Saracens reached their second consecutive Premiership final in style with a destructive 44-19 victory over a Gloucester side that was overpowered and overwhelmed on their return to the play- offs after an eight-year hiatus, securing one half of the Twickenham showcase that was predicted 22 rounds ago. A 28-minute hat-trick from replacement centre Nick Tompkins blew Gloucester away, with additional tries from Sean Maitland, Ben Spencer and Liam Williams. Gloucester produced an impressive late fightback to score two more tries through Ruan Dreyer and Lewis Ludlow, but by that point the bench had been offloaded and Saracens were already thinking about Twickenham once again. Perhaps the most impressive part was that this dominant display was produced without either first-choice prop, with Mako Vunipola and Titi Lamositele's absence allowing Richard Barrington and Vincent Koch to step up in their place - two seamless changes to the side that beat Leinster two weeks ago in Newcastle. After George Kruis uncharacteristically dropping the unchallenged kick-off, the visitors made the most of the early opportunity and worked their first chance to score with sheer-brilliant backs play. He’s no longer in the international reckoning but it was his awareness that brought the opening score, running a smart inside line on the shoulder of Mark Atkinson that took play away from the Saracens rush defence. Again it all stemmed from a restart not taken, handing Saracens possession, and Farrell spotted space out wide for Maitland to kick over the top and allow the Scotland wing to race onto the ball and score. Lozowski did exactly that, taking the catching and sprinting on with only Heinz to beat and bycommitting thescrum-half, he popped the ball up for Williams to score in the corner three minutes from the break. Within two minutes of the restart, the hulking figure of Vunipola unsurprisingly sucked in two defenders and created the space for Tompkins to rush through a huge gap and score unopposed. That Saracens had to wait eight minutes for their next points was unusual in that Farrell missed not one but two kicks at goal in an off day with the boot, but when the fifth try arrived it was a thing of beauty. The second score saw the flanker out-run Farrell in a race for the line that left the fly-half punching the 4G pitch in anger, a symbol of where Saracens put their expectations.
Komentar
Posting Komentar