Valkyries made to pay for lack of cutting edge by Sarries
SARACENS edged Worcester Valkyries 22-15 at Sixways last Sunday to pull ahead of them in the race for the play-offs.
Tries from Emma Uren, Claire Allan, Zoe Harrison and Nina Vistisen proved to be enough for the visitors who will spend Christmas positioned in fourth-place with just four games of the regular season remaining.
Worcester scored three tries themselves through England wing Lydia Thompson, Lyndsay O’Donnell and Rhi Parker but they will rue not being able to capitalise on a yellow card to Harrison in the second half.
Saracens head coach Rob Cain said: “We couldn’t have asked any more of the players today. Our defensive effort was immense, when we were down to 14 and Worcester were camped on our line, we showed what our season meant to us.
“Those 10 minutes were huge, not only in the game but also in the context of our season.”
Uren, 19, opened the scoring for Saracens after 17 minutes following great interplay between England internationals Emily Scott and Allan.
The pair showed their class again six minutes later as Scott provided a deft grubber kick through for Allan to dot down in the corner.
Worcester responded soon after through Thompson who seized on a loose ball to race clear of the defence.
Uren then made another decisive contribution seven minutes before the break as she plucked a high ball out of the sky and found Harrison in support, who raced away from the covering defence to score her seventh try of the season.
The Valkyries came back into it on the stroke of half-time when Scottish international O’Donnell crashed over.
The momentum was certainly with the home side and it swung further in their favour shortly after the break when Harrison was sent to the sin bin for not rolling away.
But the match entered a period of 30 minutes without scoring as Worcester threw everything at Saracens but were unable to breach the visitors’ defence, led by flankers Becky Roby and Lauren Newman.
Sarries then punished the home side for their lack of cutting edge by scoring a breakaway try, Garnet Mackinder showing a clean heel of heels before finding Vistisen who put the game out of sight.
The home side did have the final say as Parker showed some quick thinking to score from a tap penalty two minutes from time to secure a losing bonus point.
Worcester No.8 Shona Powell-Hughes said: “I think it’s crucial that we pick up as many points as we can when we are on top of games and that seems to have died out slightly in the last few weeks.
“Ideally we should have won but we will move on. We’ll focus over the festive period and come back a stronger side in 2017.”
In the other game, leaders Bristol trashed Darlington MP 48-0 with both Chantelle Miell and Any Wilson-Hardy grabbing a brace.