EDDIE JONES, the England coach and former Saracens head coach, was in the stands to see his old club subjected to a rare home defeat by Northampton Saints. It wasn’t pretty to watch, but a win is a win, and there could be no complaints by the Premiership leaders at being outscored by two tries to nil.
Besides a distinct lack of international class play, Jones won’t have been best pleased to see Courtney Lawes helped off injured after just half an hour. The England lock started the match with his right knee heavily strapped, but injured his left ankle in a thumping tackle by Hayden Smith, his opposite number, and had to be replaced by James Craig.
Ben Spencer had kicked two penalties to give Saracens an early lead, but the scrum-half with the talent to catch Jones’s eye made a costly error when he was yellow-carded for apparently killing the ball at a ruck in his own 22. It looked a case of mistaken identity as the real culprit appeared to be Jackson Wray.
With Spencer in the naughty corner, Alex Goode, another player keen to impress Jones, took-up the scrum-half position at the next ruck, five-yards from the Saracens line. Goode had earlier trapped a ball in a manner that would have won the approval of Lionel Messi, never mind Jones, but his attempted box-kick clearance was charged down by Jamie Gibson.
Fellow Saints flanker Tom Wood was an ever-present in Stuart Lancaster’s England set-up, but was dropped by Jones, saying he wanted someone with “world-class work-rate”. Wood was quickest on the scene when he pounced on the loose ball to provide quick possession for Stephen Myler to dummy his way over for try No 1, which Myler converted.
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Goode did restore the home side’s slender advantage with a penalty to close the half, but Saracens, with seven players in camp with England, Duncan Taylor on Scotland duty, Chris Ashton still suspended and Charlie Hodgson injured, were a shadow of their normal selves.
The home side’s famous wolf pack defence lacked its usual ferocity, and was exposed by Lee Dickson when the Saints scrum-half wriggled round one body guard and squeezed beneath a second to to stretch out an arm and just about brush the ball against the whitewash for Northampton’s second try, three minutes into the second half.
Ben Foden almost added a third, but the full-back was denied when replays for the TMO showed that he had lost control of the ball as he was tackled by Michael Rhodes, the Saracens blindside. Exciting rugby it sadly wasn’t, even when Goode and Myler exchanged penalties at the death.
Jones also heard Nigel Wray, the Saracens chairman, taking another swipe at the RFU, repeating that his club are being punished for developing England qualified players. “It’s something of a huge pride that seven of our guys represent England and one Scotland, the whole lot, incidentally, having come right through our ranks,” said Wray. “However, because we don’t qualify for the requisite number of English qualified players on a match day – you’ve guessed it, because they are all playing for England! – we are deducted (pound sign) 160,000 for actually having supported the England side. That’s a great way to encourage people to produce top line English players!”
Scorers:
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Saracens: Pens: Spencer 3, Goode 2
Northampton Saints : Tries: Myler 35min, Dickson 43min, Cons: Myler 2 Pens: Myler 2
Saracens: Goode; Ellery (Bosch 63min), Taylor, Barritt (capt), Wyles; Mordt, Spencer (De Kock 68min); Barrington, George, Du Plessis (Figallo 50min), Smith, Hamilton, Rhodes, Brown (Burger 47min), Wray
Northampton: Foden; K Pisi, G Pisi, Burrell, Collins; Myler, Dickson (Kessell 73min); A Waller (E Waller 64min), Haywood (Marshall 79min), Brookes (Hill 56min), Lawes (Craig 32min), Matfield (Dickson 68min), Gibson, Wood, Harrison
Yellow cards: Ben Spencer (Saracens)
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Attendance: 9,451