As pointed out by Scrumdown, one of our knowledgeable contributors, yesterday Saracens played their first Premiership game at their new home ground, the Allianz Park, in Barnet Copthall. The match was played on an artificial surface and although it is the second game that has been played there it was the first one that they played in front of ten thousand people which is a capacity crowd for the stadium.
By all accounts the artificial surface stood up well to the rigours of a rugby match although it is far too early to pass any real judgement on the pitch’s influence on play. However, it must be noted that there were no reset scrums during the game. Whether this was down to good scrummaging by both teams or the assistance of a solid footing on the synthetic surface, designed especially for rugby, only time will tell. One of the negative points which has been noted was that the Saracens and Exeter kickers missed six kicks at goal between them in the first half. However, it seems that Saracens Charlie Hodgson was far more accurate with the boot in the second half.
The result saw Saracens ease past Exeter with the final score being a resounding 31-11 win for Saracens. Charlie Hodgson contributing 16 points by scoring a try and a penalty and converting four tries. Mako Vunipola scored two tries and Matt Stevens also dotted down for Saracens. The points for Exeter came from a try by Richard Baxter and two penalties by flyhalf Gareth Steenson. This was the first time in this year’s Premiership season that Saracens have scored four tries in a match, they have only managed fourteen tries in their other fourteen matches thus far. Again, whether this was down to the influence of the pitch or the magnitude of the occasion or merely the opposition only time will tell.
In other matches played on Saturday Bath comprehensively beat London Irish: 40 -16, Worcester lost at home 18-27 to Northampton and in a tough tussle Harlequins only just overcame Leicester, final score Harlequins 25-21 Leicester. Harlequins win puts them at the top of the Aviva Premiership table.
The Bath versus London Irish game was a fiery encounter with three yellow cards being handed out during the game to London Irish players. Their coach also didn’t seem happy after the game as he mentioned the fact that London Irish conceded twenty three penalties. One of the yellow cards was issued to Topsy Ojo after it was adjudged he put in a high tackle on Bath’s Tom Biggs just as he was about to score a try, the referee awarded a penalty try to Bath for this as well. The other yellow cards went to full back Tom Homer and substitute loose forward Jon Fisher
The victory came at some cost though for Bath as their number once choice flyhalf Stephen Donald had to leave the field early in the game with some damage to a rib and may be out of the game for at least four weeks. Bath captain Francois Louw also had to be replaced during the game with a hip injury which needs to be assessed.
Tom Heathcote, who came on for the injured Donald, surely put in a performance that must have got Scotland coach Scott Johnson thinking about reinstating him to the Scotland’s Six Nation squad. Heathcote was called up belatedly by former coach Andy Robinson during the end of year fixtures last year and came on quite late as a replacement for then flyhalf Greg Laidlaw in Robinson’s final game in charge against Tonga. Heathcote was originally included in an extended Six Nations squad but then omitted when Johnson cut the size of the squad.
Tom Heathcote contributed 17 points with the boot for Bath with four conversions and three penalties. He also played a big part in Abendanon’s try by attacking to the right and then floating a perfect pass to Abendanon who just made it over the line in the corner.
The remainder of Bath’s points came from the penalty try previously mentioned and tries by substitutes Nathan Catt and Anthony Perenise. In reply there was a solitary try by London Irish’s substitute Jack Moates which was converted by flyhalf Ian Humphreys, while fullback Tom Homer was successful with three penalties.
The remaining fixtures of round fifteen of the Aviva Premiership take place today with London Wasps hosting Gloucester, while London Welsh are at home against Sale Sharks. The first game kicks off at 14.00 and the second game 16.00 South African Time.
Latest score: London Wasps 16-17 Gloucester
@ Bullscot:
Hi Bully. This game was supposed to be live on SuperSport, but true to a monopoly holding “Big Brother” type organisation they decided it best to show women’s tennis instead.
DSTV are not my favourite organisation in the world, coming a close second to SARU.
Was certainly interesting watching the Sarries game. I wonder if the Taffy Bastids will do the same at the Millenium.
They certainly need to do something to ge the pitch in shape if they are to host any RWC games in 2015.
@ Scrumdown:
Of cource I mean the Wasps / Gloucester game.
3 @ Scrumdown:
Thats a pity you didn’t get to see that game there, final score :Wasps 33 (10) – 29 (10) Gloucester. Seems like it was a cracking game with Wasps scoring 3 tries and Gloucester 4. Ashley Johnson scored a try for Wasps. A bit of a surprise to me as if you had asked before the game I would have backed Gloucester to win this one, but maybe considering they were without Freddie Burns and Twelvetrees maybe not so much of a surprise.
2 @ Scrumdown:
I guess they will wait and see how the new pitch at Saracens handles the rugby for the next while, would probably have to have at least a season’s worth of games on it to judge I would say, BUT if it works and is good enough for Premiership and Heineken Cup games then I can’t see why they wouldn’t allow the Millenium Stadium to do the same as the ‘normal’ pitch has been in my opinion quite poor for a quite a while now at the Millenium ground. I wonder if Saracens will try and market the Allianz as an events stadium especially during the off season to help pay off the debt sooner, the impact of that on the synthetic pitch would also have to be taken into account.
Another close game with final score London Welsh 25-26 Sale Sharks, halftime was 12-13 to Sharks.
That win keeps Sale Sharks in last place on the log, but now only 1 point behind London Irish, while London Welsh remain in 10th place but now 4 points behind Worcester.
Top six places after 15 rounds (points): 1. Harlequins (51); 2. Saracens (49); 3. Leicester Tigers (48); 4. London Wasps (45), 5. Gloucester (41); 6. Northampton (40)
5 @ Bullscot:
I believe that Sarries don’t own the ground. It’s a municipal stadium that they have put money into and develop once Watford told them they were no longer welcome at Vickarage Road.
Part of the agreement is that it must still be available for athletics in the summer months, so I guess that’ll mean that the facility will be pretty much utilised the whole year round.
What was interesting that the bounce of the ball seemd quite “normal”, if a Rugby ball EVER really bounces normally, and none of the players seemed to get any burns from the synthetic surface.
From what I read on the matter, the polyethylene (as against polypropylene) that the surface is made from give a far better “slide” effect, and so is more suited to Rugby.
Only ime will tell I guess, but it will be interesting.
I see that DSTV showed the Wasps game delayed later in the evening, so I’m sure it’ll be re-run at least 3 times before Friday!
Sounds like it was an exciting game. Mind you, anything would be more exciting than watching the Oak tree like thighs of a Williams sister playing tennis against a Russian who was dressed to please the ruling classes of Qatar. All she needed to please them more was a Burka.
9 @ Scrumdown:
Ok that would make sense Scrumdown as many of these sports stadiums cost so much to build these days that often they have to be used as multi purpose venues to make them financially viable, I saw a figure of £24million being thrown about as cost for Allianz Park but am surprises as that seems too low for a place like that, although guess it can’t be a massive building/stadium if it only seats 10 thousand. Wonder how many times Saracens will go play at Twickenham now then as that must have been a big money spinner for them. Saw a 2 minute highlights clip of the game (which didn’t include any scrums) on Saturday and the surface looked very good at first glance thought that if you didn’t know it wasn’t grass you wouldn’t have thought it wasn’t, but then you don’t see the ‘grass’ getting churned up into the air which gives it away a bit.
9 @ Scrumdown:
Saracens have certainly been seen to be leading the way in the last while in rugby over here in their drive to get more and more professional and sounds like they have helped put together a smart setup with the stadium going from the statement about it on their site:
“… the only stadium in the country designed and built to BREEAM Excellent standards.
The wonderful architecture of the stadium will be supported by the latest audio and visual technology, including giant TV screens, LED banners on stands and entrances, pitch perfect sound and a mobile app that will provide supporters with the ability to interact with Saracens and events in real time. All this technology will combine to deliver an event experience never seen before in UK sport”
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