Falcons thwarted by Goode’s masterclass
ALEX Goode scored in the dying moments of a bruising encounter to complete one of the most complete fly-half performances Kingston Park has seen this season.
Goode, 33, who has been overlooked by England coach Eddie Jones for six years, produced a masterclass in game management.
The final scoreline betrayed what a close game this had been until the last seven minutes, but Saracens looked capable of going up a gear throughout the match and they did just that in the final quarter to make it four wins in the last five.
Sarries DoR Mark McCall acknowledged Goode’s pivotal performance: “When you have difficult games not quite going your way, especially away from home, you need your senior players to not just stand up but make smart decisions with a clear mind, and you saw that in the last 20 minutes with how well our halfbacks – Alex Goode and Aled Davies – managed it.
“We attacked quite well all game but were a bit inconsistent with some of our defence and some of our set-piece, some was very good and others not as good as I’d like to see. Overall I don’t want to overanalyse it but this is an important place to come and get the job done, we’re very grateful to get the five points today.”
With the sun beaming down, Falcons made it a battle from kick-off with a driving maul of a fivemetre lineout dotted down by hooker George McGuigan in the corner.
The North Londoners pressed their set-piece advantage, making mincemeat of the home-side’s scrum twice in a row, in a manner rarely seen. Goode kicked to corner, and with a sense of inevitability the visitors carbon copied Falcons try, hooker Tom Woolstencroft getting the ball grounded.
With the wind in their
favour, Newcastle’s Will Haydon-Wood made full advantage of Saracens conceding two penalties at the breakdown to give the home-side a 13-7 lead.
With Goode orchestrating superbly and Billy Vunipola popping up in between Sean Maitland and young Theo McFarland, Saracens put some really good phase play together with Goode chipping wide to Rotimi Segun.
But before the winger could get there, Mike Brown deliberately knocked the ball out and was sin-binned for deliberatly obstructing a try-scoring opportunity, with a penalty try awarded.
The red shirts couldn’t take advantage of the extra man, No.7 Ben Earl gave away a penalty for Haydon-Wood before Josh Basham was pinged twice before Goode defied the wind to edge Sarries’ noses back in front before halftime.
Saracens showed a glimpse of their reputable quality with some tidy phase play, pinging the black shirts back before full-back Elliott Obatoyinbo sidestepped
three defenders to skirt through a gap and slide over.
McGuigan scored off a five-metre lineout minutes
before Chick
was held up inches short but Falcons couldn’t keep the pressure up.
Goode’s tactical kicking was superb, leading to wing Rotimi Segun scoring on the short-side off a 5m lineout before the former European Player of the Year slid over off the back of another catch-anddrive to seal it.