In a match where many expected a narrow defensive game, Saracens produced some excellent running rugby and rock-solid defence at the end of the match.
Toby Flood kicked off the match with rapturous cheers from a packed Twickenham crowd. Saracens successfully cleared their lines. A few phases of play later, Shalk Brits fielded a kick in his own half and responded with an up-and-under of his own. Excellent chasing and pressure gave the Saracens a turnover. Neil de Kock, the man who called the right side of the coin to be given the starting no.9 jersey nearly made the line. He was inches short causing Ben Youngs to concede a penalty for preventing a near certain try. He was yellow-carded by Wayne Barnes. Young Owen Farrell stepped up and calmly slotted the penalty. Leicester 0 Saracens 3
With a man down, Leicester sought to play rugby in Saracens’ half. A pinpoint up-and-under by Flood was caught by Matt Smith, who had replaced the banned Manu Tuilagi. Smith leapt up into the air and took the ball out of Alex Goode’s hands. Leicester pilled on the pressure with a few small line-breaks and forced a penalty. Flood did his job making the score Leicester 3 Saracens 3. Not a bad response from the 14-man Tigers.
Soon the pressure on Leicester of not having an expert scrum-half became apparent. Anthony Allen filled in for Youngs. The Tigers were looking to clear their line. Unfortunately Allen threw an appalling pass back to Toby Flood, who was standing in the in-goal area. Flood then nearly gifted Saracens the first try by throwing a blind pass back inside rather than being tackled to the ground conceding a 5-metre scrum. Allen made amends for his poor pass by diving on the ball.
Leicester were rattled, but were let off the hook when Matt Stephens led the Saracens pack to engage early at the scrum, giving Leicester a free kick, from which they cleared their lines. A few phases later, Saracens cleared from their 22 and the ball came to Horacio Aguilla. Aguilla took an audacious attempt at a drop-goal from 55 metres out on the right-wing. Truthfully, he is no Francois Steyn and the attempt faded wide and short. Flood was seen strongly rebuking his team mate for not giving the ball inside when he was screaming for the ball.
Youngs came back onto the pitch. Leicester had been fortunate not to be a try down during the time he was in the sin-bin. The Saracens line-out had been performing well in the early stages of the game. However, the control for the tap-back to de Kock was not accurate. Saracens conceded a penalty trying to tread back and secure the ball. Flood struck the ball beautifully making the score. Leicester 6 Saracens 3
Ben Youngs put in a poor box-kick which was fielded superbly by Brits. He barrelled past George Chuter and Saracens forced a penalty. Farrell stepped up to tie the scores. Leicester 6 Saracens 6
Owen Farrell was soon targeted by Craig Newby after a high clearance kick. Newby let his knee catch Farrell, causing some pain for the youngster. With Farrell momentarily down, Alex Goode had a go at a drop-goal. He snatched at the attempt and it flew low and to the left of the posts. A clever kick from Flood put Goode under pressure; he managed to rush a kick away. This gave the Tigers their first line-out with excellent field position. They won their own ball and started their traditional maul. Saracens must be congratulated for successfully preventing the maul from gaining ground. So far Saracens had more than matched Leicester on the big occasion.
A box-kick from Youngs was not chased properly. Saracens chose to take the line-out quickly seeing that Shalk Brits was screaming for the long pass in-field. Brits used his considerable pace to make ground into the Leicester 22. He drew the final defender popping the ball to James Short. Short still had work to do, but managed to dive over in the corner, narrowly avoiding Scott Hamilton’s last-ditch tackle. Short who was barrelled into touch by Rory Lawson in the semi-final against Gloucester, finished exceptionally well on this occasion. The TMO confirmed the score. Farrell showed he was on form with the boot and split the uprights from the touchline. Leicester 6 Saracens 13
I have to say it was surprising to see Saracens playing such expansive rugby. I was one of the critics of Saracens, in my match-preview I suggested the men in black would play pragmatic, simple rugby and rely on their strong defence to try and win. I was proved wrong and am glad that Saracens played with pace and vision. However, Brits turned down another scoring chance when he could have taken advantage of a 2 on 1.
Leicester strung a few phases together in the Saracens’ half. Their backs lacked any dynamism and were not running onto the ball at pace. It was disappointing not to see Alesana Tuilagi given the ball at pace as he had already shown his strength, crashing through two would-be tacklers in David Strettle and Owen Farrell.
Saracens pulled off a flowing backs move with de Kock on a loop running an excellent line. It is a shame Saracens did not play like they did yesterday all season. The pressure eventually tolled for Leicester and they gave away another penalty. Farrell showed his composure, his inexperience was not apparent as he once again took 3 points for his side. Leicester 6 Saracens 16
Matt Stephens was penalised at a scrum and Flood managed to punish Saracens. Leicester 9 Saracens 16. After the re-start, Leicester chose to run-down the clock till half-time. Flood booted the ball out and Leicester ran into the changing room with a Richard Cockerill team talk to look forward to.
Half-time Leicester 9 Saracens 16
Leicester had 40 minutes to come back into the game. With only a seven point gap to recover, no one was writing the Tigers off at half-time.
It was Saracens who made the best start to the half. They won a penalty at the scrum and Farrell opened the scoring in the second half with another penalty Leicester 9 Saracens 19.
Alex Goode made an outstanding individual effort to keep the ball in-play after a Leicester clearance kick. However, keeping the ball in-play turned out to be a bad option as the Leicester kick-chase piled on the pressure, earning them a penalty. Flood made no mistake Leicester 12 Saracens 19.
Shalk Brits once again fielded a kick like a member of the back-three. A scrum soon followed. Matt Stephens was replaced and the Tigers destroyed the scrum forcing a penalty. However, Flood was unsuccessful with the penalty, although the kick was from a relatively straight-forward position. Perhaps unexpectedly, Flood buckled before Farrell in the kicking duel.
A half-break was made by Tom Croft and the Tigers were given another shot at goal when Kelly Brown infringed at the ruck. Flood once again missed the target. Two missed kicks in a row were starting to cost Leicester. They would have been losing by one if Flood had made the two attempts successful. Flood failed to make touch kicking from a penalty – a simple mistake that is not typical of his usual play.
Leicester again made another silly mistake when they were awarded a penalty. Youngs, perhaps trying to make amends for his yellow card earlier in the match went quickly and kicked ahead which came to nothing. Leicester should have taken their time and kicked into touch for field position. Simple mistakes like these were preventing the Tigers from getting back into the game.
During Leicester’s next phases of possession, Saracens were pushing the offside line and then Hugh Vyvyan went offside at a ruck. Flood made no mistake with the resulting kick at goal. Leicester 15 Saracens 19
The Tigers were back in the match; however another break was made by Brits. The Saracens hooker was all over the pitch, he won his side another crucial penalty and Farrell once again sent the ball through the posts. Leicester 15 Saracens 22
Leicester won a penalty straight from the kick-off. Saracens were showing signs of nerves, (perhaps in the back of some players’ minds was last year’s agonising defeat in the final due to a try in the last few minutes of the match). Flood’s kick was successful. Leicester 18 Saracens 22
The game opened up for Leicester. They threw the ball around looking for a winning score. Alesana Tuilagi looked to be away for a try, but Brits heroically brought the Samoan down. Billy Twelvetrees, on as a replacement made a handling error. The game seemed to be over.
However, Leicester won a penalty and kicked towards the corner flag. Did Leicester have the composure to play the phases and win the match? They threw everything they could at Saracens, stringing together over 30 phases of possession. The Tigers got to within inches of the line and then Youngs made a selfish decision to try and run himself. However, Leicester won another penalty. They had to tap and go due to time constraints. Owen Farrell put in a huge hit on Toby Flood, the current England Fly-half. Farrell immediately suffered from cramp, showing the effort he put into the match. Leicester conceded a penalty.
Saracens started celebrating, but the ball still had to be kicked into touch. Farrell jumped up off the floor and kicked the ball into the crowd. The final kick of the match brought about another onset of cramp, but the young Englishman was not going to worry too much. Saracens were declared deserved champions. The Tigers experienced the agony of topping the table and losing in the play-offs. I hope that Saracens play like they did in the final every game next season. This was far more entertaining to watch than I expected and Saracens proved they have the players capable of playing expansive rugby.
Final Score Leicester 18 Saracens 22
Man of the match was a touch decision in this game. Farrell was terrific with the boot and did not let his inexperience prevent Saracens from fulfilling their dream. However, Shalk Brits was outstanding. His leadership, ball carrying, kick fielding and ultimately his pace which set up the only try in the match means that he was my many of the match. The South African hooker was an inspiration to his team mates.
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