Week 2 of this cup saw Saracens welcome Gloucester, the visitors had beaten Nottingham in their first game, Saracens lost away at Coventry. Most teams are playing these early games with a good mix of players, I imagine as we get closer to the Premiership Rugby season that balance will move towards more first team starters. Alex Lozowski took the captain’s role for the first time for Saracens. Arthur Clark for Gloucester. The line ups were as follows.
Saracens
- 1 Sam Crean
- 2 Tom Woolstenncroft
- 3 Ollie Hoskins
- 4 Callum Hunter-Hill
- 5 Nick Isiekwe
- 6 Nathan Michelow
- 7 Toby Knight
- 8 Tom Willis
- 9 Aled Davies
- 10 Manu Vunipola
- 11 Alex Lewington
- 12 Olly Hartley
- 13 Alex Lozowski
- 14 ben Harris
- 15 Tom Parton
Gloucester
- 1 Jamal Ford-Robinson
- 2 Santi Socino
- 3 Ciaran Knight
- 4 Arthur Clark
- 5 Cam Jordan
- 6 Freddie Thomas
- 7 benn Donnell
- 8 Jack Clement
- 9 Caolan Englefield
- 10 George Barton
- 11 Jake Morris
- 12 Max Llewellyn
- 13 Louis Hillman-Cooper
- 14 Josh Hathaway
- 15 Reece Dunn
Gloucester had their first choice captain Lewis Ludlow on the bench, Saracens had Alex Goode and first choice scrum half Ivan Van Zyl on theirs.
Saracens looked to be certain of an early try when the ball was charged down, Callum Hunter-Hill, a large second rower, who’d charged the ball down, had the ball in his hands with the try line virtually inches away, an excellent tackle from the diminutive Caolan Englefield knocked the ball out of his hands! Possibly one of the tackles of the season only a few games in!
Saracens were first on the scoresheet with a try for new signing Tom Willis, playing at 8 he’s of the large variety for that position, he’s going to be interesting to watch this season, he looks like a player who gets through a lot of work He scored a try from a maul, I suspect it won’t be the last he scores that way this year. Manu Vunipola added the extras.
That first try was on 3 minutes we had to wait for the 19th minute for the next and it was Gloucester who went over in the corner through Jake Morris, George Barton missed a challenging conversion.
I felt the officials missed a few tackles that would have been penalised with a TMO present, but it did keep the game moving and both teams put in maximum effort in what was cricket weather!
Nick Isiekwe took things into his own hands as neither team looked likely to score, he’s a man that’s very hard to stop in full flow and he was definitely storming for that line!
Half-Time came with the score on Saracens 15 Gloucester 5.
Gloucester Centre Louis Hillman-Cooper scored a lovely try out on the wing, Saracens new signing Tom Parton got to him as he was about to put the ball down but his pace and strength took him to the try line from 40 metres out, the conversion was missed but the gap was closed to 4.
Saracens extended their lead with a Manu Vunipola penalty awarded after the kick off. But it was Gloucester who got over the try line 3 minutes later as Jack Clement was in possession of the ball as their maul went over the line. The conversion was good this time and the scores level. A second Vunipola penalty edged the home team back in front.
That lead lasted for 10 minutes but 2 Gloucester tries, firstly for Seb Blake then a great individual effort for George Barton meant they went home deserved winners. The stats don’t reflect the final result but the tries scored with Saracens 2 to Gloucester’s 5 most definitely do! On balance Saracens had more experienced player in their 23 so this is a great result for Gloucester, the future looks bright for them!
An additional thought, the crowd was a disappointment, personally I’m aiming to get to as many matches as I can, including the Women’s games, it was good to see Poppy Cleall in the crowd, hope to see her playing for England at the Stonex on September 30th!
365 Sporting Days 