One of the Premiership’s runaway leaders falters; the other strides out with a certain inevitability. Saracens go top, the only team unbeaten, nine from nine. Their unbeaten run in all competitions extends to 20, their last defeat being to Leinster in the quarter-finals of Europe in April.
They were a long way from their best, a somewhat makeshift lineup in this awkward weekend between the autumn internationals and Europe, but they had too much for a similarly unfamiliar Wasps team. This was not the try-fest of last season’s Premiership play-off between these two but the dominance of the one side over the other was very much the same, even if it took a while to translate into points. “I’m most pleased that we didn’t become frustrated by the territory and possession we had,” said Saracens’ director of rugby, Mark McCall.
Alex Lozowski, who had won the kicking audition over Alex Goode in the absence of Owen Farrell and Ben Spencer, collected 19 points, landing seven from seven. Having excelled on the wing last week, he moved into the centre this, where he is happiest. England will surely not have ruled him out of further involvement just yet.
Opposite him was another England international, Elliot Daly, whose coach also described him as happiest in the No 13 shirt, even if England are playing him at full-back these days. Further evidence of his discomfort at No 15 was supplied by his handing Saracens a late try to seal the win, covering back to field Lozowski’s long clearance and flinging the ball infield to Nick Isiekwe for a simple try.
These were not the only England internationals to feature. Jamie George won man of the match but Maro Itoje cannot have been far off. Meanwhile Nathan Hughes was making his first appearance for Wasps since his ill-fated punch-tweet combination. It looked as if he had a few issues to work through his system. He left the field late on but Dai Young, Wasps’ director of rugby, said he was just winded.
Hughes quickly became Saracens’ chief concern. After a few early looseners his carrying started to punish them but the champions’ line held. Wasps’ only points of the first half came courtesy of a remarkable Daly penalty, which cleared the bar by several metres from 55 out. That was one of only two penalties they were awarded in the opening period, both at scrums. Alas, Wasps conceded nine in the same time, three of them from scrums, too. Eight were awarded at that set piece, 5-3 in Saracens’ favour, so no one was the wiser.
Lozowski landed three penalties to establish a 9-3 lead at the break. The game deserved a try. Hughes had a threatening gallop, as did Itoje, who also ruled the lineout, Goode and Richard Wigglesworth, who combined beautifully with Sean Maitland down the right. Each clean break resulted in either a penalty or a handling error, of which there were a few.
Still the lines held, even when Saracens drove a lineout at the start of the second half, having sent their fourth penalty from a scrum to the corner. Hughes’s enormous arms were under the pile to deny George. Daly pulled Wasps back to within three with a penalty, this time from a mere 45 metres, only for Lozowski to slot his fourth.
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The game by then deserved a try a little less but needed one desperately. It came on the hour. Lima Sopoago kicked straight out and Saracens mounted the decisive assault from the lineout. Lozowski and Matt Gallagher made breaks, Saracens could smell the tryline and Goode worked George over it, into the corner.
Lozowski’s fifth penalty followed, before the game was finally sealed by that second for Saracens. Daly scampered back most of the length of the field to collect a wicked Lozowski clearance. He stepped the first chaser but then flung the ball into the path of the next, Isiekwe, who merely had to catch and flop over the line.
McCall expressed his surprise that Saracens and Exeter have managed to put so much distance between them and the rest. To everybody else it feels the natural order and Saracens’ opening of some space at the top all the more so.
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