With a full day of rugby at the Stonex Stadium, i along with my good friends Alun & Sharon upgraded to the 100 Club. That meant a delicious 2 course meal and a chance to watch the England v Chile game indoors!
We also had Alastair Hargreaves’s chatting to Alec Cleary and Ralph Adams Hale. Which was entertaining, it was also interesting that Alastair was surprised that these cup games were in themselves warm up games. Having lost the first 2 matches it could be questioned whether they provide good value to season ticket holders.
Any Saracens team is a big scalp to the Championship teams in particular however and the record books will show a win for Coventry against last years champions.
This game started at 100mph, Saracens had first choice scrum half Ivan van Zyl from the start, he definitely adds speed!
Saracens scored after a Manu Vunipola grubber kick through, Alex Lewingtom collected the ball to go over in the corner to score.
There was a sense of urgency from Saracens and the returning Rotimi Segun appeared with ball in hand to storm through any Nottingham defenders, he eluded all hands and ran through to score under the posts. The first try wasn’t converted this one was.
We had our first scrum after 15 minutes, Gloucester had the upper hand last week, Nottingham won the ball from both that scrum and the next after a great kick by 10, Sam Hollingsworth, they battered the line a few times then moved the ball out to 15, Ellis Mee who had an easy run in.
These games are a great opportunity for the Championship players to put themselves in the ‘shop window’ a potential on the job interview for the Premiership teams they play, several of the backs did that today.
Sharon and I were just saying how good Toby Knight had been in clearing up the loose ball at line out time, when he got his reward with a try on 29 minutes. Another under the posts, duly converted.
Tom Parton started at full back, he has a look of Elliot Daly about him, he took the ball deep into the Nottingham half at speed, Segun was on hand to take the ball, he interacted with Alex Lewington on the opposite wing, Lewington was taken down before the line, but Saracens came up with the ball, van Zyl grabbed the ball and launched himself at the line to score. A difficult kick went through the posts and took Saracens to 26.
A penalty try on half-time as Nottingham took the rolling maul down, took Saracens to 33 to Nottingham’s 5. Nottingham suffered a yellow card too. They’d had an HIA for Sam Green in the half, he came back with 2 minutes of the first half remaining, he’d looked in big trouble before he went off, hopefully he was definitely ok to come back on. It was he who was shown yellow so he had an extra 10 to recover.
Hugh Tizzard who’d had a great first half was replaced by Ollie Stonham at half time. The second half started as the first had finished, but this time the maul stayed up and Tom Woolstencroft scored the try.
Marcus Ramage scored for Nottingham after they’d been awarded a penalty for a high tackle. There was a suspicion of crossing but with no TMO there is no check. The score moved to 38 Nottingham 12. The visitors scoring with 14 on the pitch.
Saracens scored the next try, another for van Zyl, several of the forwards combining with the backs, showing they too have great hands. Captain Alex Lozowski ran the ball deep into Nottingham’s half before passing to van Zyl.
Saracens next came from Toby Knight, playing with a statement hair ‘do’ being bright blond, he was having a great game! Saracens took a tap penalty and Knight wasn’t going to be stopped!
Ollie Stonham was next on the scoresheet, Vunipola chipped the ball over the defence to be caught by Parton, Tom Willis who’s really settled in well, took the ball forwards at some speed before passing to Stonham who put in a dummy any back would be proud of to score!
Willis showed a turn of speed again as he ran down the line, looking like a very large winger! The ball made it’s way across to Ollie Hartley who dabbed the ball down, another deserved try. He’d had a great game.
David Williams showed his heels to the Saracens defenders to score for Nottingham, another speedy effort, after a great high ball take by Morgan Bunting.
Williams added a second moments later, a great try with little in the way of defence from Saracens.
It was getting hard to tell the backs from the forwards as far as speed was concerned and Knight, again broke through, he passed to replacement Hooker, Samson Adejimi who flew towards the try line to score.
With the score at Saracens 73 Nottingham 22 Saracens weren’t making the same mistake the French head coach made, they’d emptied their bench. Willis did go off holding his wrist but hopefully that was just a stinger.
Mottingham will go home with the try of the game after an excellent cross field kick by Bunting, Ramage scored his second, again without much interference from the defence.
The final score was Saracens 73 Nottingham 29, Toby Knight was my MOM, Tom Willis received the accolade.
Photos to follow!
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