Sarries cruise their way to Euro success
SARACENS became only the fourth side to win back-to-back European titles after a superb Final at Murrayfield yesterday.
Tries from Chris Ashton, George Kruis and Alex Goode saw them home against a brave Clermont who pushed them all the way with tries from Lamerat and Abendanon.
It was breathless stuff on a perfect pitch. The Clermont fans’ drums and songs were creating an incredible atmosphere and the rugby was living up to it, with Saracens enjoying the upper hand and finally making their superiority count.
These are two of the best defences in the game – Sarries’ in particular – and both sides had been hard at work trying to work out ways around them, with decoy runners and switch passes in abundance.
Ashton got his chance to display his trademark “Ash Splash” swallow-dive try celebration on the quarter- hour when Goode spotted space behind the Clermont cover and his inch-perfect chip popped up nicely for the wing to scamper over.
Instead of milking the moment Ashton could have got nearer the posts, and Farrell will have been cursing him when his conversion attempt came back off the upright.
Soon after, Farrell’s penalty shot from just inside the Clermont half fell inches short but he couldn’t miss from bang in front of the posts when, after Sarries kept up their unrelenting pressure, Kruis crashed over from short range for their second try in six minutes.
It looked like it could become a rout but Clermont are no mugs and they immediately set off upfield and set up a series of lineouts and scrums just five meters short.
From a scrum, they whipped the ball infield, Rougerie had a breenge and somehow smuggled the ball to Lamerat for a score that Parra converted and which sent this game, already being played at 100mph, into overdrive.
Saracens had enjoyed most of the territory but they kept coughing up the ball in enemy territory, while the French club made the most of their one visit inside Saracens’ 22 to make the score 12-7 at half-time.
The game resumed at the same relentless
pace and Lopez sent a drop kick wide but at the other end Farrell again couldn’t miss with a point- blank penalty to edge Saracens further ahead.
But Clermont all but wiped it out immediately when Spedding’s charge set up a flowing move that released former England wing on the left flank and he raced in for Parra’s conversion to make it a one-point game.
Farrell banged over another short-range three-pointer for some breathing space as Clermont defend desperately – and illegally – but that’s quickly cancelled out by Parra’s first penalty of the evening and with an hour gone there was again just a single point in it.
Saracens were camped out on the Clermont
white wash but the Top -14 side were defending as if their lived depended on it
But Sarries kept at it and when a gap finally opened up, the superb Goode glided through it for the decisive score with Farrell adding the extras from the touchline before adding a late penalty for good measure.
ASM Clermont – Spedding ( Fernandez 70); Strettle, Rougerie (Penaud 55), Lamerat, Abendanon; Lopez, Parra (Radosavljevic 75); Chaume (Falgoux 55), Kayser (Ulugia 67), Zirakashvili ( Jarvis 77), Iturria, Vahaamahina ( Jedrasiak 45), Chouly (Capt.), Yato (Lapandry 61), Lee ( Yato 63-65).
Saracens – Goode; Ashton, Bosch, Barritt (Capt.) ( Taylor 55), Wyles ( Lozowski 79); Farrell, Wigglesworth (Spence 79); M. Vunipola (Lamositele 77), George (Brits 50), Koch (Du Plessis 79), Itoje (Hamilton 79), Kruis, Rhodes, Wray (Burger 61), B. Vunipola.