Went to watch Saracens vs Chiefs this weekend to see a few of our ex-players do their thing, although wasn't a great game for ex-Wasps - Frosty was on the bench, Fisilau struggled to build into the game at time (and there were a lot of handling errors from both sides - some cold hands), Hartley barely saw the ball but the odd occasion he did get his hands on it made ground.
Hadn't been to the StoneX since 2013/14 and despite a general apathy for Saracens, the Match Day experience was excellent. We parked in an 'official' (tickets brought from Saracens) car park about 20 mins walk from the Stadium which worked well for us heading back via the M25 as it meant we were on the right side to get onto the M1 very quickly. All staff super-friendly and welcoming. Had tickets in the South Stand (smallish, semi-permanent stand behind one set of posts). View was great, close to toilets/bar/warm drinks for the kids.
If they had a more enjoyable playing style, they'd be a good potential home for us but just couldn't watch a team that puts boot to ball so frequently (In the interests of fairness perhaps they are much more positive these days and i've not seen enough of them - they definitely went through a better style 1-2 seasons ago but this felt like Saracens of old).
The highlights felt like a different game to the one we'd watched.
Looking at the stats from the Prem Rugby app Chiefs were top in most of the positive ones (Metres gained, carries, passes, clean breaks, turnovers), Saracens made more tackles and conceded more penalties. They just suffocated Chiefs at times and scores came through pressure rather than creativity. The Hodge break for the Chiefs try was sublime and whilst I don't mind watching driving mauls, or one-out to score under the posts I would definitely miss watching first-phase strike play, or free-flowing attacks from turnovers.
Always a Wasp