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The Saracens loss at Munster that was 'so special' for Nick Isiekwe
By Liam Heagney
Champions Cup winner Nick Isiekwe certainly wasn’t predictable when RugbyPass asked him some months ago for his favourite memory from the competition. He had played off the bench in the 2019 final win over Leinster in Newcastle, but that celebratory Saracens day wasn’t what came to his mind when quizzed at the 2024/25 tournament launch in Cardiff.
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Instead, the 26-year-old veteran of numerous campaigns chose a defeat on the road with the Londoners as his standout. It was December 2019, seven months after they had partied with the cup on the banks on the Tyne, when Saracens came to Limerick with a team that wasn’t jam-packed with its usual array of stars.
Yes, Maro Itoje was in the engine room, but there was no Owen Farrell, no Jamie George, no Vincent Koch, no Vunipola brothers, no Elliot Daly, no Sean Maitland, no Max Malins and so on.
Director of rugby Mark McCall had decided to rest a planeload of stars for the fixture taking place in Ireland seven days before the full-strength Saracens would beat Munster 15-6 in London. The back-to-back opener was lost 3-10 across the Irish Sea, but the bonus-point taking English side skipped out of Thomond Park feeling chuffed with what they had achieved in the inclement winter wind and rain.
“That was during the whole relegation thing,” explained Isiekwe. “We rotated the team a little but the fight that we showed in that game and the spirit, it almost felt like we won but we lost. It’s a hard place to go and get a result and that game was weird. We lost but we felt like we won, so that is why it was special.”
Isiekwe is unavailable for Saturday’s return to Munster five years and a month after that defiant performance he speaks so proudly of. A December 27 shoulder injury at Bath in the Gallagher Premiership has ruled him out of the round three pool fixture.
Despite his absence, he hopes the three-time European champions, who last month win at Stade Francais, can show what they are made of and that there is no repeat of the excruciating performance which ended last season’s campaign at Bordeaux.
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“That was a difficult day. It wasn’t the greatest of feelings. It wasn’t a great showing of us in this competition,” he said, recalling the 12-45 round of 16 exit last April in France. “We have a very proud take on this competition, we enjoy it, love it.
“When we are at the club there is a different feel to these weeks, the level goes up. Everybody has to understand this is the top competition that you could be involved in. We have had some proud history and some great moments, but we want to start something new, we want to go on a new journey.
“But we also understand it’s difficult, it has been difficult in the past to get over the line because there is so many great teams, so many great players, star-studded teams.
“We have to come together as a unit, we have to become tighter, understand what we are trying to do as a club on the field and off the field and just have that sense of cohesion because, going back to the history, the great Saracens teams have had cohesion within their squad and that is something we want to build going forward.”
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"I know how hard those first weeks are following any kind of open heart surgery."
– Final call for Nick Isiekwe chat… he is poised for a first England cap today since March 2023. #EnglandRugby #ENGvNZR #AutumnNationsSeries #rugby
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— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 2, 2024
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