Saracens 31 - 26 Ospreys

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Saracens (23) 31
Tries: Gill, Joubert, Wyles Cons: Farrell 2 Pens: Farrell 4

Ospreys (13) 26
Tries: Beck 2 Cons: Biggar 2 Pens: Biggar 4


Saracens edged an entertaining Heineken Cup pool contest at Wembley but a bonus point kept Ospreys in contention.

Sarries led 10-3 after an early Rhys Gill try before the first of Ashley Beck's two scores saw the Welsh region level.

But Saracens led 23-13 at the interval after a second try from Ernst Joubert and three Owen Farrell penalties.

Chris Wyles' try put them 28-16 up but Beck's second and Dan Biggar's fourth penalty rewarded the visitors' efforts.

The two sides will meet again at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea next Friday with qualification still very much up for grabs, Treviso's victory over Biarritz earlier in the day leaving the pool wide open.

viewtothegym wrote:The pitch looks around 10 meters wider than the average rugby pitch

68 metres the max is 70.

Dean Ryan pointing out exactly the right issues with ospreys defence. Sarries have done research.

Not much going the NSO way in the 1st half . The Mr Bean lookalike ref doesnt have to play them out of the game to make the Ospreys lose as their defence looks suspect enough already and will leak tries.

Ospreys defence is dodgy but the passing of Hodgson & Barriitt has been spot on.

No Ian Evans , even on the bench for Ospreys

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:Ospreys defence is dodgy but the passing of Hodgson & Barriitt has been spot on.

It is, and having a second flyhalf in the Center, Farrell, is a good option.

Sarries are playing well.


It's a good game for sarries, ospreys have not turned up unfortunately for us...

Stellar Key wrote:
No Ian Evans , even on the bench for Ospreys

Yep, awful selection decision and they are paying for it in the lineout and the scrums.

Great pressure and passing try Sarries

Lovely pass by britz

Ref should have went upstairs for that one. Wyles didn't even ground the ball, he had his arm under it!

Again a yellow??? wtf? who is this ref?

Yep that was a no try

viewtothegym wrote:Again a yellow??? wtf? who is this ref?

It was deserved & daft.

How is that not a penalty? Sarries knock on and a sarries player in front collects it?

Now a penalty for sarries from the scrum that shouldn't have been!!

viewtothegym wrote:Now a penalty for sarries from the scrum that shouldn't have been!!

No binding by the prop shown clearly on replay.

Cheer up son

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:

viewtothegym wrote:Now a penalty for sarries from the scrum that shouldn't have been!!

No binding by the prop shown clearly on replay.

Cheer up son

He was referring to the offside after a Sarries knock on. I can only assume that an Osprey touched it

mckay1402 wrote:

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:

viewtothegym wrote:Now a penalty for sarries from the scrum that shouldn't have been!!

No binding by the prop shown clearly on replay.

Cheer up son

He was referring to the offside after a Sarries knock on. I can only assume that an Osprey touched it

Ah ok.

Try Os. Andy needs to have a word in his sons shell-like.!

Ian Gough comes off the bench and immediately gets penalised - Why isn't Ian Evans playing, did he say something to Scott Johnson?!

Scrums who knows????

For the love of god, stop that music!

Now that was a shocking decision by the ref. Gough lying on wrong side big decision that one.

Why did Biggar kick?

Stringer fitting in well considering he's only been with the squad a couple of days.

Well played Saracens. Very good performance and a much deserved win.

We are very very lucky to get losing bonus point.

wales606 wrote:Why did Biggar kick?

God knows

maestegmafia wrote:Well played Saracens. Very good performance and a much deserved win.

We are very very lucky to get losing bonus point.

er....I don't think so, thought we did well in the second half to stay in touch with sarries.

The Saracens song is bloody dreadful.

Decent game though. Not a bad result for either team.

Entertaining game I'm looking forward to the return fixture next week.

Yes good game I think Sarries will be slightly disappointed they didn't put the game to bed earlier & take the BP but in the end Os potentially could have stolen it.
So roll on next week........

Once again, a dreadful, totally unreliable lineout. How many years has this been the case? Maybe one day we'll have a coaching team who can coach a lineout.

In first half, players ran a blitz defence when they should obviously have ran a drift, exposing outside field and making things easy for Saracens. Players need to think on the field rather than slavishly follow general game plans.

And Biggar. What a star. Dying seconds of the match, and he once again reveals that huge tactical brain by kicking the ball out to touch. Wonderful.

Ospreys need a lineout and a creative, pacy outsdie centre. They have neither. Perhaps this new SA player can fit the bill. They also need backup props who can do the basics -- i.e., their main job in the set pieces (scrum and lineout). Once again, the Ospreys HC season is over.

I'd say the group is in Saracens favour now both Ospreys and Biarritz failed to win in Italy. I can see Saracnes really going for the 5 points in that game whilst they should win at home to Biarritz and pick up LBP in Swansea.

Ospreydragon wrote:Once again, a dreadful, totally unreliable lineout. How many years has this been the case? Maybe one day we'll have a coaching team who can coach a lineout.

In first half, players ran a blitz defence when they should obviously have ran a drift, exposing outside field and making things easy for Saracens. Players need to think on the field rather than slavishly follow general game plans.

And Biggar. What a star. Dying seconds of the match, and he once again reveals that huge tactical brain by kicking the ball out to touch. Wonderful.

Ospreys need a lineout and a creative, pacy outsdie centre. They have neither. Perhaps this new SA player can fit the bill. They also need backup props who can do the basics -- i.e., their main job in the set pieces (scrum and lineout). Once again, the Ospreys HC season is over.

Coaches fault for puting JT in the second row over Ian Evans (also the reason the O's were poor in the scrum as their back5 was too lightweight)

"They also need backup props who can do the basics" - WHAT!? The Ospreys have about 3 international front rows and have more depth in the front row than any other welsh region - they do miss Mitchell at tighthead, but now they have Jarvis, Jones and Griffiths their as well as James, Jones and Bevington at LHP and Bennett, Hibbard and Meffin at hooker.

It should have been Ian Evans partnering JT in the 2nd row with RJ at 6 or at supersub. I think they will make some changes for the return (if not then they should be hung). The pack should be Bevington, Hibbard, Jones, Evans, Thomas, R.Jones, Tipuric, Bearman. Subs D.Jones, Bennet, King, Stowers. At the moment they miss Paul James because Duncan can go back too often in the scrums.

Morgannwg wrote:It should have been Ian Evans partnering JT in the 2nd row with RJ at 6 or at supersub. I think they will make some changes for the return (if not then they should be hung). The pack should be Bevington, Hibbard, Jones, Evans, Thomas, R.Jones, Tipuric, Bearman. Subs D.Jones, Bennet, King, Stowers. At the moment they miss Paul James because Duncan can go back too often in the scrums.

Duncan has been playing well, I would keep him at 1

JT at 8, Ryan at 4 (where he normally plays now)

Bevington over Duncan Jones, did you watch a different game to me? Bevington was getting stuffed until Bennet and Gough came on to help him out.

He made two errors in the scrum when he came on but then got into his stride. Apart from losing his bind you can gaurantee he won't go backwards faster than he goes forwards. Goughy's a lad but I still think his error count is too high.

Sorry Morganwg I can't agree, Bevington is great about the park but even in the Ospreys pack he struggles at scrum time, I would stick with Duncan if James is not fit.

"WHAT!? The Ospreys have about 3 international front rows and have more depth in the front row than any other welsh region" -- Bevington has great pace and is good in the loose, but he can't do the basics well yet -- he can't scrummage. If you think he can, you must have watched a different game or player (and the same can be said for his other games up till now). Jarvis did nothing at Bath and is at best very ordinary so far. Ordinary is not good enough to win a HC though, because better packs will expose you. The plain fact is -- when Adam is away -- there is no quality at TH. When Duncan is inhured, the scrum also suffers on the LH. The same applies with Wales at TH. (Anyone who watched the match against Aus, can see that, surely?). And Cai Griffiths ... And there's Dowding, who is a recent recruit. And Craig Cross, who might develop into a good prop.

As for the hookers, Hibbard is not great at throwing, nor is Bennet. Mefin is the most reliable at throwing in. The Ospreys lineout has always been unreliable, so there's no change there.

The young Jo Rees is probably the most promising prop, who is likely to replace AJ at TH. But he is young, needs a few years on the strength and conditioning programme, and lots of games to develop.

Ospreydragon wrote:Once again, the Ospreys HC season is over.

Jeez, I wouldn't say that yet. They're three points behind Saracens with the home match to play. They still have Treviso at home too. If they can beat Biarritz away they can still top the group.

Beat Sarries next week and it is still all to play for. Coming to the last round BO could be out of it and ripe for the picking.

Is it the expectation that makes Ospreys fans so schizophrenic?

That was a very tough game for both teams. Bith teams getting yellow cards. but both teams playing right to the very end.

Well played to Sarries for hanging on to the end.

The thing is with the Ospreys as any Rabo12 fan would tell you they are seriously strong at home, if Sarries couldn't put them away today with all the mistakes the O'S gifted them they are going to struggle next week.

Also Ian Evans and Gough in the second row is a must

I think a LBP is good result for them today and will be as close next week.

"Jeez, I wouldn't say that yet." Haven't Sarries already got a bonus point win over Treviso? Ospreys only drew away to Treviso, but I expect Sarries to do a pro job and beat Treviso away. So far, Ospreys have lost 1 and drew 1, with 3 to play. Sarries are in the driving seat and I expect them to top the pool. The runner up is unlikely to make the quarters from this group -- you probably need a minimum of 19 points as a runner up.

This pool is no way over, especially if you stop Sarries getting anything next week.

If the next two rounds are won by the home teams Table going into the last weekend could look like:

Ospreys 16
Sarries 14
Biarritz 12

Winning in Biarritz will not be easy - but certainly not impossible.

I enjoyed the match yesterday despite the result, but the O's managed to keep the gap close enough to get a LBP. Hopefully they can beat Sarries at home.

I watched the match with my brother who's a big football fan, and he seemed to enjoy it - not sure he's converted though. He was moaning that I wanted that channel on instead of any football! Lots of good tries from the teams, and the atmosphere at Wembley seemed decent. Even heard some O's fans singing songs!

Seeing as the ref gifted them a lot Sarries were pretty ordinary. If Ospreys management got any nous then they'll start James King at 7 in an attempt to cause more disruption to Saracens breakdown. Ospreys should cruise the return fixture.

Good to see Welsh sides becoming competitive in the Heineken. Still a way to go though.

Now if the fans can stop blaming the ref...

Watching the game this morning that was an awful Ospreys display. Looked disjointed. I think that only having had some of their key players for just a few days prior to the match, post injury etc, made a big difference.

With a good weeks training together they will hopefully be able to give a better performance next week at the Liberty.

To be honest the Ospreys dirt tracker side would have been a better option. Is the naivety of the Coaching team letting us down again?