Saracens 40 Exeter 22
In the week when his departure from the StoneX Stadium was announced (albeit not by Saracens), Owen Farrell seized a tumultuous game against Exeter Chiefs to thrust the North London club back into the familiar top four territory of the Premiership.
Perhaps understandably, Farrell has struggled to find his best form in recent weeks, and while he wasn’t particularly authoritative here, he was effective at all the right moments. No further than the hour mark when he scored a peachy goal from 40 yards with minimal setup. Farrell, who has withdrawn from international duty, now has seven weeks to prepare his version of Last Dance.
“Owen put in a masterful performance in the last half hour,” Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said. “We conceded a blitz try at 22-22 and that was a big moment in how things were going for the team and Owen took control.
“He came back from the World Cup and wanted to play for the club but obviously there were a lot of things going on. He didn’t really get a chance to decompress properly but now he’ll get that chance.”
However, McCall was not amused by Racing 92’s announcement that Farrell would head to Paris in the summer.
Shortly after this drop goal, hooker James Hadfield scored Saracens’ second try to put the net into the net, in the closing moments Farrell scored a poor high ball which Ben Hammersley spilled, allowing Theo McFarland to score Saracens’ fifth try.
Saracens remain the bookies’ overwhelming favorites to regain the Premiership title. And for good reason. While their performance has been middling up to this point, they could be back in contention in seven weeks with their international contingent and many of the injured, especially those in the front row.
“We’re in the mix right now, it’s going to be a six-game sprint,” McCall added. “We kept ourselves in the fight. There are some things that have happened in the last 13 days that remind us of what we are like when we are at our best.”
However stretched Saracens’ front-row resources may be, absences have presented opportunities for others to step up, such as hooker Hadfield, who began the season having been dismissed by the Jersey Reds. He opened the scoring here, threw it to Theo McFarland, and then went behind a textbook (if such a textbook existed) and ran over it.
Exeter responded directly, using their favorite weapon and moving inside the Saracens 22. They eventually decided to mix up their repertoire of one-out runners, with scrum half Stu Townsend lofting a long miscue pass to Olly Woodburn, who finished off the single. One-on-one match against Rotimi Segun.
Neither team had to work exceptionally hard to engineer line cuts. Flanker Andy Christie struck clear down the right wing but his attempt to clear the ball went straight to Exeter scrum-half Harvey Skinner. He did better second time around, streaking through the middle after Saracens were awarded a quick kick penalty. The Scotland winger’s quick pass from the ground allowed attacker Ivan van Zyl to make a simple run under the posts.
Exeter again drew level from a cleverly designed line and Jack Yeandle fired straight at Whispering Fisilau. A Farrell penalty was canceled out by Hodge’s long-range effort to leave the scores level in the first half. Any message about reducing unforced errors was quickly rendered redundant as Townsend dropped his box kick under pressure from Segun. Flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez immediately stepped into action, took the lead and capitalized on a positive scoring bounce.
“It was a really nasty blow,” Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said. “It was a bit of a comedy of errors to give up a try like we did. In our early days in the Premier League we struggled against Saracens because we did what they wanted us to do. We’ve learned to move away from that but most of this group probably haven’t.”
Yet Exeter remained in the competition for good thanks to Hodge’s outstanding attacking and an uncharacteristically disorganized Saracens kick chase. Woodburn stayed on Hodge’s shoulder and fed Townsend, who in turn gave the powerful Rusi Tuima in the second row enough hay to cover him before the Saracens catchers dragged him down.
After trading scores throughout the game, Saracens finally managed to gain some steady momentum thanks to Farrell’s penalty and a monster drop goal. Exeter then fell short on wide runs where McFarland took the opportunity to pull down the touchline. Despite being beaten at short notice, Saracens came back to Hadfield to secure the bonus point.