Saracens 20 Biarritz 16:THIS HAS not been a vintage European season for England's clubs but Saracens are still proving a defiant exception to the rule.
A hard-fought victory over Biarritz has all but confirmed they will finish on top of Pool Five and a win in Treviso next Sunday could well earn them a home quarter-final. They could easily be the only Premiership team in the last eight.
Even that modest target seemed under threat in the final quarter as Biarritz worked their way upfield and set about engineering a drop-goal platform for Dimitri Yachvili, the scorer of all their 16 points. Sarries, though, pride themselves on their defensive spirit and it nourished them again here, a relieving 78th-minute penalty from Owen Farrell, his fifth, nudging them just beyond the downcast Basques.
It will take a big Biarritz win over the Ospreys and a Sarries defeat by more than seven points in Treviso to deny Mark McCall’s team now, and a four-try win in Italy would almost certainly secure a priceless home tie.
While it is still possible for Harlequins to escape from Pool Six, they will have to travel if they do.
This was a quintessential Sarries performance, benefiting from the work of many as opposed to a few. At no stage did Biarritz make any serious progress through the potential England Six Nations midfield of Farrell and Brad Barritt – the latter was particularly influential.
Alex Goode at fullback barely put a foot wrong, not least in his ability to read situations before anyone else. It is hard to see him ousting Ben Foden as England’s number 15 but he is too good to hold tackle bags indefinitely.
The game was also an auspicious one for the Saracens front five, particularly in the scrums where Biarritz did not enjoy the dominance Fabien Barcella and Sylvain Marconnet would have liked.
“The most pleasing thing was how our set-piece went, though we didn’t quite get the rewards from it,” said McCall, slightly disappointed his side had not pulled away, having led 14-6 until late in the third quarter.
“The referee was slow to penalise a lot of things.”
Judging by the groans of Biarritz’s watching president, Serge Blanco, at the amount of ball his side kicked away, Basque frustration will be even deeper.
The 19th-minute try which put them on the back foot certainly had a touch of bad luck about it, starting life way back upfield when a Yachvili flick pass was hacked upfield and David Strettle, Ernst Joubert and Chris Wyles continued the move. From a close-range ruck scrumhalf Ben Spencer dummied over and his team were never behind again.
“He looks to the manor born,” purred McCall.
SARACENS:Goode; Strettle, Farrell, Barritt, Wyles; Hodgson, Spencer; Gill, Smit, Nieto , Borthwick (capt), Botha, Brown, Saull, Joubert.Replacements: P Stringer for Spencer, G Kruis for Botha (both 55 mins); M Stevens for Nieto (63 mins); J Wray for Joubert (67 mins)
BIARRITZ:Balshaw; Ngwenya, Gimenez, Traille (capt), Balakoro; Bosch, Yachvili; Barcella, Terrain , Gomez Kodela, Thion, Taele, Lauret, Guyot, Faure. Replacements: S Marconnet for Barcella (47 mins); A Heguy for Terrain, M Carizza for Taele, Peyrelongue for Bosch (all 55 mins); Baby for Balakoro (68 mins).
Referee:G Clancy (Ireland)
Guardian Service
