Nick Cain column: Saracens can batter down the gates of Europe
As a result, Saracens came away empty-handed, with the glittering prizes of 2014 going to Toulon in Europe, and Northampton in England. The pain of coming up short was piled-on as Toulon’
star-studded imports produced the power to nullify their pack, providing Jonny Wilkinson and Matt Giteau time and space to run the show at the Millennium Stadium.
To make matters worse, Saracens’ chance to make amends slipped away in a see-saw Premiership final at Twickenham which saw the Saints clinch victory with an Alex Waller try in the last minute of extra time.
There are some sides that disappear after defeats of that magnitude, shrivelling rather than growing at their first exposure to the glare of sun, but Saracens are not one of them. They became English champions for the second time last year, and also made the semi-finals of the European Cup again before losing narrowly to Clermont in St Etienne.
This season the first instalment of their tilt at the double comes against a Racing side chock-a-block with star foreign imports purchased by Jackie Lorenzetti, their property magnate owner. The Parisian side’s biggest coup by far has been the signing of Dan Carter, right, and New Zealand’s 2015 World Cup-winning fly-half will be a formidable
obstacle to Saracens hopes of becoming champions of Europe for the first time, and the first English winners for nine years.
GET CARTER
Carter has made a big impact in his first season at Racing, bringing polish, grit and tactical savvy to a side riding high enough in the Top 14 to have double aspirations of their own. The Kiwi
fly-half’s command performance against Leicester in their semi-final in Nottingham a fortnight ago was proof that Saracens will have to hit the peaks in Lyon if they are to stop Racing from winning their first European Cup final.
Carter, left, proved conclusively against the Tigers that he intends to earn his unrivalled paycheck. He gave a tackling masterclass of such tenacity and accuracy that Manu Tuilagi did not get close to running over the top of him in the manner suggested by Eddie Jones. Instead, England’s head coach witnessed his returning midfield powerhouse nullified by Carter’s text-book defence before limping off at the final whistle with a hamstring injury.
If Carter bought finesse and class to everything he did, Racing also had Leicester’s number when it came to their old staples of head-on brutality and belligerence in contact. The punishment dished-out by Racing’s defensive line – with former All Black back-rower Chris Masoe, French flanker Wenceslas Lauret, and Wales lock Luke
Charteris in the vanguard – was a revelation, and it left Leicester’s ball-carriers so shaken that they were reduced to fumbling wrecks.
Racing proved also against Tigers that with play-makers of the calibre of Carter and their outstanding incumbent French Test scrum-half, Maxime Machenaud, they will carve out opportunities. Add to that finishers of the quality of Argentine wing Juan Imhoff, veteran All Black wing Joe Rokocoko, French full-back Brice Dulin, and Springbok centre Johan Goosen (pending a head injury investigation), and they can pierce the best defences.
This left a strong impression on Saracens rugby director McCall, below, whose side prides itself in a collective ‘wolfpack’ ferocity in defence. When it is mooted that if Saracens disrupt the line-out catching of the towering Charteris and stop Racing’s fearsome driving maul the job will be half-done, he disagrees.
KRUIS CONTROL
McCall says that his burgeoning England second row partnership of Maro Itoje and George Kruis will have to be as influential against Racing as they were in breaking Wasps.
“We have to kill their momentum if we possibly can, and one of the ways of doing that is fracturing them at source. Maro and George are in real form at the moment. Our scrum is going to have to be good, because when they’re on the front foot they look pretty good.”
The softly-spoken McCall believes that a crucial component for Saracens will be getting quick ball from the breakdown in attack, something Racing denied Leicester. He says it will require precision when taking the ball into contact.
“They’re very good at keeping numbers on their feet, they’re very big men, and they’re strong over the ball. It’s very difficult to get fast ball against Racing, and to create fast ball you’ve got to work out a way to attack them in areas where we can get half a shoulder, get over the gain-line, and get our attacking game going. We’ve watched a lot of them in the last couple of weeks, but they’re a side who we think we can do a job against.”
Yet, McCall stresses that to do a job on Racing his side have to keep the penalty count to a minimum, as they did against Wasps.
“Obviously, we’ll do our homework on Nigel (referee Owens). But we’ve talked about it a lot over the last couple of seasons: Making good decisions at defensive breakdowns, coaching each other off the ball, making sure people don’t put their hands in when they don’t need to, and listening to the referee.
Against Wasps we gave away six penalties in the whole game. That was a good sign, and they got one kick at goal. So, it’s something we’re good at – and we’re going to have to be good at it because it’s not just Carter, because Machenaud is a great kicker as well.”
One of the fascinations of the Saracens-Racing clash will be which side emerges triumphant from the tackling carnage, and whether the Parisian crew can knock Kruis and Itoje out of their stride.
ITOJE’S GIANT GAINS
McCall has been reluctant to encourage the media frenzy around Itoje, especially since his England call-up, because he doesn’t want the 21-year-old lock to start believing his own Press. However, with the first of Saracens defining matches of the season imminent, he reveals that Itoje’s ability to rise to the occasion as an England Grand Slam winner is invaluable for his club.
“He’s been consistent, and he’s been getting better game by game. He has the odd game when it’s not the case, but those games are few and far between. And when it comes to the really big games he seems to put his best foot forward and rises to the occasion, like he did in the Grand Slam game. So, we’ve got a lot of our younger forwards who are used to playing in very significant matches, and that Grand Slam game was a good game for them to be involved in.”
McCall salutes Itoje’s gains since making an impression at blindside in last season’s clash against Clermont in St Etienne: “That was his third or fourth start for us – he was our A team captain at that point – so the progress he has made in those 12 months from that day until today is quite remarkable, and he seems much more experienced.”
Owen Farrell is another of McCall’s England Slammers in the spotlight. The battle for defensive supremacy will also highlight whether the rugged fly-half, who returns against Racing from his two-week ban for a dangerous high-tackle in the semi-final which knocked-out Wasps scrum-half Dan Robson, has the defensive technique and discipline to get Carter – legitimately.
FARRELL’S RED MIST
While the English champions were able to put the clamp on Wasps for the ten minutes they were down to 14 men at the Madejski, if Saracens transgress they can expect Racing and Carter to be ruthless in exploiting any numerical advantage.
However, despite Racing’s array of multinational talent, McCall says that this time Saracens are better prepared for finals rugby than they have ever been — and that he expects his side to deliver.
“We feel in good shape, that’s for sure. This year we’ve only lost four of our 29 games, and we have good records over the last two or three seasons. So, we know how to get the job done.”
BIG BILLY advances
McCall believes Saracens have improved as a unit. “It certainly feels, two years on from the last one against Toulon, that we’re in a much better space individually and collectively. We were relatively inexperienced going into that match compared to the squad that’s going to play in this one…it’s about being resilient. We have to cope with the odd setback, whether it’s a big setback like we got against Wasps in the first minute when they went 80m and scored a try, or smaller ones.”
McCall says that Billy Vunipola illustrates that advance. After the 23-6 defeat by Toulon in the 2014 final the young No.8 was so inconsolable he snubbed Jonny Wilkinson as the great fly-half offered a handshake before heading into retirement.
McCall says of his thunderous carrier: “He’s better in lots of ways. He’s better physically, he’s better emotionally, he deals with things on the pitch much better. He deals with personal and team setbacks much better. He’s able to get back on task really quickly now, he’s a standard setter for us, a leader in the team.”
You sense that if Saracens, or Vunipola, hit the wall again, this time they will smash straight through it to become European champions.
