Saracens v Bristol winners and losers: England hopeful shows he ‘cannot be ignored’ by Borthwick
Tom Willis with an indent of Ellis Genge
Following Saracens’ 35-26 win over Bristol Bears, here are the key winners and losers from a pulsating game at the StoneX Stadium.
Winners
Tom Willis
Surely this performance gets him back in the England picture? Tom Willis was just exceptional against Bristol, and his brace should send a message to Steve Borthwick ahead of his Six Nations squad announcement. He packed a serious punch in the carry and backed his attacking flourishes up with some stellar defence too. Willis cannot be ignored for long.
Ellis Genge
His scrummaging has been the big question mark over him in recent years, but tonight was by far his best showing of the year in that department. The England loosehead just had the better of Italian international Marco Riccioni for most of the scrums and won a couple of penalties for good measure. Was typically solid around the park. He’s certainly picked the right time to put in a good scrummaging showing.
Rich Lane
A really good attacking performance from the fullback, who continues to show why he is one of the most underrated players in the league. He was able to make consistent in-roads through the Saracens’ defence, with his dancing feet and mazy running causing all sorts of issues. Very pleasing to see him continue his fine form this year.
Gabriel Oghre
The mobile hooker gave a decent account of himself against England competitor Jamie George, and he can be pleased with his day’s work for the most part. His mobility around the park is such a big part of his game, and he was again popping up everywhere with the ball. Another good showing as he looks to regain that spot in the England squad.
Elliot Daly
Probably his best performance of the season, in all honesty. Elliot Daly’s injury woes have hampered him in recent seasons, but today he wound back the years and looked back to his dazzling best. He was a consistent threat in attack, providing Fergus Burke with that extra link around the park, and he was then able to get the likes of Rotimi Segun and Alex Lozowski into the game well and also added a few breaks of his own to the mix too. Very pleasing to see him playing like this again.
Alex Lozowski
After a few quieter weeks, Alex Lozowski was back to his classy best tonight in a fine display. His combinations with Fergus Burke and Elliot Daly were so pivotal in getting Saracens through the Bristol defence, but he crucially blended this with some decent carrying and offloads. Another big positive as he looks to return to the England match-day squad.
Fergus Burke
A really big move forward from the new arrival after a horrorshow against Bath. Burke was right at the heart of his side’s delicious attack as he injected serious pace and fizz to proceedings. He also kept a calm head in the red zone, which is something he lacked last weekend too. Much improved all around from the New Zealander, who also grabbed two tries for his efforts.
Saracens
What a difference a week makes! After last week’s humiliation at the hands of Bath, Saracens seemed to be back to their brilliant best at the StoneX tonight. They were super physical on both sides of the ball but blended that with some serious fizz too in a complete performance. They now seem back on track after a tough run of losses.
Maro Itoje
Despite his cheap yellow card in the early exchanges, Itoje had a true captain’s knock in his side’s win. The Englishman just ran his blood to water around the park and came up with some pivotal interventions to get his side back on the front-foot when it mattered most. Also carried very hard in traffic too.
Rotimi Segun
Electric all afternoon on the wing, and was a real handful for the Bristol defence. He proved a consistent threat with ball-in-hand and left the opposition at sixes and sevens with his lightning-quick pace. Just a really good showing.
Jamie George
A lovely way for the hooker to celebrate his 300th appearance for the club with a fine performance and win. A big tick in his box too, and something that will please Borthwick, is that he played 80 minutes before coming off just before Bristol’s final try. Was solid in almost every department too.
Losers
Timekeepers
In probably the strangest non-rugby moment of the season, the stadium clock reset itself. In the confusion, the officiating team had to backtrack to the time the game started to work it out from there. If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t have believed this could happen in professional sport!
Harry Randall
Not his night tonight, as he was well-beaten by his counterpart Ivan van Zyl. When he got going, he was good, but he couldn’t do this enough to make much of an impact on the game. Pat Lam has previously said he’s a metronome for the whole Bristol side; when he has a good game they win but when he has a bad game they lose, and tonight he had a bad game.
Ben Earl
A second poor performance in a row from the usually brilliant Earl. He just didn’t have much of an effect on the game at all, which was brought even more into the spotlight due to the utterly fantastic showing of Willis.
Benhard Janse van Rensburg
Not his finest showing of the season, but you feel this is just a blip after what has been a wonderful season for the South African. He was well-managed by Saracens in the 13 channel, and just couldn’t have his usual effect on the game.
Bristol Bears
It wasn’t quite as heavy as last week but for a second round in a row against fellow play-off hopefuls, Bristol have been comfortably second-best. They just couldn’t get a foothold in the contest, despite some early promising signs, and that will worry the Bears faithful after their utterly rampant form prior to this block.
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