SARRIES TAKE IT TO THE MAX
Malins steals show again — in tights!
MAX MALiNs was saracens’ magic man in tights as he became the first player to score two hat-tricks in a week to swat aside Wasps.
The england back scored three tries in the demolition of Bath last week, and yesterday he went one better with four.
And Malins, 24, did it all in leggings — now permitted on plastic pitches — as sarries notched 127 points and 18 tries in 160 minutes of league action across seven days.
‘The power of the tights! You’ve got to be careful — i knew i was going to get stick for it, so i had to put in a good performance, didn’t i?’ laughed Malins, who decided to wear them just before kick-off as he has cuts on his knees he did not want to re-open before joining up with england.
‘i brought them with me and saw that Jonny May had worn them on saturday, which opened the door. i saw it was a dry day so didn’t want to take the risk.’
sarries boss Mark McCall was not just pleased with Malins, but again singled out Billy Vunipola, dropped by england but a tryscorer here, for high praise.
‘How Billy didn’t get man of the match, i’ll never know,’ said McCall. ‘He was unbelievable today, a force of nature. Billy gave us all the momentum and i thought he was wonderful.’
Consider this Wasps starting XV: Charlie Atkinson; Marcus Watson, Paolo odogwu, Malakai Fekitoa, Josh Bassett; Jacob Umaga, dan robson; Ben Harris, gabriel oghre, Jeff
Toomaga-Allen, Joe Launchbury, Vaea Fifita, Brad shields, Jack Willis, Alfie Barbeary.
And this bench: dan Frost, Theo Vukasinovic, James gaskell, Tom Willis, rob Miller, Michael Le Bourgeois, ryan Mills, sam spink.
When you realise that is a list of 23 not playing against saracens — 15 injured, one banned and seven rotated — Lee Blackett’s task here hits brutally home.
How on earth, really, were Wasps meant to win against a fired-up sarries who had put 71 points on Bath last week?
Then add four more withdrawals during the first half — Will simonds, Pieter scholtz, Tom Cruse and Ben Morris — and the die was well and truly cast.
sarries had no mercy. By halftime they led 27-3; two owen Farrell penalties got them going, then Jamie george scored his fourth try of the season. That came after a delightfully simple move when Aled davies popped to the rampaging Vincent Koch,
REX who ran through a hole then fed george to beat the last man.
After Wasps had temporarily stopped the one-way traffic with a Jimmy gopperth penalty, sarries went into overdrive.
Alex goode pirouetted to beat Zach Kibirige in no space at all, then flung a spinning reverse pass inside. Nick Tompkins soon broke away, sean Maitland took them close and then quick hands from goode and Maro itoje gave Malins his first.
right on half-time, Wasps knocked on five yards from their line, sarries won the scrum and Vunipola popped over for their third. After the break they kept coming, Malins soon scoring another on the left.
‘don’t let anything drop!’ Farrell roared to his side as Wasps attempted a belated rally — so he would have been livid that former saracen Ali Crossdale was able to float a wide pass to gopperth for a try.
The visitors did not give up. itoje passed loosely near Wasps’ line and the ball spilled away. Crossdale hoofed it long to set Kibirige against Farrell in a footrace the winger won easily, kicking on and gathering to score.
But Malins completed his second hat-trick in a week, then took a fourth when completing a superb one-two with Farrell.
Malins went off but the tries kept coming, Alex Lozowski next and then, at the last, Ben earl completed a 10-phase move to confirm saracens’ domination.
‘it could have been worse,’ said Blackett, grasping at straws.