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Unwanted England star saves day as Saracens mount unlikely comeback

By PA
Press Association

Saracens produced a magnificent comeback to seal a 45-39 victory over Northampton and maintain their unbeaten Gallagher Premiership record in a thrilling game at the StoneX Stadium.

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Saracens looked sure-fire losers when rampant Saints led 39-17 after 52 minutes but – aided by two yellow cards for Northampton – the home side conjured up a miraculous recovery to leave Saints holding their heads in their hands as to how they ended up losers.

Sean Maitland scored two tries for Saracens, while Gareth Simpson, Josh Hallett, Ben Earl and Elliot Daly added one apiece, with Alex Goode kicking a penalty and five conversions and Alex Lozowski adding a conversion.

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Fraser Dingwall scored a hat-trick of tries for Northampton with Mike Haywood and Courtney Skosan also on the try-scoring sheet. Finn Smith added four conversions and two penalties.

A third-minute penalty from Goode gave Saracens an early lead but it was Saints who scored the first try of the game when Haywood finished off a driving line-out.

The hosts then suffered two blows in quick succession. First prop Robin Hislop departed to fail an HIA before a well-timed pass from Rory Hutchinson created the space for co-centre Dingwall to crash over for Northampton’s second.

Smith converted both tries to leave Saints with a deserved 14-3 lead at the end of a lively first quarter.

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Saracens were lethargic in that opening period but they sprung to life with an excellent try. On halfway they moved the ball wide for Daly to make the running before providing Maitland with an easy run-in.

Goode converted from the touchline before his side suffered another injury blow when full-back Malins left the field with a leg injury.

Goode was off-target with a 40-metre penalty attempt before the irrepressible Saracens captain Earl had a try ruled out by the TMO for crossing earlier in the move.

To compound a miserable five minutes for the home side, Goode was harshly penalised for a late tackle with Smith knocking over the resulting kick before the outside half made a clean break to send Dingwall racing away for his second.

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Smith converted and added a penalty with Saracens’ woes continuing when they lost replacement prop James Flynn to another HIA failure, resulting in passive scrums.

The home side badly needed a response to stem the tide and got one when Andy Christie burst away to give Maitland his second to leave the hosts trailing 27-17 at the interval.

Two minutes later, Saracens prop Marco Riccioni became their fourth injury victim, being helped off with a leg problem to be replaced by Ethan Lewis and leave them with two hookers in the front row.

The game looked up for luckless Saracens when Dingwall completed his hat-trick to reward a neat round of passing with Smith missing the conversion to end a run of 17 successes since joining Saints.

A burst from Angus Scott-Young created a try for Skosan but Saints lost lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto to the sin-bin for a high tackle.

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That was the boost that Saracens needed and they gave themselves a glimmer of hope when replacements Simpson and Hallett both scored converted tries in quick succession.

Salakaia-Loto returned from the bin to temporarily stem the tide but Saints scrum-half Tom James – seconds after coming onto the field – was yellow carded for a high tackle to set up a tense final eight minutes.

Earl raced over for a try that his man-of-the-match performance deserved before Daly completed the remarkable comeback with the match-winner two minutes from time.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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