Match action
ALEX Goode went on a three-day knees-up after Saracens beat Leinster in the European Cup final 16 months ago and he showed his dancing feet again in this quarter-final as the reigning champions defied the odds to bring the Irish side’s 25 match unbeaten run since then to a juddering halt in Dublin.
Goode, who was deputising at fly-half following Owen Farrell’s high-tackle bad, was the first among an army of Saracens heroes after finishing with a 19point haul from a try, a conversion and four penalties.
However, Goode would be the first to acknowledge that it was the Saracens pack that paved the way as they produced a display that was bristling with pride and intent – and showed an utter refusal to bow meekly to Leinster after having to weather a season of grim adversity following their relegation for breaking premiership salary cap regulations.
The Saracens pack had Leinster on toast at the scrum, with their Springbok tight-head Vincent Koch immense, and England front rowers Jamie George and Mako Vunipola not far behind.
This quarter-final demonstrated above all that, properly refereed, the scrum is still a hugely potent force in the game, and rightly so.
Saracens’ overwhelming scrum superiority, which yielded them seven scrum penalties to one against from French referee Pascal Gauzere, was also a critical rallying point for the visitors as Leinster launched a fierce second half attempt to turn around a 22-3 half-time deficit.
The Irish side came close to succeeding after scoring second-half tries through tight-head, Andrew Porter and full-back Jordan Larmour , which reduced the deficit to 22-17 with 18 minutes left to play.
Leinster were undone ultimately because Saracens refused to buckle, holding firm despite the mounting pressure to turn the tables in the last ten minutes thanks to two more penalties their forwards squeezed out of the creaking Leinster scrum.
It was not just at the scrum that Saracens were superb, but also in terms of the workrate of their forwards in the loose. Hooker George finished top of the tackle count with 19, and Koch and Maro Itoje were second equal with 17, with Michael Rhodes and the Vunipola brothers, also making outstanding contributions.
Although Goode was unable to hit the target from the touchline with a 71st minute penalty after George had won a breakdown turnover, and Elliot Daly was unable to convert the first of the late scrum penalties, two minutes later Leinster could not escape the Saracens scrum chokehold.
When they were shunted backwards and infringed yet again in the last knockings Goode made no mistake, with his successful kick meaning that Leinster had to score twice with less than a minute left to play.
As the Saracens players celebrated on the final whistle in front of the empty stands at the Aviva Stadium, with a new lockdown order just put in place in Dublin, it was fitting that they won with a lockdown their own.
From the kick-off their press defence forced Leinster into multiple errors, and after an early exchange of penalties between good and Jonny Sexton, Saracens took the game by the scruff. By winning the aerial battle, as well as gaining an advantage at scrum, line-out and breakdown, Goode rattled off two more penalties for a 9-3 lead after just ten minutes.
Having worked out Leinster’s vulnerability at the scrum they turned the screw before the half-hour, giving Daly the chance to kick two monster penalties, the first from 51 metres, and the second from two metres closer, to establish a 15-3 lead on the half-hour.
Then, having repelled a rare Leinster attack, Saracens launched a tremendous assault of their own, with Richard Wigglesworth and Goode sending Brad Barritt up the middle.
After the hard-running Saracens skipper set up the
ruck, the ball was moved crisply from George to Goode, and the stand-in flyhalf showed all his flair by linking with centre Duncan Taylor, who sucked in two Leinster tacklers before finding Goode with a brilliantly improvised inside pass on the edge of the 22.
Goode still had plenty to do, but he put his foot on the accelerator to slice through for the best try of the match, and then added the extras to give Saracens their handsome half-time advantage.
With the breeze in their favour in the second half Leinster managed to find some of the ball control that had eluded them before the interval, and received a significant confidence boost when a Sexton break saw Saracens concede a penalty.
From the subsequent five metre line-out Leinster hammered at Saracens line, and when James Ryan made the initial inroads, Porter managed to drill his way over – and with Sexton’s conversion reducing the arrears to 22-10 the home side’s self-confidence received a significant boost.
When Leinster launched a 20-phase attack just before the hour, and then followed it when a dummy maul and early pass by Sexton set up Larmour’s try, it was backs to the wall for Saracens.
This Saracens side responded with true grit, battering their way upfield to secure not only one of the great underdog victories, having lost 12 internationals who played in last year’s final, but also deservedly march forward to the semi-finals to defend their title.