Mighty Farrell lets fly Saracens beat Blues to march on in Europe
Saracens took a big step towards qualifying for the Champions Cup quarterfinals, extending their unbeaten run to 22 games in all competitions and displaying a champion spirit in defying both the atrocious conditions and a ferocious challenge by a Cardiff Blues side whose own hopes of reaching the knockout stages came to an end.
It took two second-half penalties by Owen Farrell and a try by Jamie George in the 76th minute to finally break Cardiff ’s resistance as the London side moved four points clear at the top of Pool Three with their fourth successive victory in the section.
Mark McCall’s side will guarantee their place in the last eight if they can secure victory at Lyon on Jan 13 but, with second-placed Glasgow still to travel to Allianz Park, the Premiership side now look certain to qualify and, in this form, most likely with a home quarter-final.
It was far from an imperious performance but critically Saracens’ game management in the final quarter, despite losing Will Skelton to the sin bin for collapsing a maul, effectively decided the contest.
Farrell was once again central to the victory, kicking four penalties and two conversions in total and producing the champagne moment of the contest when he sidestepped his way out of three chasing Cardiff defenders on his own line before flicking the ball out of the back of his hand to Alex Goode, who was able to clear the danger.
“It [Farrell] was one of the best bits of skill you will see,” said McCall. “It was incredible to have that presence of mind. I think all of us would have been happy to give away a five-metre scrum, but he didn’t. He understood where Goodey was. He was great today.”
John Mulvihill, Cardiff’s director of rugby, was equally impressed by Farrell. “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. 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. He organised the game pretty well. He did not take the ball on too much, just put them in the right positions.”
Farrell, however, was less impressed by the performance, claiming his side had been “too nice” in the first half, during which Cardiff were able to snatch the lead with tries by Rey LeeLo and Dan Fish, despite a dominant start by Saracens which included a try by Sean Maitland.
“We were frustrated because we hadn’t put a performance together,” Farrell said. “First half we were too nice. It is not what we are about. Credit to the forwards, they put in a big shift. Cardiff are a tough team, massive credit to them. We were more like our real selves in the second half.”
McCall concurred with Farrell but insisted that at this stage of the European competition, it was all about the result. “I know what he means,” McCall said. “We started well but we kind of lost control of that first half by doing everything just OK. Our line speed that we wanted, there was a bit of a contrast between the first 20 of the first half and second 20.
“There are aspects of our performance we would like to get better at but, when it came to it and when it really mattered when we were down to 14 men with 20 minutes to go, I thought we showed all of our experience and managed that part of the game superbly well. We were very composed.
“Today was about the result and getting it done. There is a discontent with some of what we are serving up. There is more in us.”
That may be an ominous warning for everyone else but Mulvihill was rightly proud of his side’s efforts. With more composure, they could have been celebrating a famous victory.
Cardiff, despite struggling at scrums,