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Saracens remain winless in Premiership after home loss to Bath

By PA
Mark McCall, Director of Rugby of Saracens looks on ahead of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Exeter Chiefs and Saracens at Sandy Park on October 14, 2023 in Exeter, England. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

Bath maintained their winning start to the new Premiership season with a 25-16 triumph over defending champions Saracens at a stormy StoneX Stadium.

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Andy Christie’s try gave Sarries an early lead, but the visitors struck back with Tom de Glanville, Miles Reid and Ruaridh McConnochie going over during an impressive first-half display.

Alex Lozowski’s penalty reduced the deficit to four points after the break, but Thomas du Toit’s bonus-point score secured the victory despite Chris Cloete’s late yellow card.

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    The result leaves Saracens rooted to the bottom of the Premiership table, while Bath go top after back-to-back bonus-point wins.

    Saracens came out of the blocks firing, with Christie charging down a careless Finn Russell chip before regathering and crossing underneath the posts to help put his side 7-0 ahead.

    However, the Scotland fly-half made amends immediately, deceiving the onrushing Sarries defence with a stunning offload to feed De Glanville for Bath’s first try of the match.

    The visitors then took a 12-7 lead after Reid muscled his way across the whitewash from close range.

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    Lozowski reduced the difference to two points with a penalty midway through the first half, but Bath were back in control less than two minutes later.

    Ben Spencer produced a delightful cross-field kick from the base of a ruck to feed McConnochie, and the winger capitalised, going over in the corner on his first start of the season.

    Lozowski took another shot at goal 12 minutes before half-time, but his effort drifted agonisingly wide.

    The Saracens centre did kick his second penalty of the afternoon shortly after to keep the hosts within touching distance, but Russell restored Bath’s seven-point advantage moments later.

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    Saracens were on the front foot as the heavens opened after the break, but Aled Davies knocked the ball on at the base of a ruck on the edge of Bath’s 22, and the visitors cleared the ball downfield.

    It was not long before Saracens were back in the visitors’ half, and after the hosts won a penalty, Lozowski made it 20-16 from the tee.

    However, that only seemed to anger Johann van Graan’s side, and they were in the ascendency again six minutes later when Du Toit touched down from the back of a driving maul.

    The hosts showed immense heart to stay in the game in difficult conditions and had the opportunity to launch an attack from a lineout in Bath territory with 10 minutes left to play.

    But the conditions got the better of replacement hooker Samson Adejimi, and his throw was judged not straight as the match started to slip away from Sarries.

    Bath controlled the closing stages, dominating possession and limiting Saracens to scraps as they capped an excellent afternoon with a statement victory.

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    N
    NH 1 hour ago
    'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

    Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

    17 Go to comments
    J
    JW 2 hours ago
    Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

    Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


    Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


    No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


    So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


    The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

    68 Go to comments
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