Photo: Ali Gilmore
Saracens 57 : 33 Wasps
American Chris Wyles among the try scorers
by Steve Clare Allianz Park, Mill Hill
Rugby doesn’t get much better than this. 90 points, eleven tries, a full house, beautiful weather and an American try scorer, who set his own record.
Three time English champions Saracens, who finished the regular season in second, reached their sixth Premiership final after beating Wasps 57-33 in an amazing game of rugby. There were eleven tries overall with Owen Farrell producing a flawless kicking performance to score 27 individual points. 62 points were scored in a pulsating second half with Wasps ever quite being in it and never quite being out of it. Saracens will face the club they lost to at this stage last year Exeter, who beat Newcastle 36-5 in the other semi final.
10,000 Londoners packed into Allianz Stadium to see second play third in what used to be a North London derby and they were not disappointed in what turned out to be a fantastic advertisement for English club rugby.
Saracens welcomed the return of England forward Billy Vunipola who returned from a hamstring injury. He was among seven changes for the Mill Hill club, which included the returns of George Kruis, wing Chris Wyles and centre Alex Lozowski.
3rd place Wasps were hoping to lift the title for the first time in a decade, having won a hat-trick of trophies between 2003 and 2005, but in their two previous encounters this year, they had shed 38 points on each occasion in a losing battle. They also rang the changes recalling number eight Nathan Hughes from a knee injury as well as Christian Wade, Juan De Jongh, Jimmy Gopperth, scrum-half Dan Robson and prop Jake Cooper-Woolley return as Jack Willis reverted to blindside flanker to accommodate Hughes.
The first key moment preferred Wasps when the giant Kearnan Myall won a big line out but that was the last time the Wasps were even close to a position of parity.
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In under 100 seconds, Alex Lozowski sliced through the Wasps defence after being fed by Owen Farrell whose conversion made it 7-0. Some Wasps pressure followed but Saracens held out comfortably before a penalty allowed them to clear their lines.
Billy Vunipola nearly burst through for Sarrie’s second try as the ball headed back upfield to the Wasps’ line but the TV official awarded a penalty to Sarries although many thought a try might be awarded by the replay on show inside the stadium. Sarries kicked for touch rather than goal and subsequently lost possession when referee Doyle awarded Wasps a scrum.
The white shirted visitors failed to clear and with 12 minutes gone, Saracens’ Vincent Koch scored their second try more through power than flair. A second successful conversion widened the gap to 14 points. Wasps hit back and a wonderful grubber kick from Elliot Daly seemed to set up Jimmy Gopperth in the left hand corner to reduce the lead to 12-5. The crowd waited but the try was disallowed and so disappeared Wasps hopes of making the match competitive.
A penalty for offside was this time kicked rather than played into touch and Owen Farrell made it 17-0 for Saracens. He kicked a more difficult penalty from the left in 21 minutes to open a 20 point gap with a quarter of the game gone. Saracens had not conceded a second half point for four games and already the Wasps task seemed to be heavily uphill.
The incline lessened shortly after when Juan De Jongh passed inside to Willie Le Roux to touch down but Gopperth missed the conversion to reduce it to 20-5. It wasn’t long before the ball was on the Wasps goalline yet again. An offence brought on another Saracens penalty which Farrell easily converted to make it 23-5 which remained the score till the interval, although the red and black shirts continued to dominate with the ball rarely leaving the Wasps’s half. Worse still, a foot injury saw Wasps Jack Willis leave the pitch to be replaced by Guy Thompson. Willis’ presence on England’s South Africa tour must now be a little in doubt. Saracens number eight Billy Vunipola was replaced by Michael Rhodes at half time.
“Born in the USA” – American Chris Wyles scored a try for Saracens
Photo: Ali Gilmore
Saracens had not conceded a single point in the second half for four games and Wasps began it 18 points behind. That was soon 25 when American Chris Wyles received the ball from Alex Goode and touched down in the left hand corner to the strain of Born in the USA. Farrell converted. The try was Wyles’ fifth in in Challenge Cup semi finals, which is a record or the competition.
Wasps had another near miss in their left hand corner but when no try was given. After looking at the replays, the officials ruled that Daly grounded the ball against the base of the touchline post and not on the lawn.
Undaunted, the Coventry-based side still roared back to within 10 points.
Indeed far from quitting, they scored two in rapid succession. First the bald headed Jake Cooper-Woolley barged over for a converted try to reduce it to 30-12. Two minutes later came the try of the match, and it too came for the away side. Christian Wade burst through with incredible pace and incision. With Thomas Young for support, he passed the ball on to the Welsh flanker at exactly the right time and suddenly it was 30-19.
Saracens camped on the Wasps line for the fifth time thereafter and it became clear the next score was crucial. Wasps conceded a penalty from a scrum and Farrell kicked safely to rewiden the score to 33-19. He converted a much more difficult penalty in the 59th minute to put Wasps back to a deficit of three scores behind. Those two penalties had blunted the Wasps comeback but soon after Le Roux ran into the left hand corner to bring it back to 36-24 and set up a crucial conversion for Danny Cipriani with Gopperth now off.
The stadium breathed in and a kick that initially looked like going wide just bent in enough to hit the post and curl inside to reduce the deficit to 36-26. That was as close as Wasps got.
Jake Cooper-Woolley touches down for Wasps
Photo: Ali Gilmore
Incredibly, the Sarries charged up the other end and prodded and pushed their way over in their right hand corner with substitute Juan Figallo scoring, Sean Maitland having done the hard graft.
The flawless Farrell converted to take Saracens past 40 and the game out of Wasps’ reach. Mario Itoje scored again in Saracens right hand corner and Farrell brought up the half century with a tough conversion from just inside the touchline.
The visitors weren’t done.
Cipriana fed Wade for a consolation try, converted himself but it was only to bring it back to 50-33. Then Saracens played a game of “Anything You Can Do’.
Schalk Brits, passed to the American Wyles who in turn fed the rampaging Ben Spencer to give the the game its eleventh try and ensure a final score at 57-33. Farrell’s final conversion gave him 27 points, an individual record for a semi final and 62 points for the second half which may well have surpassed a number of records.
“We pretty much struggled to contain their physicality, said Wasps coach Dai Long. Sarries were worthy winners. They were the far better team today.
Looking back at the two occasions the televised replay denied his side tries, he said:
We’re not going to look at one or two incidents and say that’s where we lost the game.”
Wasps season is now over but they were applauded by their fans as they did a lap of honor. For Saracens, they head to the big final at Twickenham.
Their coach Marc McCall looked very relieved and said:
“We showed composure and calm at 36-26. The first 20 minutes was the best we’ve ever played.”
Whatever the outcome there, few among the 10,000 will forget a match this good.
Tries:
Lozowski, Koch, Wyles, Figallo, Itoje & Spencer (Saracens)
Le Roux (2), Cooper-Woolley, Young & Wade (Wasps)
Starting Line-ups:
Saracens: Goode; Maitland, Lozowski, Barritt (capt), Wyles; Farrell, Wigglesworth; M Vunipola, George, Koch, Itoje, Kruis, Isiekwe, Wray, Vunipola.
Replacements: Brits, Barrington, Figallo, Skelton, Rhodes, Spencer, Bosch, Earle.
Wasps: Le Roux; Wade, De Jongh, Gopperth, Daly; Cipriani, Robson; B Harris, Cruse, Cooper-Woolley, Launchbury (capt), Myall, Willis, Young, Hughes.
Replacements: TJ Harris, Mullan, Moore, Gaskell, Thompson, Simpson, Eastmond, Bassett.
