‘Old-man’ Itoje has Saracens buzzing
Gloucester ………………….. 26pts
Tries: Thomas 40, Clarke 56, Clement 71, Blake 76
Saracens …………………….. 35pts
Conversions: Barton 40, 71, 76
Tries: Segun 16, van Zyl 23, Elliott 34, Christie 42, 61
Conversions: Burke 23, 42
Penalties: Burke 53, 64
SARACENS’ new recruits fitted seamlessly into their style of play to run out convincing winners at Kingsholm for the third year in succession.
Owen Farrell, Sean Maitland and the Vunipola brothers Maro and Billy were the major departures from the club in the summer but their replacements – Fergus Burke, Rhys Carre and Tobias Elliott – all showed that they will be hitting the headlines in the coming weeks.
There were also impressive performances from the old guard with flanker, Andy Onyeama-Christie, scrum-half, Ivan van Zyl and new skipper, Maro Itoje, all hungry for action.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: “Maro looked as if he meant business today and remarkably at 29 he is now the oldest member of our pack by some distance.”
Gloucester had the life strangled out of them for the first 70 minutes and looked set for an uncomfortable final scoreline but they showed some spirit to score two converted tries to earn a bonus-point.
Tomos Williams and George Barton were the pick of the home side but their much vaunted back row had a surprisingly quiet evening with Gareth Anscombe having an underwhelming debut at fly-half in the presence of Wales‘ attacking coach, Alex King.
As a result Gloucester’s back division failed to function with recently recruited Christian Wade having little chance to add to his phenomenal try-scoring record.
The first 15 minutes were forgettable with Craig Maxwell-Keys, awarding seven penalties in that period to prevent any flow to the game.
Gloucester’s full-back, Barton, enlivened proceedings with a couple of penetrative runs but losing lineouts on their own throw didn’t help the home side’s cause.
The stalemate was broken in style when Saracens moved the ball along the line for Elliot Daly to chip ahead with the ball bouncing favourably for Rotimi Segun to collect and score.
Gloucester then conceded two further tries in quick succession. First Ivan van Zyl intercepted a telegraphed pass from Anscombe, to race 45 metres before Burke and Daly created the space for Elliott to leave Anscombe and Ollie Thorley floundering.
Gloucester badly needed a response and it came when Williams quickly took a short penalty to dash into the opposition 22. The scrum-half was hauled down just short of the line but pressure was maintained for Freddie Thomas to crash over.
Barton’s impressive touchline conversion left his side 17-7 behind at the interval.
However Gloucester soon undid their good work. Ruan Ackermann bungled the restart for Saracens to build up pressure with Onyeama-Christie finishing off an unstoppable forward drive for the bonus-point try.
The hosts kept in the hunt with replacement, Freddie Clarke, scoring with his first touch but another pre-planned line-out move put Onyeama-Christie in the clear and the flanker raced away to score his second.
Burke missed the conversion but added a simple penalty before Gloucester had their best period of the match to score tries from Jack Clement and and Seb Blake to earn a morale-boosting bonus-point but it was a case of too little too late.
