Sarries are back ... and it is like they never left!
THE boys are back in town — Saracens shutting out Bristol on their return to the Premiership with a classic suffocation. It was like they had never been away.
Bristol might have started the day celebrating coach Pat Lam’s new contract until 2028, boosting his near £600,000 annual salary, but ended it asphyxiated by Sarries’ strangling hands.
Alex Lozowski was the comeback king, kicking seven penalties and providing a chipped assist for Alex Lewington’s try, on his first match since returning from his loan in Montpellier.
Sarries, post salary-cap saga, may have a different squad (and accounting book) but make no mistake, this is the same team, winners who could not care a jot if you like them or not.
The scariest prospect for the league now is that they have just beaten last year’s table-toppers without any of their Lions tourists — Premiership rugby you have been warned.
If the end of the last season ended in glorious multicolour, this new one appeared a little greyer. That was on the field, where the introduction of the ‘50:22’ kicking law seemed not to inspire attacking rugby, but instead presented a challenge to see who could hit one first.
No one did hoof one from their own half and bounce it out via the opposition 22, thus taking the lineout throw, and long series of kick-tennis battles grated on the viewer after a while.
In the stands and around the place it was a riot though, this the most-attended rugby match on these isles since March 7, 2020 when England beat Wales at Twickenham pre-pandemic.
Home advantage, remember that? Bristol had more than 19,000 roaring their name around Ashton Gate. One of them had left his engine running outside the ground, so eager he was to make the game, and had to nip out having been told off by the public address announcer.
The trouble was the first half was a little stuttering. Three penalties apiece for Callum Sheedy and Alex Lozowski was it for 40 minutes of scoring, the best moment a nearlytry from Bristol that would have been sensational.
It came when Charles Piutau stepped inside juicily for the break, then fed Harry Thacker — but Ioan Lloyd was just about bundled into touch by Elliott Obatoyinbo and Billy Vunipola.
The England No 8 looked a little leggy in the first half, and it took Saracens time to grow into their Premiership return.
They started with fumbled lineouts and dropped balls but ended the half level, and not caring a jot about whether the game was entertaining — results are all they have ever craved, and especially now they are back in the big time after their year in Championship isolation.
Pre-salary cap saga Saracens were the kings of the squeeze and suffocation — and here they went about the same trick with a muchdepleted squad.
No Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Mako Vunipola or Elliot Daly, all resting after the Lions tour, but they did have Lozowski, Nick Isiekwe, Nick Tompkins and Ben Earl, from Bristol, back after loans.
Lozowski kicked three penalties to push Sarries comfortably ahead after the resumption before they built their defensive wall.
With Saracens shutting out the game expertly, the crowd needed to wake up to lift their Bears; what had them off their seats was a double tackle by Alec Clarey and Tom Woolstencroft on Will Capon — they were incensed that referee Wayne Barnes did not flutter a card at either, as he judged both hits to be fair.
Then with 15 minutes left, Lozowski hit his seventh penalty and all hope looked lost for Bristol. It was Lozowski who added the killer blow, kicking across to Lewington who dived in for the try to add a layer of gloss.
But up in the stands, the Sarries coaching staff were almost more excited by the way they held firm in defence, not allowing one of the league’s great attackers a single try at home.
Nothing changes; Saracens’ greatest comfort.