharks.
There are tougher opponents waiting and they will be punished heavily unless the coaching improves dramatically.
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