Magic Farrell too slick for Cardiff
England star shows the way for secure Saracens
‘OH my God ,’ muttered three drenched Cardiff coaches as they watched Owen Farrell’s act of escapology on his own try line.
With half of Wales charging down on him, the Saracens No 10 threw a dummy off his left hand, sidestepped inside and flicked a backhanded offload to Alex Goode. Now you see it, now you don’t. His moment of magic helped repel the Blue siege — protecting a twopoint lead at the time as Saracens extended their unbeaten run to 22 games.
Until that point, the home crowd had goaded the England captain with chants of ‘ Owen Farrell, he uses no arms’.
How he came back to bite them. He kicked 16 points and marshalled his side through a 10-minute sin-bin as they edged towards the quarter finals.
Saracens have forgotten how to lose. They were nowhere near their best across the border, trailing 14-13 at the break, before squeezing the life out their opponents in the second half.
Mark McCall’s side were dominant in the scrum and they had the ear of referee Jerome Garces, who frustrated Cardiff ’s plucky back row at the breakdown.
The French official also refused to consult his TMO when Sean Maitland took out Garyn Smith in the air — riling Blues coach John Mulvihill, who said: ‘If the rules are to look after player safety then things like that have to be looked at, that’s why we have the TMO.
‘We gave away 15 penalties and only one coloured jersey was refereed today at the breakdown
‘They would do exactly the same thing but it was not penalised and we just need consistency.’
Maitland scored an early try for Saracens and Farrell extended their lead from the boot.
The took the Blues — who operate on a shoestring budget compared to the English champions — 17 minutes to venture into the opposition 22. Marshalled by Gareth Anscombe, however, the Blues were clinical with their few attacks.
They turned down a kick at goal for a scrum and the gamble paid off. Josh Navidi and Lewis Jones combined from the base, before Rey Lee- Lo barrelled over Brad Barritt to score.
A few minutes later, the Saracens defence broke a second time due to Anscombe’s pinpoint kicking.
Garyn Smith beat Maitland in the air on the left wing, before offloading to Dan Fish who gave his side the half-time lead.
‘We were too nice,’ muttered Farrell. The Blue wave continued after the break as Mulvihill’s side threw the ball around in the rain.
Farrell edged his side ahead with a penalty and his game-changing Houdini moment then snuffed out another Welsh attack.
‘Three of our coaches looked at each other and said “Oh my God, what skill!” said Mulvihill.
‘I thought he had knocked it on but when we looked on the replay that was just awareness of what is around you and the periphery of what is available to you.
‘He was off balance and if he was going to be turned over we would have won that ball and he decided to flick the ball.
‘Players of that quality practise that stuff before training — to come out and do that in a game just shows his quality.’
Will Skelton was then sent to the sin-bin but Saracens’ leaders performed a boa constrictor act after the Blues turned down a kick at goal.
Farrell added another t hree pointer and Jamie George scored from a late driving-maul try to keep Saracens rolling on.