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'Everybody in the stadium could see that': Saracens boss annoyed at tight calls going against them

By PA
Rob Hislop of Saracens walks off the pitch after being sent off by referee Tom Foley during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Sale Sharks and Saracens at AJ Bell Stadium on March 05, 2023 in Salford, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall believed tight calls went against them as they lost a thrilling top-of-the-table clash to Sale 35-24 at a sold-out AJ Bell Stadium.

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Sale’s bonus-point victory cut the gap at the top to six points but they looked unlikely winners when they trailed 16-0 after 30 minutes.

However a yellow card for Alex Goode for impeding Tom O’Flaherty saw Sale score 14 points in the full-back’s absence to create a huge momentum swing.

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Sale grabbed a 28-19 lead but despite losing their replacement prop Robin Hislop to a late red card Saracens would not lie down and were unlucky to come away with nothing.

The impressive Joe Carpenter scored two tries for Sale, Sam James, Jono Ross and Jean-Luc du Preez were also on the try-scoring sheet with Rob du Preez converting all five.

Alex Lewington, Theo Dan and Kapeli Pifeleti scored Saracens’ tries while Goode kicked two penalties and Manu Vunipola one.

McCall said: “We made a really positive start, played really well for the first 30 minutes and were firmly in control.

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“The stadium was very quiet but then came the yellow card for Alex Goode and very quickly they scored easily and from then on we couldn’t get the momentum back.

“Some days you get the tight calls but today I didn’t think we did. I’m unsure about the yellow card for Alex and everybody in the stadium could see that there was a clear forward pass for their try just before half-time.

“We hung in there and produced a lot of fight and could have snatched it at the end but I’m disappointed to lose our bonus-point at the death.

“I’m very happy with this group as a whole as they’ve secured 24 points in the period when our internationals are away so they are responsible for putting us in this healthy position.

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“We will have our internationals back and hopefully we will soon get the two points needed to guarantee us a home semi-final in the play-offs.”

Sale director of Rugby Alex Sanderson said: “We were battered in a very physical game at Exeter (last week) and shattered so we had a low-key training week.

“It probably showed as our start was poor and our defence to their driving line-outs was also not good enough.

“I think Mark (McCall) might possibly be aggrieved at certain calls but they tend to even themselves out over the season and we did have opportunities to close that game out earlier than we did.

“A couple of huge defensive sets from us probably proved crucial and by scoring 35 points showed that our attack is in good shape.

“There’s now a good feeling within the group and we have to keep it going and keep improving as we have a few tough away games coming up. But for now we have to celebrate as that’s why we play the game.”

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J
JW 54 minutes ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

Too much to deal with in one reply JW!

No problem, I hope it wasn't too hard a read and thanks for replying. As always, just throwing ideas out for there for others to contemplate.


Well fatigue was actually my first and main point! I just want others to come to that conclusion themselves rather than just feeding it to them lol


I can accept that South Africa have a ball in play stat that correlates with a lower fitness/higher strength team, but I don't necessarily buy the argument that one automatically leads to the other. I'd suspect their two stats (high restart numbers low BIPs) likely have separate causes.


Graham made a great point about crescendos. These are what people call momentum swings these days. The build up in fatigue is a momentum swing. The sweeping of the ball down the field in multiple phases is a momentum swing. What is important is that these are far too easily stopped by fake injuries or timely replacements, and that they can happen regularly enough that extending game time (through stopping the clock) becomes irrelevant. It has always been case that to create fatigue play needs to be continuous. What matters is the Work to Rest ratio exceeding 70 secs and still being consistent at the ends of games.


Qualities in bench changes have a different effect, but as their use has become quite adept over time, not so insignificant changes that they should be ignored, I agree. The main problem however is that teams can't dictate the speed of the game, as in, any team can dictate how slow it becomes if they really want to, but the team in possession (they should even have some capability to keep the pace up when not in possession) are too easily foiled when the want to play with a high tempo.

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