Comeback victories for Saracens, Leicester
Saracens fought back from a 13-0 half time deficit to beat Bath 19-13 and cement their position at the top of the Premiership. Tom Homer’s 13th minute try was converted by Rhys Priestland before the Welsh fly-half added two penalties to conclude Bath’s scoring for the afternoon. In the second period, the boot of Charlie Hodgson brought Saracens within a try’s range of the visitors, and Schalk Brits pounded his way over with 10 minutes to go, levelling the scores after Hodgson’s conversion. Two examples of ill-discipline from Bath gave Hodgson two more pops at goals, both converted, giving Saracens an uncomfortable victory.
Gloucester threw away a 12-0 lead to lose 18-19 against Leicester. Two tries in quick succession from James Hook and Ben Morgan put daylight between the sides, before Leicester roared back into contention. Three tries from the Tigers through Marco Ayerza, Telusa Veainu and Logovi’i Mulipola brought the score to 18-17, before Tommy Bell’s final conversion made the difference for Leicester.
Wasps and Northampton kicked off the weekend with a clash at Franklin’s Gardens, and Wasps laid to rest an 11 year drought at Saints’ home ground by winning 24-11. The visitors scored three tries in the first half hour, through Dan Robson, Rob Miller and Josh Bassett, which gave them a lead they never relinquished. Northampton scored a late try with Sam Dickinson powering over, but Saints have now lost three of their last four games.
Sale found a second wind to dismiss London Irish 38-10. The Sharks ran in six tries, four of which came in the second half, with the scoresheet featuring Brian Mujati, TJ Ioane, Sam James, Sam Tuitupou and Nev Edwards.
Despite Worcester’s best efforts, Exeter ran out 30-15 winners at Sixways, scoring four tries for the bonus point. When James Short strolled in for the first try for the Chiefs after just two minutes, it seemed as if the rout was well and truly on. However, Tom Heathcote kept the scores close with two penalties before Exeter hit their stride. Ian Whitten, Thomas Waldrom and Dom Armand crossed for Exeter while Heathcote kicked nine more points, leaving Worcester trailing.
Newcastle and Harlequins provided arguably the most Premiership result of the weekend, with Newcastle upsetting Quins 26-19. Newcastle lead early thanks to Scott Lawson’s try and an Andy Goode penalty. Harlequins scored all of their points in a furious seven-minute burst with Charlie Walker scoring tries either side of Dave Ward, before Dan Vickers scored for Newcastle in the dying moments of the game and Andy Goode, after adding a further three penalties prior to the score, converted the try giving Newcastle just their second win of the season.
Aviva Premiership Star Man: Rob Miller
Ospreys & Glasgow share the honours
Ospreys and Glasgow Warriors played out a tense 20-20 draw at Liberty Stadium. Both sides scored two tries, both converted and then scored two penalties, with Eli Walker and Daniel Evans scoring for Ospreys and Rory Hughes and Gordon Reid crossing for Glasgow. Duncan Weir and Sam Davies traded kicks late on, bringing about the rarest result in rugby.
Dragons fly-half Jason Tovey scored 18 points to give his side a 23-13 victory against Leinster in the opening fixture of the weekend. The teams traded early scores with Ashton Hewitt dotting down for the Dragons after three minutes, and Luke McGrath replying for Leinster ten minutes later. However, Tovey added a second try for the Dragons as well as two penalties and a drop goal to complete the result, and his personal scorecard.
Munster were forced to dig deep for their 16-12 victory over Zebre on Saturday. After an early Mark Chisholm try was confirmed by the TMO and gave the Irish side a 7-0 lead, Munster allowed ill-discipline to take over their game, and Kelly Haimona kicked four penalties in 17 first half minutes to give Zebre the lead. Ian Keatley pushed Munster back in front with a penalty on half-time and sealed the win with a late drop-goal.
Ulster’s defeat of an Italian team was more convincing, overcoming Treviso 32-13. Sean Reidy, Stuart Olding, Darren Cave and Rory Scholes scored the tries that secured the bonus point and cancelled out Treviso’s solitary five-pointer from Braam Steyn.
Cardiff’s 10-3 win over Edinburgh could have been by more had Manoa Vosawai not botched two try opportunities. As it was, the Blues had to survive with one try from Dan Fish and a penalty from Rhys Patchell to grab their fifth win of the season.
Connacht banked a bonus point with their victory against Llanelli, 30-17. Flanker Jake Heenan was pushed over the line twice through rolling mauls and Denis Buckley continued the trend in the second half before Rodney Ah You broke with tradition and burst his way over for the bonus point score. Scarlets left it until the second period to open their account through DTH van der Merwe and Gareth Owen scored a second consolation effort late on.
Guinness Pro12 Star Man: Jason Tovey
Clermont’s misery continues
After the shock of last week’s exit from the Champions Cup, you might have expected Clermont to take out their frustration on Montpellier. However, the woes continued for Morgan Parra and co, with Montpellier grinding out a 19-15 win. Clermont split their points between Camille Lopez and Brock James, while Montpellier were able to send Marvin O’Connor over for a try with Benoit Paillaugue, Francois Trinh-Duc and Demitri Catrakilis contributing with the boot.
Brive made short work of La Rochelle, with Gaetan Germain taking a 23-point haul finishing with a conversion of Thomas Acquier’s last minute try. Zack Holmes kicked a penalty in each half but Brive move into fourth with this victory, within 6 points of Racing 92 at the top.
Toulouse and Racing 92 both had easy wins in Round 13 with Toulouse kicking off proceedings with a 54-3 smashing of Pau. Gael Fickou opened the scoring for Toulouse inside the first minute of the game and the tries kept coming with Sebastien Bezy (2), Maxime Medard (2), Gregory Lamboley, Paul Perez and Vincent Clerc helping themselves to scores.
Racing’s 26-3 win over Oyonnax saw Dan Carter play an instrumental role once more, scoring his first try for the club. Henry Chavancy, Juan Imhoff and Yannick Nyanga scored the remaining three, with Nicky Robinson adding a lonely penalty for Oyonnax.
Agen and Grenoble have produced some impressive, high-scoring contests in recent years and they delivered a 60-point battle on Saturday evening, with Grenoble winning 33-27. Chris Farrell and Arnaud Heguy scored first-half tries with Jonathan Wisniewski adding three penalties to give Grenoble a 23-8 lead, with Johann Sadie scoring for Agen. In the second half, Sadie’s second try plus Burton Francis’ three penalties brought Agen back into the game before Nigel Hunt gave Grenoble the decisive five-pointer.
Castres won 19-9 over Bordeaux Begles thanks to a late Johnnie Beattie try, and Toulon secured a narrow victory over Stade Francais. Bryan Habana scored a 13th minute try and Eric Escande kicked six penalties, while Stade Francais relied on Morne Steyn for all 16 of their points, in the form of a try, conversion and three penalties.
Top 14 Star Man: Dan Carter
Try of the Week: No doubts this week, Leicester’s 80 metre team try, finished by Telusa Veainu, was an absolute corker and receives the plaudits this week. Honourable mentions to Josh Bassett’s try started by Rob Miller and Dan Carter’s maiden score for Racing 92.
Hero of the Week: After being released from the England squad ahead of the Six Nations opener against Scotland, Maro Itoje put paid to rumours about his lack of toughness by producing a hard-nosed, tireless and mature performance against Bath. Itoje is nowhere near undervalued, but it is about time he made his England debut, and helping his side rescue a Premiership clash will not have hurt his case for future inclusion.
Villain of the Weekend: Three weekends ago, referee JP Doyle accidentally showed London Irish’s David Paice a red card, before quickly correcting his mistake. Well, he’s done it again, this time punishing Gloucester and England No8 Ben Morgan by briefly showing him a red card for a yellow card offence! I think that Doyle is beginning to enjoy the fleeting spasm of fear on the player’s faces when they see red. He is mad with power.
By Fraser Kay (@fraserkay)
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
4 replies on “Best of the Weekend: Saracens and Leicester survive scares”
Having been at the Saracens/Bath game three things struck me.
1. The limitations of Mike Ford as a coach are becoming more obvious. From last season’s free flowing approach now being replaced by a first desire for thuggishness. Credit to Sarries for not getting involved after immense provacation and sticking to a game plan that eventually paid dividends.
2. Maro Itoje was huge. In the second half he took the game by the scruff of the neck and dragged his team to a win by sheer will power and example. He was a leader to experienced internationals. Eddie Jones saying he’s not sure he can handle pressure, well that’s his answer. Should be England captain by next six nations at latest.
3. Referring was awful. Loux could have been yellow carded 4 or 5 times. The fact the yellow card only come out in the 7th minute (push in face, touched eyes, red card????). And it was as bad for Bath. Total lack of consistency.
Ref was awful, and not just one sided, he was poor for both sides. We gave away a lot of penalties in the first half, and no-one was even spoken to. Second half the ref talked to Louw, but it took someone to push someone in the face to get a yellow. Ref needs to be reviewed, as if that had happened earlier in the game, it could have got very ugly!!
Fair play to Bath. They learnt from their mistake in the Prem final of trying to play their own way, and turned with a hard nosed attempt to rough us up instead. Sarries responded second half and came out on top. Great match, but would have been better with Barnes or (dare I say it) Doyle as the ref!
“Connacht banked a bonus point with their victory against Leinster, 30-17” – that should be “Llanelli”.
Was a the Bath game. Itoje is a monster of player. Would play him at six for England. He was awesome on Saturday.