Created Sarries' try: Richard Wigglesworth
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Saracens moved to the top of Heineken Cup Pool 1 on Sunday thanks to a 19-13 victory over Munster in a gripping tussle at Vicarage Road.
The results leave Sarries two points ahead of Racing Metro and three clear of Munster with two rounds still to play.
Crucially, the English club must still travel to Paris, where Munster were defeated in Round One.
The scored was locked at 10-all at the break after Doug Howlett scored to cancel out David Strettle's try for the hosts.
Ronan O'Gara put Munster in front from the kicking tee early in the second period but Owen Farrell was able to land three more shots at goal to give Saracens a hard-fought victory.
The win gave Saracens their first victory over the Irishmen in five attempts, after making six changes to the side which lost at Thomond Park last week.
Rob Penney meanwhile, kept the faith with his Munster side, making only one change, Casey Laulala replacing the injured Keith Earls in the back line.
Early Saracens play took them through the phases, but Farrell missed the first chance to get the scoreboard ticking over, just wide with his drop goal attempt after only seven minutes.
The England international made amends, scoring a penalty kick two minutes later, before his opposite number O'Gara matched him after 16 minutes.
Strettle, on his return to the side, raced on to a perfectly-weighted grubber kick from Richard Wigglesworth, dotting down in the corner for the first try of the game halfway through the first period.
Munster though, kept the pressure on the home side, and Howlett was the beneficiary of an intercepted Farrell pass on halfway, and supported James Downey, who made the interception. O'Gara equalised with the conversion.
The sides entered half-time on level terms, after Farrell missed a penalty attempt from the 22. Farrell missed a second penalty attempt shortly after the restart, before O'Gara showed him the way, as he slotted a long distance kick on 51 minutes to take the lead for the Irishmen.
A downpour midway through the game led to a series of handling errors from both sides. Farrell equalised on 56 minutes, before regaining the lead with a long-distance kick on the hour.
Will Fraser was yellow carded for a high tackle, and that gave Munster the chance to move out of their own half, as much of the period up to then had been played in the Irishmen's territory.
O'Gara lined up a drop-goal attempt at the end of a 22-phase play, but his kick was just wide, as his side put the pressure on Saracens' 14 men.
Munster held Saracens inside their own half for the duration of that sin-binning, but were unable to take real advantage, O'Gara missing a long-distance chance to level the scores with less than ten minutes remaining.
Back to a full complement, Saracens regained the upper hand, and it was Fraser who made amends for his earlier indiscretion, pressurising Munster into a penalty, giving Farrell the chance to score his fourth penalty of the game with only three minutes to play.
The fly-half accepted, and with a six point lead, the home side held out for the win which saw them leapfrog Munster to lead the pool going into the final qualifying stages.
The scorers:
For Saracens:
Try: Strettle
Con: Farrell
Pens: Farrell 4
Yellow card: Fraser (62nd min - high tackle)
For Munster:
Try: Howlett
Con: O'Gara
Pens: O'Gara 2
Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 David Strettle, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Kelly Brown, 7 Will Fraser, 6 George Kruis, 5 Mouritz Botha, 4 Steve Borthwick (capt), 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Rhys Gill.
Replacements: 16 John Smit, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Petrus du Plessis, 19 Eoin Sheriff, 20 Ernst Joubert, 21 Neil de Kock, 22 Charlie Hodgson, 23 Chris Wyles.
Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Doug Howlett (capt), 13 Casey Laulala, 12 James Downey, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Peter O'Mahony, 6 Dave O'Callaghan, 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Mike Sherry, 1 David Kilcoyne.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Wian du Preez, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Peter Butler, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Luk O'Dea.
Venue: Vicarage Road
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garces (France), Jean-Luc Rebollal (France)
Television match official: Gérard Borreani (France)
Comments
TVaddict says...
@island
You were looking at the wrong line, they have an extra line going through the try area for when it's used for football.
Posted 16:08 17th December 2012
island says...
Agree with griffi60 on the music, it was abysmal and I assume the only reason was to drown out any Fields of Athenry.
Thought the Strettle try might have been referred upstairs; he looked to have several body parts over the dead-ball line.
Overall great defensive work by Saracens though.
Posted 11:32 17th December 2012
liam2me says...
@Waz4before the official attendance was 15,000. There were swathes of empty seats, and the majority that were there were Munster fans.
As a Munster fan I can have no argument with the result, Munster weren't at the races at all.
However, if I were a Sarries fan I would be embarrassed, that x-factor boy band you had masquerading as pre-match entertainment was only made look good my the horrific use of the PA system to play music at every stoppage in play, completely ruined the atmosphere and was better suited to soccer or volleyball. If that's the way rugby games are going over in the UK then it's no wonder hardly any Sarries fans showed up!
Posted 09:59 17th December 2012
griffi60 says...
First time at Vicarage road (don't follow either team just went with some friends), good game, pretty heated at times. However the thing that stuck out most was the awful music that Saracens play at every single stoppage! It's just embarrassing that they need to do this because their fans can't make enough noise or sing a few songs! As usual the Munster fans were loud and sang before, during and after.
Posted 07:58 17th December 2012
Waz4before says...
@theshaw - you're stretching quite a bit to put the boot in here - over 16,000 can't be called a "bad" attendance .... And Sarries have had one cracking crowds of over 50,000 in the past couple of years. Admittedly they're not everyone's cup of tea but man, you're stretching ..... PMT maybe?
Posted 03:23 17th December 2012
TVaddict says...
@Theshaw
The best? Where do you get your info? Discussions around begging bowls doesn't count as reliable information you know.
Posted 00:21 17th December 2012
Theshaw says...
Can someone tell me why the "best" team in engling can't even fill there stadium??? There's supposedly the "great" English players on show, can't even fill the stands. Awful!!
Posted 17:16 16th December 2012
TVaddict says...
-Saracens, probably the most boring team in the premiership, were made to look exciting by Munster who couldn't manage to get across the gain line even with an extra man advantage.
-Ref was 50-50 again which was nice to see. Saracens got the rub of the green in the scrum, but then again Munster didn't seem to ever have to release after tackling so pretty even. The yellow card was a bit of a joke though.
-Nice to see Munster not doing the whole pulling support players away from the ruck that I ranted about last week. Made the game 100% more exciting without it.
-I thought Borthwick, Ryan, Zebo, Barritt and Kruis were excellent. Both Farrell and O'Gara were world class with their tactical kicking, even if other areas of their game were not.
-O'Gara vs Farrell? Lets vote! For me Farrell edges it because he can tackle and I still haven't forgiven O'Gara for losing the last lions tour for us.
Posted 17:13 16th December 2012
MunsterRedArmy says...
Intense game, great defence by the Saracens and they also looked well on the attack, deserved winners. On the other hand hats off to ROG for his teritory kicks, Zebo and Howlett were great but didnt see Jones in there at all. Really missed Earls and his creativity.
Posted 17:08 16th December 2012
melkdave says...
A very good game to watch,dispite the conditions,and the best team on the day won.Munster imo,where crap,never threatned and fourtunate to get a losing bonus point.Saracens will be kicking themselves for that intercept try,without it Munster where never going to get close .
Posted 17:02 16th December 2012