Premiership: Saracens edge Bristol Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on splendid afternoon of English rugby

Stan Wilson 26 Mar 2022 5:28 PM

Saracens narrowly defeated Pat Lam’s Bristol Bears 27-23 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in ‘The Showdown 2’ on Saturday.

The returning Owen Farrell‘s boot was ultimately the difference between the teams as Tiff Eden’s first half missed conversions cost Bristol heavily.

The two sides both scored three tries and two penalties, but the Bears’ fly-half’s missed conversions meant that Saracens walked away with the win.

England duo Max Malins and Elliot Daly both crossed in the first half after their return from England, with Malins adding another after the interval.

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Bristol Bears opened the scoring with just over three minutes gone when the forwards moved them to within metres of the line before Harry Randall’s pass allowed Antoine Frisch to charge through the middle to score.

Eden’s conversion was simple, but Saracens soon levelled, with a long pass by Farrell bouncing nicely for Ben Earl, who then sent Malins clear to score in the corner, with Farrell converting superbly from the touchline.

The Bears then went ahead for a second time after an overthrown Sarries line-out when Eden’s lovely offload put Frisch into space and his pass sent Piers O’Conor scampering away down the left.

Farrell then nudged Sarries ahead with two penalties in the space of five minutes, but Eden quickly ensured the Bears regained their advantage again with a kick of his own.

That lead was extended in the 37th minute when Eden gathered an overthrown Bristol line-out and send Frisch on a run that took him to within a metre of the line, with Eden following up to score off his offload.

Eden could not convert, however, and this proved important as Saracens levelled off the final play of a terrific first half.

The ball went through the hands of Farrell and Alex Goode before Alex Lozowski burst away down the left before timing his pass to allow Daly to jink past the last defender, and Farrell converted well again.

That left things tied at 20-20 at half-time, but it did not take Saracens long to hit the front after the restart as Goode passed to Malins and the winger shrugged off an attempted tackle to score his second try.

Sarries thought they had their bonus-point score when Nick Tompkins went through from Farrell’s offload but the ‘try’ was ruled out by a Billy Vunipola knock-on in the build-up.

Replacement fly-half Callum Sheedy then pulled Bristol back to within four points with a penalty, following Farrell’s no-arms tackle on O’Conor.

The Bears looked to have snatched victory in the last minute when captain Joe Joyce went on a fantastic run before putting Jack Bates in the clear, but the pass to him went forward and Saracens held on, just.

Northampton Saints secure bonus point win away in Brentford

Elsewhere, Northampton spoiled London Irish’s St Patrick’s Day party with a 42-22 win at Brentford Community Stadium.

Chris Boyd’s side kept their top-four hopes alive with a six-try showing that helped them leapfrog shell-shocked Irish in the league standings.

Irish had gone 8-0 up early on thanks to a try from Ollie Hassell-Collins and a penalty from Paddy Jackson.

But that was as good as it got for the home side in front of a big crowd as the Saints turned on the style, with Tom Collins (2), Rory Hutchinson, Alex Mitchell and Fraser Dingwall their try scorers.

Bath clinch a home draw against Sale Sharks in tight affair

World Cup-winning scrum-half Faf de Klerk was inches away from snatching victory for Sale as they drew 24-24 with Bath at the Recreation Ground.

The visitors had mounted a storming second-half comeback after trailing 21-7 at half-time to the Premiership’s bottom club and led 24-21 until Danny Cipriani kicked Bath level with three minutes to play.

De Klerk had the chance to win it in the 83rd minute but his kick was narrowly wide.

Sam Underhill went over twice for Bath with Tom de Glanville crossing the line one minute before half time for the home side while Luke James, Jean-Luc du Preez, Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Ewan Ashman all scored for the visiting side.

Wasps scrape a narrow home victory over Newcastle Falcons

Jimmy Gopperth struck a late penalty winner against his former club as Wasps edged past Newcastle with a 27-24 Premiership win at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

George McGuigan scored a hat-trick for the visitors but it proved to be in vain as Gopperth’s boot, combined with tries from Dan Robson, Joe Launchbury and Tom West, saw the hosts over the line.

The first points of the game went the way of the visitors inside 15 minutes through a Will Haydon-Wood penalty, before a sensational run from Adam Brocklebank set the stage for the first try of the afternoon.

Tries came thick and fast, but it all came down to Gopperth who saved Wasps from a tie to win the Coventry side the game.

Bath