Sarries without a Carre
SARACENS dug deep to overcome prop Rhys Carre’s early red card and keep alive their Heineken Champions Cup hopes.
And they are likely to reach the tournament’s last eight for a ninth successive season if they beat Racing 92 next weekend.
Wales international Carre was sent off in the fifth minute for a high, shoulder-led challenge on Ospreys full-back Dan Evans at the Liberty Stadium.
It appeared a harsh call by French referee Alexandre Ruiz, who also sin-binned flanker Calum Clark before half-time, briefly reducing Saracens to 13 men. But despite rugby director Mark Mccall resting a host of his international stars, resilient Saracens delivered a victory that must rank as one of their best in Europe.
Fly-half Manu Vunipola, the teenage cousin of Billy and Mako Vunipola, kicked 17 points and wing Alex Lewington claimed a 50th-minute try to send Saracens second in Pool 4.
Evans scored two tries while Clark was off, with fly-half Luke Price adding a penalty and conversion, but the Ospreys ultimately suffered a fifth successive European defeat this season.
Saracens arrived in Swansea after a week when lawyer Neil Golding was appointed as non-executive chairman, succeeding Nigel Wray, while it also emerged that players are set to be trimmed from a starstudded squad in order to comply with salary cap regulations.
But they showed commendable character to collect four points and keep themselves in the shake-up for a knockout place.