365 Sporting Days

My second M25 journey to Saracens for the weekend went much better than the first. This was a match h I was really looking forward to, I thought/hoped it’d be a really good competition. Th pre match play list was chosen by Charlie Bracken, and it was a good one, at a perfect volume, mostly oldies, but goodies. For some odd reason Saracens seem to like to try to deafen the fans in the West Stand, the volume got turned right up just before the players emerged, too much! Hopefully it’s not going to be a pattern again this season.

My attention was drawn to a couple of the Chiefs Back Line players as they warmed up, Josh Hodge, an exciting young Full Back who’s featured in the age group teams for England, he scored a stunner against Saracens last year, and of course Immanuel Feyi-Waboso out on the wing, own in Cardiff, he started his career at Cardifff before moving to the ill fated Wasps, then on to Exeter. Cardiff University had turned him down, Aston University didn’t, the demise of Wasps saw him move to the South West and Exeter University. It was clear he was something special and the England coaches moved to capture him before the Welsh did, so he’s now an England winger. Wales loss is most definitely England’s gain! One of the 2 had a reasonable impact on the game, the other saw very little of the ball. Henry Slade was missing from the Chiefs line up having been injured while away with England, a player with huge influence on the pitch for them.

Saracens had 2 wins from 2, Chiefs 2 losses from 2 having lost narrowly to Leicester Tigers and losing away to Saints. Exeter hadn’t won at the Stonex for 7 years, nit a great stat for them to consider. Ivan van Zyl let the team out as captain with Maro Itoje missing after picking up a knock last week.

Th efforts scrum came after Fergus Burke kicked the ball too long, and off the end of the pitch, he’s put in a lovely kick through earlier for Ben Earl to chase, which was cleaned up by Josh Hodge. Saracens pushed the scrum putting Sam Maunder under pressure as he picked the ball up. the ball was kicked up the field after the next ruck, and well taken by Rotimi Segun.

Olly Woodburn, positioned in the Centres, but out on the wing, kicked the ball straight out, giving Saracens goof field position. Tom Willis was penalised however as he challenged in a ruck. Willis’s stats were put up by TNT, he’s had a great start to the season and sits at the top of the stats for Defenders beaten. (19), Carries (39) and Post Contact Metres (41) it’s surely just a matter of time before he’s playing at 8 for England. Chiefs won the line out ball but it was knocked on by Woodburn as Chiefs attacked, Saracens got good ball from the scrum, Burke passing out to Elliot Daly who passed out to Segun, who had some space in front of him, Segun didn’t take the ball, which was high after Feyi-Waboso put in a big tackle on Daly.

Chiefs were awarded a free kick at the scrum and had a good attack after first taking, then losing, then winning back the ball, Will Haydon-Wood kicked the ball just too long allowing Burke to call the mark. It’d been good to see Theo McFarland start this game, but sadly he went go for an HIA in the 12th minute and didn’t return. Andy Onyeama-Chrtistie came on in his place her’s had a great start to the season!

Daly very bizarrely dropped the ball after Saracens had won the ball back on the floor, fortunately for him Chiefs had actually knocked the ball on. Burke took a big hit as play progressed after the scrum, it troubled him for a few minutes, I’m surprised it wasn’t looked at by the officials. Saracens were awarded a penalty on the half way line and Daly took the ball but kicked to touch, and it was a beauty of a kick, to the Chiefs 5 metre line. Jamie George took the ball at the back of the maul as he so often does and was pretty promptly over the line to score. That was his 37th Premiership try. It l Alex Lozowski, kicking again this week, hit the upright with his conversion.

It looked like Chiefs would score after a kick up field by Maunder was missed by Tobias Elliot, it fell for Haydon-Wood, but he was tackled virtually on the line, Burke planting his foot to give him some extra power on the floor and to swing the Chiefs player round. Karl Dixon blew for a penalty, clearly raising his hand towards the Saracens players, TNT thought Chiefs had scored, but no, the Saracens defence held firm. Feyi-Waboso was clear and on his own out on the wing, an opportunity wasted by Chiefs.

Tobias Elliot did not waste his opportunity moments later he ran from virtually the halfway line after the ball had come out of a Saracens scrum and gone through a couple of hands, he evaded a two Chiefs defenders to score. Another player who’s had a great start to the season. The kick was good giving Saracens a 12 point lead.

After a Chiefs Scrum in mid field Haydon-Wood put in a lovely cross field kick to Ben Hammersley out on the wing, he chose to kick the ball ahead but it went too far, he might have been better to battle with Elliot Daly who’d come across to tackle him. Burke called the mark. Karl Dixon was Sir for the day and his communication with the players was clear and timely, that was obvious via ref link and even more obvious on the TV coverage.

Saracens were awarded a penalty in the scrum and This time Burke put in a huge kick. Saracens moved the ball out this time and were awarded a penalty for a high tackle. An attacking line out close to the line sae Ben Earl go over the line as the maul rolled quickly forwards. The kick was good and Saracens had a 19 point lead.

Chiefs struck back a few minutes later with a try for Josh Hodge, he’d been standing in line with the back of the scrum and took the ball from Maunder, he kicked ahead and the ball ricocheted to Woodburn off Lozowski who’d tried to charge the ball down, he passed inside to Hodge who did really well to score, he converted his own try.

Playing with a penalty advantage Saracens got the ball out to Rhys Carre, virtually out on the wing, he showed an amazing turn of pace for a big prop, getting the ball away to Elliot, the actual winger, Elliot passed inside to Burke who rain in to score Saracens 4th and bonus point try. The conversion missed and the teams went in with the score on Saracens 24 Exeter Chiefs 7.

Ben Hammersley was shown a yellow card on the restart after he went into Onyeama-Christie with his head, Karl Dixon had seen that Onyeama-Christie was in some distress on the floor and stopped play, I don’t think he’d had any instruction form any of his colleagues, that was well spotted.

Ben Earl, who at times looks like a Back, behaved like one a few moments later as he took a pass from Elliot, to the right this time, Earl was out on his wing and he ran in to score, great skills all round. The kick went awry again but Saracens had a 22 point lead. The TV people went to Rob Baxter for a chat on 45 minutes and he spoke as if the game was already lost, there was a lot of time left I’m the game.

There was a worrying moment for Jamie George as a scrum collapsed, he was down for a couple of minutes, but got up again to take part. Chiefs made several changes and Carre, unsurprisingly after his sprint down the pitch, left for a well deserved rest. There was some concern for Theo Dan as he went down in what seemed to be a good deal of pain, happily he got up again to take part in the next scrum, after his knee was pulled about a bit. The next score was for Chiefs, a second try for Hodge. playing with an advantage there were 2 lovely Chiefs passes to get the ball out to Hodge who had clear space in front of him to score. he converted his try and both he and Exeter had 14 points. Exeter had made good ground after a scrum and the passes from Hammersley then Woodburn were spot on.

Neither team got on the scoreboard in the remaining 16 minutes and the final score was Saracens 29 Exeter Chiefs 14. A great overall performance from the home team and things to work on for the visitors, they missed 17 tackles to Saracens 10. I felt that Woodburn looked out of place at Centre, he’s such a good Winger! Saracens have 15 points from their 3 games and are the only team unbeaten, Chiefs have 2 points from their 3 games and sit in 9th position.