Saracens kick-off post-Owen Farrell era with impressive win over Gloucester
Andy Onyeama-Christie sustained a serious ankle injury in the defeat to Harlequins last week.
Saracens silenced some of their critics with an impressive 35-26 win over Gloucester at Kingsholm.
The six-time Premiership champions had largely been written off ahead of the start of the season, following the departures of Owen Farrell and Billy and Mako Vunipola, but a brace from Andy Onyeama-Christie, alongside other scores from Rotimi Segun, Ivan van Zyl and Tobias Elliott, ensured they got their new era off to a flying start.
Gloucester did mount a late comeback, and came away from the game with a crucial bonus-point, but it was not enough to claim the win
Click here for the scorers
The Londoners looked strong right from the off, but had to wait until the 17th minute to finally make a dent on the scoreboard. A well-worked move through the Saracens backline found the ball in Elliot Daly’s hands, and the experienced England international put in a lovely chip kick to send Segun scampering over in the corner.
It didn’t take long for them to get a second either, as Van Zyl got his name on the scoresheet just seven minutes later. A clever defensive read from the South African native saw him intercept Gareth Anscombe’s pass to race home. His score was swiftly followed by the third, as Elliott crossed.
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Gloucester badly needed a score before the interval and got one when Tomos Williams quickly took a short penalty to dash into the opposition 22. The scrum-half was hauled down just short of the line but the hosts maintained the pressure for Freddie Thomas to crash over.
Barton’s impressive touchline conversion left his side 17-7 adrift at half-time.
However, Gloucester made a disastrous start to the second half.
Ruan Ackermann lost the restart kick for Saracens to build up pressure and Onyeama-Christie finished off an unstoppable forward drive.
The home side changed their whole front row in an attempt to reverse their fortunes but Saracens responded by bringing on three international forwards in Jamie George, Ben Earl and Nick Isiekwe and it paid dividends with a penalty from Fergus Burke extending their lead.
The hosts kept in contention with replacement Clarke scoring with his first touch, but their hopes were short-lived when another pre-planned line-out move put Onyeama-Christie in the clear and the flanker raced away to score his second.
Burke missed the conversion but added a simple penalty before Anscombe was replaced by Charlie Atkinson.
Gloucester showed considerable spirit to score tries from Clement and Blake to earn a deserved bonus point but their rally came too late.
Teams
Gloucester: 15 George Barton, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Lewis Ludlow, 6 Ruan Ackermann, 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Freddie Thomas, 3 Afo Fasogbon, 2 Jack Singleton 1 Mayco Vivas
Replacements: 16 Seb Blake, 17 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 18 Kirill Gotovtsev, 19 Freddie Clarke, 20 Jack Clement, 21 Caolan Englefield, 22 Charlie Atkinson, 23 Seb Atkinson
Saracens: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Tobias Elliott, 13 Alex Lozowski, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Rotimi Segun, 10 Fergus Burke, 9 Ivan van Zyl, 8 Tom Willis, 7 Toby Knight, 6 Andy Onyeama-Christie, 5 Hugh Tizard, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Theo Dan, 1 Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Sam Crean, 18 Alec Clarey, 19 Harry Wilson, 20 Nick Isiekwe, 21 Ben Earl, 22 Charlie Bracken, 23 Alex Goode
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys
Assistant Referees: Andrew Jackson & Peter Allan
TMO: Rowan Kitt