BOOTY AND BEAST SEE SARRIES HOME
Daly gets kick out of comeback while Tom is so wild and woolly
SARACENS 36 GLOUCESTER 20
ELLIOT DALY returned to rugby with a bang but had his thunder stolen by hat-trick hero Tom Woolstencroft as Gloucester were downed.
In his first game since March, England star Daly got his howitzer boot out to land two monster penalties to put Gloucester on the back foot – and-Woolstencroft did the rest.
The three tries from hooker Woolstencroft in 17 second-half minutes put the game to bed and probably did the same for Gloucester’s faint hopes of making the play-offs.
The game was as good as up at 21-10 after 48 minutes when Daly, playing at outside centre, went off and Woolstencroft hogged the scoreboard.
Woolstencroft, 25, has seen action at the Bath academy, Wasps, Ealing Trailfinders, Rosslyn Park and London Irish but has found his home at Allianz Park and can only improve by working with Jamie George.
His scores all came from driving mauls that the visitors never looked like defending properly as they folded. This was a rude awakening for Gloucester’s new-look coaching team, led by George Skivington and Alex King.
For Saracens it was a glimpse of the side, barring Daly, that will be on duty for most of the Championship season next campaign after their salary cap scandal and relegation.
For Sarries there was no Mako or Billy Vunipola, no George, no Owen Farrell and no Maro Itoje, but there was no problem for the English champions.
Daly’s long-range boot means teams can’t give penalties away anywhere near the halfway line.
For his first trick, on seven minutes, he banged over a 49-metre threepointer to level the scores and was on the money again from similar range seven minutes later.
In between, Welsh wing Louis ReesZammit missed a try-scoring chance when he dropped the ball over the line and a Manu Vunipola penalty made it 9-3 for the hosts.
But they were rocked when Gloucester scrum-half Stephen Varney scooted over after good work by skipper Mark Atkinson and Henry Trinder before Saracens struck just before the break.
No8 Andy Christie fielded a loose ball and put wing Ben Harris, a sevens star on his club debut, over in the corner.
That added up to a 14-10 lead for Saracens at half-time before the Woolstencroft double when Saracens were waved through anAWOL defence.
Saracens returned the favour when Henry Walker, the replacement hooker, was given the freedom of north London to touch down before Woolstencroft got his third and Gloucester were dead and buried.
A score from scrum-half Tom Whiteley topped it off but a class finish from Rees-Zammit showed the visitors what might have been.
SARACENS – Tries: Harris, Woolstencroft (3), Whiteley. Cons: Vunipola. Pens: Daly (2), Vunipola
GLOUCESTER – Tries: Varney, Walker, Rees-Zammit. Con:
Evans. Pen: Evans