Saracens claim maximum over Lyon

Editor

Saracens made it two from two in the Champions Cup thus far with a 29-10 bonus-point victory over Lyon at Allianz Park on Saturday.

As expected, Saracens completely dominated a rather dour encounter, enjoying over 60 percent in both the possession and territorial stakes.

Tries from Maro Itoje, Sean Maitland, Brad Barritt and Alex Lewington proved too much for Lyon, who scored through Virgil Lacombe.

Owen Farrell gave the hosts an early 3-0 lead after Lyon number eight Deon Fourie was penalised for going off his feet at the breakdown.

On the 15-minute mark, Saracens number six Itoje ripped the ball out of the tackle in midfield before having the pace to sprint in under the posts from halfway.

Then after Nick Tompkins had carried the ball up, Alex Goode’s grubber kick through was poorly fumbled by Lyon scrum-half Jean-Marc Doussain, with Maitland pouncing on the loose ball to dot down for the try. Farrell’s conversion made it 17-0 after 20 minutes.

Five minutes after the interval, the home side got up to the five-metre line courtesy of a well-weighted kick in behind the Lyon defence by Maitland. The Lyon scrum held up well, but Saracens would get over via the lineout driving maul, as Barritt emerged from the pile of bodies with the ball.

12 minutes before time, Lyon finally got themselves a try. A quick tap-and-go got Doussain inches short before Lacombe powered over with the pick and go.

Although it was by no means a perfect performance by Saracens, they came away with the full complement of five points after Lewington scored a fantastic try two minutes from time, coming off his wing in a well-worked set-piece move.

It was Lyon lock Felix Lambey’s forward pass that gifted Saracens the opportunity as they secured the bonus-point try for the 29-10 victory.

The scorers:

For Saracens:
Tries: Itoje, Maitland, Barritt, Lewington
Cons: Farrell 3
Pen: Farrell

For Lyon:
Try: Lacombe
Con: Beauxis
Pen: Beauxis

The teams:

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Jackson Wray, 7 Mike Rhodes, 6 Maro Itoje, 5 George Kruis, 4 Will Skelton, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Jamie George, 1 Richard Barrington
Replacements: 16 Christopher Tolofua, 17 Hayden Thompson-Stringer, 18 Titi Lamositele, 19 Ben Earl, 20 Schalk Burger, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Marcelo Bosch, 23 Alex Lewington

Lyon: 15 Jean-Marcellin Buttin, 14 Toby Arnold, 13 Rudi Wulf, 12 Adrien Seguret, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Jean-Marc Doussain, 8 Deon Fourie, 7 Patrick Sobela, 6 Dylan Cretin (c), 5 Etienne Oosthuizen, 4 Felix Lambey, 3 Clément Ric, 2 Jeremie Maurouard, 1 Hamza Kaabèche
Replacements: 16 Virgile Lacombe, 17 Albertus Buckle, 18 Richard Choirat, 19 Francois van der Merwe, 20 Carl Fearns, 21 Pierre-Louis Barassi, 22 Xavier Mignot, 23 Quentin Delord

Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Stuart Gaffikin (Ireland), Paul Haycock (Ireland)
Television match official: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)