Saracens v Northampton: Five takeaways as Owen Farrell successor ‘turns everything to gold’ while trio ‘put big markers down’ for Six Nations
Fergus Burke scored twice for Saracens.
Following a 39-24 win for Saracens against Northampton Saints in the Premiership on Sunday, here’s James While’s five takeaways from the StoneX Stadium clash.
The top line
Saracens claimed a full point bonus win at the StoneX on Sunday as they disposed of the champions in a dominant display in a swirling December wind.
The victory takes the North London club to third in the Premiership table with only the form sides of Bath and Bristol ahead of them, a just reward for the abrasion and organisation of Mark McCall’s side.
Sarries scored six tries through Fergus Burke (2), Rhys Carre, Theo Dan, Jamie George and Ben Earl as a blistering first-half performance blew Saints off the park as their forward dominance and superior kicking game paid dividends on a horrible afternoon.
Saints looked as if their trip last weekend to Pretoria had left them a little leg heavy as they appeared sluggish and depowered for much of the game, but there was an improvement in the second half where they managed three scores through the efforts of Tommy Freeman, Tom Pearson, Ollie Sleightholme and George Hendy.
After the torrid time Saints endured in the first half of the match where they turned around at half time 24-0, the fact Northampton held on to grab a last-gasp bonus point was a great effort from a side playing with a lot of pride.
But it was Sarries who took the majority of the spoils and, given their first half showing, rightly so. Like in seasons gone by, McCall’s men are timing their run in to the play-offs perfectly, and given the depth of their squad, not many would bet against them getting to yet another final.
Key battlegrounds
This was a match won by three things – the abrasion and power of Saracens on the gainline, the manner that they controlled the game at half-back in the face of a howling gale, and the sharpness and abrasion of their blitz defence.
The stats tell a clear tale – Sarries made 32 dominant tackles and 17 carries through contact – numbers from the highest drawer. The hosts’ line-speed in their blitz suffocated the life out of the Saints attack, causing Fin Smith to play off the back foot, having no power centre to take the pressure off him by making the hard yards through contact.
Saints managed only 89 metres post contact all match, half of the hosts’ total of 174 metres, with Earl contributing some 60 of those himself, a clear indicator of the difference in physicality on the afternoon.
The set-piece was a clear tick to the North London club too – as they exerted real pressure at scrum time through Carre, whilst Juan Martin Gonzalez had a field day attacking the Saints lineout and stealing three crucial throws, one when Northampton were camped on their opponents’ five-metre line, looking sure-fire favourites for a score.
With Saracens using the wind much better than Saints, poor Hendy spent the afternoon under some telling bombs, as Burke and Ivan van Zyl chose to use the elements to their advantage. The simple statistic that the hosts launched 21 kicks into the final third of the pitch, against only nine from Saints showed just how more pragmatic Sarries were, demonstrating once again the high quality intellect their leadership and coaches provide.
Fergus Burke
The king is dead, long live the king might well be an apt descriptor of the impact Burke is having at Saracens.
Combining brilliantly with Van Zyl at half-back, Burke is finally showing just why McCall chose him to succeed the great Owen Farrell in the Saracen 10 shirt. On Sunday at the StoneX, everything the Kiwi-born fly-half attempted turned to gold as he grabbed two tries himself and created two other for those around him. With a wind howling around North London, Burke used the wind to great effect, hanging bombs up in the breeze or kicking deeply for touch when the swirling gale was behind him.
Burke possesses that crucial quality – the ability to scan the opposition and to attack places where they’re short of numbers, and his try down the right flank in the first half was a perfect indication of his opportunism, as he rounded the Saints defence for a wonderful score.
With Van Zyl in fine fettle, kicking intelligently when demanded, but also providing Burke with a perfect service all match, this was a game where the control of the Saracens half-backs, combined with real power, speed and hustle at the breakdown, was at the heart of the hosts win.
Forward battle
With both sides near to fully loaded, the clash of the two packs was highly anticipated, but after 80 minutes it was clear that the Sarries eight were, by some distance, the winners of the forward battle for the first half of the match.
With 12 Test players in the starting line-ups of both teams, we knew we were in for something special, but the way the home team hustled, bustled and barged Saints out of the game surprised many.
Led by an all action display from the brilliant Dan, who was ably supported by his front-row cohort Carre, a man who appears changed for the better from his Saracens experience, it seemed that the Men in Black won virtually every contact, every hit, every tackle and every key moment. Dan made 58 metres from 11 thundering carries and it was no surprise when he was named Player of the Match.
Dan and Carre both grabbed tries for their afternoon’s work – the big Welshman battering his way over, and then, five minutes later, steering a driving maul for some six metres until the England hooker broke and bulldozed through for a wonderfully committed piece of finishing.
Saints’ management must have said some stern words at half-time as they came out a different side after half time, challenging much harder in the contact area and finally getting some sort of speed onto their recycling effort. With Freeman and Pearson both profiting from the uplift in effort, it was a much improved second half performance from Saints, but one that could reasonably be defined as too little, too late.
Test watch
As noted previously, Dan and Carre put big markers down for the Six Nations selection at hooker and prop respectively. Carre in particular looks a fitter, leaner and much more mobile version of the player that’s promised much but always fallen short on the conditioning levels, and Wales will be looking with interest at his progress.
At eight for Saracens, Tom Willis continued to show his abrasion and his priceless quality of making metres through contact almost at will. The big back-rower missed out narrowly for the Autumn Nations Series recognition but his consistency and form are so compelling that surely England have to give him an extended run in the Six Nations, offering Steve Borthwick a properly big and Test strong back-row presence.
Whilst everyone will be delighted to see Alex Mitchell back, the focus was on the Saints back-rowers Pearson and Coles, a man that is capable of filling that vital bench role of a hybrid lock/blindside, and who, at 6’8″ is able to really challenge the giants of the modern Test lineout.
With Freeman also reminding us all of his class with a barreling try in the early part of the second half, and Earl gassing Saints for a brilliant 30 metre carry and try from a bouncing loose ball, England’s onlooking Borthwick will be delighted with the form of some of his fringe options moving forward and it will be fascinating to see what he does with Willis in particular.
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