Sarries Match thread

[Tervueren]

There is no shame in losing to one of the top sides in Europe, but there should be shame (on the part of some) in surrendering to the name before the kick-off.
I know Exeter might have had a bit of an off-day 2 weeks back, but even an off-Exeter are hard to beat at home, yet they did it and showed real guts. Sarries yesterday we just allowed to play to their plan and most of our team acted like individuals over-trying and making a mess of it, the result being that the whole was far less than the sum of the parts.
A lesson was taught, let's hope it was learnt.

[Brandnewtorugby]

No new injuries, hell of a scrum, nice to see the backs start to threaten, especially at the end.

[westwaleswasp]

Honest question...
Did Sarries play that well?
We scored two and spooned chances we would have finished last year.
We won the scrum, were even in the lineout, gave a soft intercept and lost by a try, or by a mile on the scoreboard.
So how comes they looked lightyears ahead- they did not do much, in fact they made uncharacteristic errors, they did have good ball carrying but apart from impressive scramble defence they did not do too much to thwart us when we made line breaks- we did that for them.
What is it that Shields, say, thinks when we have them under pressure? Something that turns him from assured defensive powerhouse to a player as nervous as a secondary school pupil who has just got to first base as soon as he is in their 22?

[mike909]

Honest question...
Did Sarries play that well?
We scored two and spooned chances we would have finished last year.
We won the scrum, even in the lineout, gave a soft intercept and lost by a try, or by a mile on the scoreboard.
So how comes they looked lightyears ahead- they did not do much, in fact made uncharacteristic errors, they dud have good ball carrying but apart from impressive scramble defence they did not do too much to thwart us when we made line breaks- we did that for them.
What is it that Shields, say, thinks when we have them under pressure that turns him from assured defensive powerhouse to a player as nervous as a secondary school pupil who has just got to first base as soon as he is in their 22?

That matches how I felt watching - I wanted to see what other people thought - I watched thinking "could we have made that any easier?" I felt they didn't have to play very well as we made it too easy - in open play, anyway.

I watched, wondering where the next unforced error would come from. And I usually didn't have to wait long

So, no, they didn't have to play that well, imo. They had most of their first choice team out and so that helped, but we were poor kicking and didn't apply pressure in open play.