TRICK OR TREAT?
Goneva ruse divides game as Sarries win
SARACENS narrowly avoided falling victim to a hoax by Vereniki Goneva and overcame the inconvenience of being reduced to 13 men to launch their title defence with a tense victory.
Once Nick Tompkins’ late strike had settled the contest in favour of the visitors, Newcastle were left to lament the 21st-minute controversy which sparked feverish debate.
With the champions leading 10-6 and surging forward in search of more points, Owen Farrell attempted a drop goal, which fell short. The ball bounced behind the posts where Goneva gathered and appeared to touch down for a dropout. However, it turned out the Fiji wing had placed the ball on his boot instead. He then jogged into the 22 and, spying a gap, accelerated clear.
The Saracens players had stopped because referee Ian Tempest had blown for a dropout and amid howls of protest from the stands, Goneva raced to the line and touched down.
Ignoring local indignation, Tempest stuck to his guns. His bizarre explanation was there had been a ‘game value’ offence — whatever that meant. It didn’t cut much ice with the furious Falcons. Goneva’s protests lasted several minutes during breaks in play as footage showed the ball had not been grounded.
Speaking on BT Sport, former England wing Ugo Monye said: ‘What a dummy. That’s nonsense — “game value”? I always dreamed of doing this, faking putting the ball down.’
Many observers shared this view, while others rightly pointed out that Tempest would have had to be standing next to Goneva to have avoided being duped. If play had been allowed to proceed, there is a strong chance that one of the Saracens defenders would have stopped Newcastle’s No 14 but he is a lethal runner, so there is no guarantee that he wouldn’t have gone the length of the pitch to score a legitimate try. That is why the issue dominated the post-mortems.
Dean Richards, director of rugby at the Tyneside club, said: ‘I don’t know what a game value offence is. Isn’t a dummy (one of those) as well? And if it is a game value offence — doesn’t he penalise him for it? I am amazed he didn’t go to the TMO and come back and have a look at it, which is probably the right thing to do.’
Naturally, there was an entirely different perspective from the opposition camp, as Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: ‘Assuming the referee calls a 22m dropout — and he did — our players are entitled to stop. I think that’s what happened. If the referee calls a 22m dropout, it’s a 22m dropout.’
Asked if he had seen anything like it before, McCall added: ‘No.’ He went on to admit that his side had been ‘under par in most areas’.
Saracens relied on their experience and temperament to see them through, allied to the impact of Richard Wigglesworth’s box-kicking barrage and the aggressive physicality of their streamlined Wallaby lock, Will Skelton — whose new diet has seen him drop to a mere 21st 4lb.
Prior to Goneva’s act of deception, the visitors had gone in front when England hooker Jamie George scored after a slick exchange of passes with David Strettle, who later went off concussed. Alex Lewington’s first try — created by Alex Lozowski’s midfield break — ensured Saracens went into the break 17-9 up and seemingly in control, but Newcastle would not go quietly.
Mark Wilson burst away from a ruck to score in the 56th minute and after Lewington struck again at the other end, the England flanker also registered his second, this time from a lineout drive.
That try and Toby Flood’s conversion made it 21-22 with nine minutes left and Saracens had lost two men to the bin — Tompkins for an elbow into Flood’s neck and Alex Goode for illegally killing the ball at a ruck.
The champions appeared to be there for the taking but their pedigree showed at the right time. With four minutes remaining, George blasted clear from halfway and Farrell sent Tompkins over for the decisive try before adding the conversion and a penalty at the death.