Festive Falcons Visit

With Saracens' recent form, I think most folks were expecting an easy victory against the visiting Newcastle Falcons. But we all know what comes before a fall, and Jonny Wilkinson & Co pulled off their first victory at Vicarage Road since 2001, and also their first away win in the Premiership in over a year.

As has happened in recent weeks for the Men In Black, the first half was a bit of a disaster. A fortnight ago in Viadana, they managed the comeback-from-the-dead, turning round a 26-3 deficit at half time, into a miraculous 26-34 win by final whistle. The travelling fans were naturally ecstatic. Those of us at home following the game online were left nursing our bitten fingernails!

The biggest casualty of the game was Hooker Matt Cairns [above] who suffered a broken arm during the match, and has since had a metal plate inserted to aid recovery, but he will be out until at least the end of March. The Gaffer is naturally worried about Hooking cover during the Six Nations, as Fabio Ongaro is likely to be called up by Italy for the duration. We all hope Cairnsy has a speedy recouperation!

The Christmas fixture on 22nd December saw Sarrie and his team travel away to Harlequins. Yet again, the first 30-odd minutes were pretty dire from all accounts. I was unable to follow this one online as my broadband connection was broken for 10 days over Christmas! Very annoying. Still, Sarries managed to pull back a 20-27 win.

I think the Christmas holidays must have been relaxing for the guys, since they seemed to come out of the tunnel for the Newcastle game thinking they were easily going to beat the Falcons. Within 3 minutes the defence was caught napping and Matthew Tait beat Brent Russell to cross the line for a try.

[Look Who's Behind You! Jonny Wilkinson is manaced by Lock Chris Jack]

Whilst Jonny's playmaking skills seemed fine, his placekicking left a bit to be desired. He missed at least two kicks at goal, and Saracens' Gordon Ross, starting the first half, wasn't a lot better. Odd, since it wasn't particularly windy, even though the rain appeared for a while.

The Falcons' Scrum seemed to stand up at every opportunity, and I'm surprised referee Sean Davey didn't ping them for it more often. Saracens have been having a good scrum of late, so there's no reason to think just because Carl Hayman was gracing the Newcastle Front Row that things would change dramatically - Kevin Yates left] and Cencus Johnston are pretty good masters of the dark arts themselves!

Another thing that wasn't going too well for Saracens was their lineout. Several were stolen during the game, which doesn't happen often. Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised, give the statistics that Newcastle's Lock Mark Sorenson is the top lineout stealer in the Premiership, and is 3rd for catching his own team throws. No wonder Hugh Vyvyan [right], looked so surprised to have caught this one!

Sarries woke up in the second half and played some good rugby, scoring two tries (Vyvyan and de Kock) plus having another judged to have been held up over the line by the TMO.

They even went into the lead briefly towards the end, but Newcastle's Jamie Noon put the nail in the coffin scoring in the 78th minute, with Jonny Wilkinson [left] hammering it further in with the conversion.

One thing I did find confusing was the Falcons' away strip, which seems to be a direct ripoff of England's gear from a couple of years ago. Perhaps they got them in a closeout sale?

At least losing by only 3 points meant Sarries pick up a bonus point, which might well come in handy later in the season. And they are still 3rd in the Premiership table at present. Next weekend's away trip to Brizzle will see if they can climb any higher in the near future.

You can see more of my photos from Sunday's game here.

Next time I'm at Vicarage Road will be for the Heineken Cup tie against Biarritz on 12th January - hopefully it won't be quite as dark as it was for the Newcastle game! And a victory then would certainly help Sarries towards a HC Quater Final place.

Sarries Squeak Past Glasgow

It all seemed to be going so well as Heineken Cup rugby returned to Watford again.

Despite some early pressure from Glasgow, Saracens' Hugh Vyvyan crossed the line in under 10 minutes, and they began to turn the screws, adding another two before half time, from Rodd Penney and Ben Skirving.

But Glasgow' John Barclay clawed one back, and Dan Parks kept lining up the penalties, so Glasgow were only 25-11 down at the break.

[Dan Parks lines up another shot at goal, this time from inside is own half]

Things started to go down hill in the second half. Sarries defence lots its shape, and the fans were in for a nailbiting time as the clock ticked down. Kameli Ratuvou [left] crossed from a run up the wing, to bring up Saracens' 4th try, so a bonus point was at least in the bag. But then Hefin O'Hare and Ally Kellock scored a couple of converted tries after some sloppy defence.

It was only Glen Jackson's 79th minute penalty that saved the day, so the Men In Black went back into the dressing room 2 points up rather than 1 point down, but they were still kicking themselves for not being more clinical.

[Hugh Vyvyan rallies the forwards during a break in play]

Alan Gaffney is rightly spitting feathers about it. After all, even though they are top of Pool 4 at the end of round 1, they are away to Biarritz next week, which won't be an easy task at all, especially if the defence leaks tries like they did on Sunday.

Cencus Johnston had another great game, and the scrum was still pretty strong, which will be important next week. And the other prop, Kevin "Po Po" Yates was seen sporting a rather fetching scrum cap for much of the game, which is not his usual style. Either he's worried about getting Cauliflower Ears all of a sudden, or the medics were trying to hold on a dressing from a bash to the head early on!

[Yatesy's hat in evidence as Gordon Ross has a go at John Beattie]

You can see the rest of my photos from Sunday's game here.

Saracens Thump Bristol

Great game at Vicarage Road yesterday, Saracens maintained their winning streak at home by stuffing Bristol 36-5 and earning themselves a bonus point win. This means they're currently sitting at 4th in the Premiership table for the first time this season, just overtaking Wasps with a game in hand. That's due to the delayed game against London Irish coming up this Friday, so it's a must-win game for the Men in Black if they wish to consolidate their position in the table.

[Kris Chesney brings down Bristol prop Alex Clarke]

I have to say, there was some great passing from Saracens, who seemed to be offloading furiously before big tackles, and they really kept the ball moving. Kameli Ratuvou continues to impress with his speed on the wing, scoring a brace of tries. And the pack were going forward really well - especially with one maul which saw them make headway from their own 10m line to over half way and into Bristol territory. That got a great shout from the crowd. There were also plenty of crunching tackles, and good defence in the main - one slight error letting Bristol in for their only points of the game.

Kevin Yates also managed to canter over for a score in the second half, which pleased him no end. He's now scored five this season, not bad as the Front Row don't often get on the scoreboard from running play. You can see more photos from the game at rugbypix.com as usual.

There was certainly a festive atmosphere at the ground too. Saracens favourite supporters, the Fez Boys, were celebrating their 10th anniversary, featuring on the front of the programme with Yatesy, and also appearing with the Saracens Sensations in a special one-off performance before the game. I have the evidence [right, Bokke in a Bikini, with the Sensations, god help us all!]

Kyran Bracken was also on a high from having won the Dancing on Ice competition on Saturday. So he's proud to have won the club the first silverware of the season!

Scrumming In The Rain

Unfortunately, Watford was deluged with heavy rain on Sunday, so the game between Saracens and Glasgow Warriors was a very wet affair. I felt really sorry for all the guys having to run around in such atrocious conditions. Thankfully, my bit of the stand was undercover, so I never got a soaking.

Sarries were a bit crap during the first half, and went in at the break with fewer points than Glasgow.

The Gaffer must have had strong words with the boys while he was dishing out the oranges in the changing room, as Sarries came out in the second half and played with much more shape and determination. They scored two penalty tries during the match, which is quite unusual. And Kevin Yates went over the whitewash for the second week running, again under a huge pile of bodies from a drive (see below)

That game brings up the big 50 for rugbypix.com, the time has flown by since I went to my first game in February 2004!

Let's hope next weekend's trip to Narbonne isn't as wet. Pity I won't be going along too, but I should be back watching England vs the All Blacks on 5th November.

Fijians Get Feisty

Five Fijian Internationals are in hot water for getting bladdered after a game and fighting with each other. Tut tut.


Thankfully, Sarries' two Fijian boys, Simon Raiwalui and Mosese Rauluni, were not involved. Here you can see Simon warming up with the other Saracens players before their game against Worcester Warriors in May 2005 (he's the big bloke in the front row with Kevin Yates, Thomas Castaignede, and Matt Cairns.

Other Side Of The Scrum

Sarries have shored up their front row contingent by recruiting Italian international Fabio Ongaro, another Hooker, for next season. Ongaro was last seen at Vicarage Road on the other side of the scrum, when his current club Treviso paid a visit in the Heineken Cup pool stages. This photo shows Ongaro getting a ticking off from the ref before packing down for another scrum. Let's hope he behaves himself when he's on our side!

They've also signed up Samoan prop Census Johnson, but as yet, I don't know anything about him, so I can't comment. We seem to have plenty of grunt in the front row now, what with Cobus Visagie, Yatesy and Ben Broster being regular first teamers. Cobus and Broster are both Tightheads, so perhaps Mr Johnson is extra cover for Yates in the Loosehead position?

À La Carte Menu

FakeBob and I were having another of our strange conversations. Nothing new there. We're both foodies, and a little silly, and the question was posed to me that, if rugby players were dishes [as indeed some of them are!], who would I choose for an À La Carte menu selection.

Never one to resist a challenge, I thought about it for about five seconds, and came up with my answers. Here we go:

Starter: Better known as a great finisher, Mark Cueto (should be pronounced Cute-O I reckon). Always light on his feet, and a nice appetiser.

Main Course: Would have to be the finest example of British Beef, Danny Grewcock [there you go, Bob, my first mention of Danny!!]. Probably would require to be Well Done, bearing in mind how tough he appears on the pitch. But little room left for side dishes or veggies.

After a suitable pause, we move on to Dessert: Kevin Yates, in the great tradition of stodgy puds like Spotted Dick and Custard [please note, I have absolutely no anecdotal evidence to back up this assumption].





Another pause required, and then we move onto a little something with the coffee: You can keep your waffeur thin mints (like Richard Houghton), but carrying on the theme, a wee French Fancy might be Dmitri Yachvili, or possibly Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde. They're so small, one would probably have both to round off the meal ;-)

My menu might not be to everyone's taste! But I think it would not require further nourishment to be taken on for some days. By the way, you were warned that this Blog has MAD in the title. Twice. You don't really expect me to be serious, do you?