Ruthless Sarries go back to basics
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ATTRITIONAL. Brutal. Effective. It might have played out to an empty stadium against opposition they’ve never faced before, but Saracens pulled one out from the old playbook to beat Doncaster.
The men in black barely left third gear as they scored five tries and stoutly resisted wave after wave of Knights charges.
It was only when Vincent Koch was sin binned for repeated team infringements on 62 minutes did Doncaster breach the wall with a penalty try from the scrum.
And though it was far from a vintage performance, this win built of creativity in attack and stoicism in defence will see smiles return to Hendon after two straight defeats.
“It was far more enjoyable being out there on the field than it was the last few weeks,” said try scorer Duncan Taylor.
“Things weren’t perfect. But it’s good to bounce back and get that good feeling back in the side.”
Before the match, Doncaster’s director of rugby Steve Boden emphasised that this Trailfinders Challenge Cup was merely a “preseason competition”.
It certainly looked like little more than a training session as predictable Knights attacks crashed against the organised Saracens defence.
Doncaster retained the ball well and dominated possession for the first 20 minutes but there was a lack of creatively run lines or passes against the grain. A penalty from Billy McBryde on 17 minutes was all his side’s puff could procure.
“We’re a bit frustrated really,” said Doncaster’s prop and captain Robin Hislop. “We did some good things but we lacked game management. That’s one thing Saracens are good at and they squeezed us. But we enjoyed going toe to toe with them.”
When Saracens got hold of the ball they looked far more threatening. Manu
Vunipola ran the show from fly-half and it was his delightfully floated ball out right that allowed Rotimi Segun the space to dot down from ten metres out on 27 minutes.
His platform was set by the Saracens pack with man-of-the-match Callum Hunter-Hill to the fore.
Saracens’ lineout was characteristically effective and it proved lucrative just before the interval. Tim Swinson and Joel Kpoku were towering presences who offered near-unmissable targets in the set-piece. It was the latter who collected a long ball over the top from Tom Woolstencroft’s throw and charged over Gus Warr. Kpoku was eventually felled just a metre short before Woolstencroft’s pick up and go secured the five points. Vunipola’s conversion gave his team a 12-3 lead at the break.
The second half went much the way of the first with Doncaster holding on to the ball but not doing much with it. In their efforts to break through they became more expansive but it proved their undoing. An errant pass led to a loose ball which was hacked upfield by Vunipola. James Kane, on his Knights debut, waited too long for a favourable bounce and allowed Taylor to dive over to score.
A high penalty count from both sides eventually annoyed referee Andrew Jackson who sent Koch to the sin-bin and awarded Knights the seven points. But two close range tries in the final ten minutes, from Tim Swinson and substitute Kapeli Pifeleti, killed the contest.