365 Sporting Days

Saracens season kick started with an open day at the Stonex Stadium and a game of Under 18’s rugby, a very enjoyable day. The season for the senior men’s team started with their first match in the Premiership Rugby Cup, a tournament with 2/3 Premiership and 3 Championship teams in 4 pools. Saracens pool consists of the following teams (with their finishing places last season)

• Gloucester (10th)
• Harlequins (6th)
• Saracens (1st) and Champions
• Coventry (3rd)
• Hartpury RFC (7th)
• Nottingham (9th)

The 2 line ups were as follows – the Saracens 23 included the inclusion of Nick Isekwie as a late substitution after Cameron Boon picked up an injury in the warm up.

Coventry

• 1 Toby Trinder
• 2 Suva Ma’asi
• 3 Elliot Salt
• 4 James Tyas
• 5 Rhys Anstey
• 6 Paddy Ryan
• 7 Matt Kvesic
• 8 Tiki Nayalo
• 9 Will Chudley
• 10 Patrick Pellegrini
• 11 James Martin
• 12 Will Rigg
• 13 Will Wand
• 14 Ryan Hutler
• 15 Louis James
• 16 Jordan Poole
• 17 Elliot Chilvers
• 18 Ollie Andrews
• 19 George Smith
• 20 Jack Bartlett
• 21 Will Lane
• 22 Evan Mitchell
• 23 Tom Ball

Saracens

• 1 Tom West
• 2 Kapeli Pifeleti
• 3 Christian Judge
• 4 Callum Hunter-Hill
• 5 Alex Wardell
• 6 Nathan Michelow
• 7 Toby Knight
• 8 Ollie Stonham
• 9 Gareth Simpson
• 10 Manu Vunipola
• 11 Rotimi Segun
• 12 Olly Hartley
• 13 Francis Moore
• 14 Ben Harris
• 15 Tobias Elliot
• 16 Samson Adejimi
• 17 Sam Crean
• 18 Harvey Beaton
• 19 Nick Isekwie
• 20 Tom Willis
• 21 Aled Davies
• 22 Alex Lewington
• 23 Brandon Jackson

I was pleasantly surprised to see Matt Kvesic at 7 for Coventry, he’s a player I’ve always rated and one who should have had way more than 4 caps for England. It’s good to know the end of Worcester hasn’t been the end of his playing days. A quick look through the others names on the Coventry team sheet and it’s clear to see they’ve built a very good team who should be good to compete to win their league this season.

The Saracens line up was a good mix of experience and youth, with new signing Tom Willis on the bench making his first appearance in a Saracens shirt.

The main difference between these 2 teams was that one played as a cohesive team and one didn’t. Ben Harris on the wing for Saracens, came to them from the England Sevens set up made just 3 appearances last season. He showed his speed with a try on 7 minutes then again on 37 minutes; both were converted by Manu Vunipola. Sandwiched in between his tries was a try for Suva Ma’Asi who scored at the bottom of a rolling maul. Patrick Pellegrini added the extras.

The eventual Player of The Match; Will Wand scored a great try after an excellent pass from his Centre partner Will Rigg who passed out of the back of his hand, it was a try which would’ve graced any game. The try was converted and the teams went in on 14 apiece at half-time.

Action photos from the first half

Annoyingly there aren’t any stats on the Premiership Rugby site but the key stats/facts are the 2 second half tries scored by Coventry. Ryan Hutler making his debut after signing from Championship winners Jersey Reds scored under the posts 4 minutes into the half. Pat Pellegrini scored the best try of the game with 2 minutes on the clock. He converted both and Coventry had a great win with the final score of Coventry Rugby 28 Saracens 14.

The day was incredibly hot, more like cricket weather than rugby weather, how these men played at the pace they did beggars belief! Ealing Trailfinders have beaten Northampton Saints today with a score line of Trailfinders 48 Saints 22. Under the Premiership Rugby post are plenty of comments saying this is a meaningless competition, which is graceless and untrue. Both Championship winning teams will be rightly thrilled at their wins as will their fans. At £275 for a season ticket as against my £800 Saracens season ticket that is great value! I wish Coventry every success in 2023/24!

Action Photos from the Second Half