OUTCLASSED
Sarries old guard crushed in six-try battering
IN THIS famous wine-making region, it felt as if Saracens were reduced to a barrel of crushed grapes. They were bottled, corked and foiled as their European campaign — the last of the Owen Farrell era — ended with one of their most painful defeats.
Tom Willis scored a consolation try in the final play of the game, but Alex Goode let the shot-clock wind down so the referee could blow the final whistle. Sarries had suffered enough. A famous generation depart at the end of this season and this was a sorry way to end.
Bordeaux were rampantly superior. Mako Vunipola was slumped over the electronic advertising hoardings throughout the second half as he watched the French hosts run in try after try.
Built in 1924, this relic of a stadium has witnessed a century of changing sporting eras. It hosted football’s 1938 World Cup quarter-final between Brazil and Czechoslovakia. That match was remembered as the Battle of Bordeaux, after three players were sent off and half a dozen injured, with broken arms and legs.
These days it is home to the Begles rugby team and this performance was one of the very best they have seen from the Bordelais.
‘We’re gutted,’ said Saracens’ stand-in skipper Jamie George.
‘I wasn’t ready for this to be the last game for some club legends who are leaving at the end of the season. I love this group, a lot of my good mates are leaving and given the history we’ve been through in this competition, I didn’t want this to be the end.
‘At the same time, we put all our eggs in the Premiership basket and get excited about what’s to come between now and the end of the season.’
The players could barely hear their calls through the hissing and the whistles of the sell-out crowd. Bordeaux had five tries ruled out in the opening half-hour, and it took the atmosphere to boiling point in the old cauldron.
First, Louis Bielle-Biarrey was a couple of blades of grass short from touching down. Then Alex Lewington and Elliot Daly combined to hold up giant prop Ben Tameifuna, who at 23-stone weighs almost as much as the two Saracens put together.
But the French drums never stopped beating and their team never stopped pounding.
At times, it felt as if Maro Itoje and Theo McFarland were tackling three men at once in their tireless defensive stands.
Bielle-Biarrey had a second try ruled out for a forward pass and a third for crossing. Nicolas Depoortere had one disallowed for a knock-on. The hosts were furious.
Saracens cleared their lines time after time. There were moments of magic from the hosts but they had just three points from Maxime Lucu to show for their early dominance.
There was an inevitability when Itoje was sin-binned for a cynical knock-on in the 36th minute. Romain Buros handed-off Lewington and Mateo Garcia was in support to score. This time, referee Frank Murphy and his TMO team had nothing to debate. Bordeaux led by 10 points at the break, but it could easily have been 30.
If one statistic told the story, it was Saracens’ tackle count of 133 to 33 from the hosts.
Bordeaux landed body-blow after body-blow. Ruled out with a hamstring injury, Farrell watched from the sideline as Goode miss his first kick at goal before Bordeaux sent up their heavy hitters. Japan No8 Tevita Tatafu used his muscle to hold off Daly’s tackle, pulling off a spectacular offload as he was shunted into touch to set up Garcia for his second.
In six bruising minutes, the hosts scored 21 points.
Depoortere and Bielle-Biarrey were the arch poachers as they capitalised on Saracens’ loose play, punishing them at lighting pace.
Under the fading light, the gulf between the Premiership and the Top 14 was exposed.
Consolation scores for Lewington and Willis sandwiched a final score for Bielle-Biarrey, who rounded off a vintage display that will leave the old friends in the Saracens camp feeling bitter as well as badly beaten.
AS HE relaxes on a leather sofa in Sedbergh School’s rugby pavilion and reflects on a colourful 17-year professional career, Carl Fearns cannot help but be reminded of his alma mater’s sporting pedigree.
The names of all the players to have represented Sedbergh’s first XV are listed on the walls of the pavilion.
Fearns is among the alumni which includes former England centres Will Carling and Will Greenwood. The international shirts of those ex-pupils who made the highest grade at various ages are hung from the walls.
Freshly retired, 34-year-old Fearns has just finished taking Mail Sport on a tour of his old school. He then sits down to recall the good, the bad and the ugly of his time in the sport he loves.
The time he knocked out Gavin Henson in a Bath nightclub and when he accidently set himself on fire following a drinking session in Lyon. He discusses former England coach Eddie Jones, calling him a ‘whinger’ and ‘moaner’.
Fearns reveals he played for England at Twickenham just a few days after returning from a holiday in Magaluf and relives another brawl involving a member of the Tuilagi family.
‘I’ve always been a straight shooter down the years,’ he says. ‘Sometimes it’s got me in a bit of trouble! But I’m unbelievably proud of what I achieved in my rugby career.
‘I’d never have had the opportunity to come to a place like Sedbergh if I hadn’t played rugby. I started at 11 as a shy, dyslexic kid from Liverpool.
‘Rugby gave me confidence and lifelong friendships.
‘I know the sport has its problems with head injuries, but for people to compare it to child abuse is hugely upsetting to me. We can’t forget the good rugby can do for people. We have to protect it.’
A tough and uncompromising back-rower, Fearns excelled on club duty with Sale, Bath and Newcastle, but played his best rugby with Lyon.
England internationals now regularly swap the Gallagher Premiership for France’s TOP14, but when Fearns left Bath for Lyon in 2015 he was an anomaly. He helped his new team to promotion from France’s second division after recovering from a dramatic incident which nearly derailed his Gallic adventure.
‘Now there’s a story,’ Fearns says with a smile. ‘We had a pre-season camp and on the last day we went on a bike ride three hours into a forest. The lads set up camp and built a fire because we were going to cook a big pig on it. ‘I ended up drinking a whole bottle of gin. When I stood up, I tripped over one of the branches and fell into the middle of the fire. I’d drunk that much gin I had to be pulled out.
‘Our full back at the time sat me in the river in the middle of this forest while we waited for the ambulance. I had burns down my right side. It was awful.
‘When I got in the ambulance Pierre Mignoni, the head coach, was there. He asked if I was going to be playing next week! I was panicking a bit thinking Lyon might sack me but they were very patient.’
Fearns is a rugby throwback in many ways, a player who came through a professional environment but was never afraid to take the opportunities sport can provide. The camp fire incident, combined with his brilliant performances, saw him nicknamed ‘the Inferno’ in Lyon.
Fearns left Bath for Lyon after featuring for them in a Premiership final defeat by Saracens and just two years after the 2013 incident with Henson in Bath’s Pig & Fiddle.
‘I turned up late but the lads had been drinking for a long time by the pavilion at the Rec,’ he says. ‘They were already egging Gav on. They wanted to see “Super Gav”, which was the nickname for his alter ego when he’d had a few. We went to a few bars and Gav flipped the table of a couple who were having dinner in the corner. Stuart Hooper took him outside.
‘Paul James was really annoyed as he’d vouched for Gav because he knew him from Wales. Gav came back in and had plenty to say and what happened, happened.’ (Fearns floored Henson, resulting in a club fine for both players)
A year earlier, Fearns got the chance to play for England against the Barbarians.
‘I was reluctant to take it because I’d just come back from a holiday in Magaluf!’ he recalls.
‘I went because I didn’t know I was going to get picked. The day after I got back, I got a call from the coach, Stuart Lancaster, asking me to come in. He said Calum Clark would start and I’d be on the bench.
‘Clark then got injured so I started. I wasn’t in the best shape and didn’t have my best game. That probably set me back in terms of England selection.
‘Going out with Andy Tuilagi was another one that got me in a bit of trouble. I played with him at Sale. We were in Manchester. I went to the toilet in this club and when I came back, it was chaos. ‘Students were having their phones thrown in the canal. I’ve no idea what started it, but there were people getting kicked in the face by bouncers.
‘I’ve looked over to find Andy and he was getting battered by about 10 of them. I went over to help him. We ended up getting filled in pretty much. There was an article in the Sun that said we were knocking out bouncers, but that wasn’t the case. We were the ones who got battered!’
England’s game with the Barbarians was uncapped, so Fearns never officially represented his country.
Former England head coach Jones had shown an interest in him, but the pair failed to see eye-to-eye and the player stayed in Europe.
Fearns remained in Lyon until 2020 before enjoying a strong stint with Newcastle Falcons via Rouen and setting up home in the North East with his wife – who comes from the area – and four children.
He was disappointed by the way his departure from the Falcons was handled last year and after a brief spell at Carcassonne in France, he retired in December.
Fearns now works as a business development manager for Fusion For Business. His primary focus is on advising sports clubs, including those in rugby, on how to cut their energy bills.