Alex aims to be twice as Goode
They want to put their best foot forward
ALEX GOODE missed out on a seat on England’s Six Nations party bus but the Saracens full-back is ready to help his club try to pop the champagne on two fronts in the next couple of months along with his returning international mates.
Goode started once for England in the autumn, against Fiji, but was stuck behind Mike Brown in Eddie Jones’ thinking for No15 and was then laid low by an ankle injury in January.
That left last year’s Premiership Player of the Year on the outside looking in as England won a second Six Nations on the spin, but the 28-year-old has his eyes on a double ‘double’ with his club.
Last season Saracens lifted the Champions Cup and the Premiership and are in the mix to have a realistic tilt at winning both trophies again.
They have a European quarter-final against Glasgow on Sunday and last weekend teed up the domestic play-off race with a 53-10 destruction of Bath – Goode’s first game back – which kept them on the heels of Wasps and Exeter.
After defeats to Worcester and Gloucester when their England contingent were away on Test duty, Saracens were fully loaded on Sunday and put Bath to bed with 30 minutes of the best rugby seen domestically this season.
Owen Farrell, Billy and Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Maro Itoje put their Dublin woes away and are fully focused on club matters now.
“We talk about the point of difference in our team being our culture and that speaks volumes for the guys to come back – they’re desperate to play,” said Goode. “To a man, they are outstanding. Every single one of them gave an unbelievable effort and showed what it means to be playing for Saracens. There’s no let-up, there’s no pick and choose because there’s not such a big crowd. They want to put their best foot forward and they want Saracens to keep going forward. “We’ve got a big group of guys who are incredibly motivated by not just England appearances or selfish motivations but every single week putting their best performances in for Saracens. “The guys know the club will give them everything. It’s an environment where no one wants to lose respect for each other. You can do that in one action and those guys never do that, that’s why they’re such top players.”
Glasgow, coached by incoming Scotland boss Gregor Townsend, destroyed Leicester 43-0 in the Champions Cup pool stages at Welford Road in an all-court display spearheaded by Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg.
But Goode says Saracens, once derided as kick-and-clap merchants, have the tools to dismantle any defence as shown by their eight-try display at the weekend.
He said: “We know we can be as good as anyone in the back line, we know we can score points and we don’t need prove that any more.
“If people want to under-rate us it’s fine, we’re happy to go under the radar and we know as a collective – forwards and backs – we can score from anywhere and when we get on the front foot we’re as dominant as anyone.
“We’ve got a wing or two that’s always scoring, that speaks volumes of the back line and we have got half-backs that control it well. Glasgow were Pro12 champions, you don’t do that without a top set-piece, a top defence, and they’re strong.
“But that said, Bath are a top-quality side and we put so much pressure on them and scored again and again and just kept turning the screw.” to