Saracens go into the new year as the only unbeaten team in Europe as they dispatched Wasps 16-26 in Round 7 of the Aviva Premiership. They are now unbeaten in 11 games this season and 14 competitive matches on the bounce, they were last defeated in Round 21 of last season against Exeter Chiefs at home. Wasps on the other hand have has a more disjointed start to the season, as they have taken down European heavyweights such Toulon and Leinster, but they have lost three games in a row in front of their home crowd at Coventry.
The first half was a big kicking duel where Saracens emerged out on top the majority of the time as Wasps felt the pressure and kicked out on the full multiple times which gave the visitors the territory they needed to exploit their opposition. Despite putting Wasps under huge amounts of pressure both in attack and at the lineout, where Maro Itoje was a real nuisance in his man of the match performance as he disrupted ball in the air and upon landing, and also at the scrum, where it was clear Saracens where dominant, the men in grey and blue where unable to puncture the Wasps defense in the first half and the closest they came was when the quick hands of Alex Goode were not accurate enough to put Chris Wyles over the line. Owen Farrell kept the scoreboard ticking though as he notched two penalties whereas Wasps only had one through Jimmy Goperth.
The second half was where Saracens really started to exert their dominance and class over the home side as they continued to cause problems at the set piece and in the end their pressure turned into points as Duncan Taylor crossed the line off of first phase ball where Saracens had a scrum right in the middle of the pitch and Billy Vunipola passed right to Richard Wigglesworth, who then flung it back across to Owen Farrell, finally Brad Barritt fed Duncan Taylor through a hole and he then beat Rob Miller to cross the whitewash. Then in a quick one-two sucker punch, Owen Farrell scored a very lucky try for Saracens when Wasps were turned over on the Saracens’ ten metre line and the ball was passed along the line to Duncan Taylor who tried to put a grubber kick in behind Wasps, but it ricocheted of a Wasps’ boot and into the air, where it was regathered by Duncan Taylor, who quickly fed the ball to Owen Farrell to race in and score. Next Owen Farrell completed his 21 point haul from the afternoon as he kicked a penalty right in front of the posts. The last word of the match, came from the home side however, as from a lineout deep ion theier half, they spred the ball wide to Sailosi Tagicakibau and then back the other way where Elliot Daly converted a two on one to put Frank Halai away for the first away try that Saracens have conceded in the Premiership.
Even though Saracens were not at their best against Wasps, they still managed to come away with a victory and that shows everyone else just how good they are this season as they beat one of the form sides in the Premiership away from home and still remain undefeated in all competitions. For Wasps, they need to put together some good home performances if they want to challenge the top 4 this season, but they did show promise against the champions even though they were missing big players in George Smith and Nathan Hughes.
