Back with a bang!
McCall’s champions start the Aviva Premiership where they left off – with a thumping victory
The champions are off again then with a simple victory and a bonus point to boot. But this performance from Saracens was at times as disappointing as the crowd at a half-full Twickenham.
They were the better side by many, many country miles but it took them until two minutes from time to score that fourth try for the bonus point. That it was a cracker from Ben Spencer fooled no one.
“Of course we are happy with five points,” said director of rugby Mark McCall. “But we are not that happy overall. It was a hugely rusty performance.” Indeed it was. Most sides would be content with such a scoreline but Saracens set lofty standards and in the first half they were far too sloppy and imprecise, especially at the breakdown, where they allowed Worcester to disrupt them and, indeed on numerous occasions, turn the ball over.
“We did not have enough numbers there and were too passive,” said McCall. “It really upset the rhythm of our attack.”
That said, Saracens always had the huge frame of Billy Vunipola to gain metres beyond the gain line. His brother Mako had his moments too, as did George Kruis. The set-piece was solid too, just as you would expect, but in general Saracens’ skill levels were poor.
At fly-half Alex Lozowski did enjoy a decent debut, though. He was far from faultless, looking a little uncertain at times and not kicking as well as he might have liked, but he did score 20 points, including a try, and will surely only improve. He will be an important figure this season, with Owen Farrell bound to be absent for long periods, and on this evidence he looks to be a good signing.
“He did really well,” said McCall. “It is not always easy to be playing fly-half when the team has not quite got its rhythm but I thought he managed the game really well.”
Farrell is expected to be in contention to return next week after a back injury. “He trained last week and has had a couple of sessions under his belt,” said McCall. “We will make a sensible decision. If he is not quite right, we will hold him back.”
Worcester? They looked as if they came here just to limit damage. They defended extraordinarily well in the first half, with GJ van Velze, Darren Barry and Marco Mama getting through a lot of work, and centre Ben Te’o had a couple of eye-catching interventions, but in attack they were a non-entity.
They did have some key personnel missing through injury, but already it looks like being a long season of struggle for them.
It had been 6-3 at half-time and, to be frank, the fare had been as poor as the numbers suggest. Yes, Saracens were dominating proceedings in terms of territory and possession, but they just could not make that count.
Lozowski kicked only two from four attempts at goal, but when the likes of Billy Vunipola and Maro Itoje are unnecessarily spilling ball, you know that things are not quite going to plan.
Saracens blew a couple of excellent opportunities to score.
Once they created space for Chris Ashton on the right, and when he was held up Kruis stretched for the line. It looked as if he had come up short and the television match official confirmed that, even though he did not seem to think that Lozowski had been late tackled, when he obviously had been.
There was another chance spurned when nine phases were undertaken before Marcelo Bosch should have fed Ashton but ended up throwing the ball into touch. Ashton’s hoof at the ball summed up his side’s frustration.
Ryan Lamb kicked a penalty for Worcester but it was a rare sortie into enemy territory, with Te’o’s run into the Saracens’ 22 after Vunipola had lost the ball and his thumping tackle on Jamie George being their highlights.
Saracens began the second half much better with Itoje taking the kick off superbly and then stealing a lineout. A penalty ensued and Lozowski duly slotted it.
The next penalty they received, after a good break from Lozowski, they kicked to the corner. The driving lineout was always going to be a problem and so it proved, with George plunging over. Lozowski converted and it was 16-3.
Lozowski took a knock so that when another penalty came Alex Goode took the kick, hitting a post, but when the next penalty arrived it was again kicked to the corner.
Billy Vunipola peeled off and went close, and then Schalk Burger fed Lozowski, who had an easy run in near the posts. He converted his own try.
Worcester’s woes were increased when replacement prop James Johnston was shown the yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Lozowski.
That Saracens scored immediately was a formality. Burger, on debut, was the beneficiary after a lovely pass from his South African compatriot Schalk Brits and Lozowski converted again.
With Nick Schonert having injured an elbow earlier it meant that we had uncontested scrummages for a period, but Saracens did not score again until Johnston returned.
But when the fourth try did come, it was indeed a beauty, as replacement scrum-half Spencer, a thrilling prospect, picked up and dummied from a ruck, and then sidestepped three defenders to score.
Job done, if not always satisfactorily.