Farrell’s an instant hit as Saracens stun Toulon
Fly-half runs show in his first game of season as McCall’s men are first visitors to beat French giants in Europe
ONE of the great European games. Perhaps Saracens’ greatest win. Certainly in terms of the quality of performance, their first 40 minutes has surely never been topped by the north London side.
That Toulon were even remotely close to being in this game with 90 seconds on the clock was testament to the quality, commitment and bloody-minded desire of a threetime champion team which may not be the force of old, but would still be a match for most.
Few teams in world rugby could have lived with Saracens before the interval as the defending champions produced the finest half of rugby in the club’s history.
Leading 25-6 at half-time courtesy of three wonderfully worked tries and a truly world-class display by loosehead Mako Vunipola, Mark McCall’s men had the French giants on the ropes.
They lurched back into life in the second half through tries from Levan Chilachava and Bryan Habana, while an otherwise under-par Leigh Halfpenny added a penalty and two conversions to the brace of penalties he kicked in the first half.
When Sarries flanker Schalk Burger followed Maro Itoje into the sin bin with eight minutes left, the packed Felix Mayol sensed an extraordinary comeback. But it was not to be. Owen Farrell produced a wonderfully controlled and controlling 80 minutes of rugby at fly-half in his first game since England’s third Test win over Australia in June. And when he kicked his fourth penalty after Habana was penalised at a breakdown, England’s champion team had secured another prized scalp.
This was Toulon’s first home defeat in Europe’s premier competition and it took a performance of the highest calibre to inflict it.
‘There is probably a reason why they have never been beaten at home in Europe before,’ said Saracens director of rugby McCall.
‘They have outstanding players and all of their really big players stepped up in the second half.
‘It was a performance that had everything and in the first half we played some beautiful rugby — outstanding attacking play — and showed resilience in the second half when we went down to 14 twice.
‘We had enough composure and fight to get the job done and it is a hell of a win. It feels good right now and I can’t say enough about the players to fight the way they did.’
Farrell, finally fit after frustrating hip and back problems which appeared to be threatening his participation in England’s autumn internationals, was calm, calculated and precise in everything he did. It was a truly miraculous performance after such a long injury-enforced lay off.
‘It’s remarkable, to play the way he played,’ McCall added. ‘There was a passage in the second half that lasted for ever, we cleared and Owen was one of two people that made the tackle on (Toulon replacement) Basteraud and it was incredible he had the stamina and fight to do that.’
Vunipola, so often in the shadow of his younger sibling Billy, was by a distance the best player on the field, belying his hulking frame to run himself into the ground in an 80-minute performance surely as good as any produced by an English prop this century.
The off-load he fed to Farrell in the 39th minute allowed the flyhalf to set Chris Wyles (right) away for the visitors’ third try and was the cul- mination of a memorable Saracens first-half display in which they also scrummaged ferociously and tackled tenaciously. It was also one of several deft touches from Saracens forwards which allowed them to invade the space behind the gainline and pour runners through to create serious damage. England’s secondchoice hooker Jamie George also enjoyed a fine game, cutting a superb line to hit a flat pass from Farrell after 15 minutes before flipping a beautifully
weighted pass from scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth to score under the posts. Sean Maitland had scored Sarries’ first try with a welltaken try in the right corner.
It was jaw-dropping stuff as England’s dominant team defied their unfounded reputation for playing stodgy rugby to produce something akin to the beautiful game.
Saracens captain Brad Barritt said: ‘To come here, to a place where Saracens or an away European team have not won before, that was a huge driving force for us.’
As the second half wore on and Toulon began to believe, some of Saracens’ defensive work defied belief. They lost Itoje and Burger and paid the price on the scoreboard, but Sarries deserved this victory in a game played with such intensity and commitment the pitch was often left strewn with injured players as the overworked medical teams struggled to patch up the walking wounded. This was a win which will live long in the memory.
In truth, a bonus-point defeat here would not have been a disaster. Victory, and in the manner in which it was achieved, sets them on path to top Pool 3, which also contains the Scarlets and Sale. Most importantly, this victory will send shockwaves through Europe. Saracens are just getting better and better.