Saracens deserve credit not criticism for becoming one of the strongest teams ...

Like it or not, believe it or not, today’s success is a product of the club

building a proper club spirit. When you spend time at Saracens you can see

that those involved, on and off the field, genuinely believe in the club;

there is nothing fake about their affection.

So powerful is the negativity of their detractors that some even tried to deny

them credit for their 46-6 win over the Heineken Cup favourites Clermont

Auvergne at Twickenham on Saturday. Apparently it was all down to the

contentious decision by Nigel Owens to award Sarries a penalty try in the

earliest stages of the game. Rubbish.

The defensive effort both tactically and physically was one of, if not the,

finest ever produced by an English side in Europe. Jacques Burger, Schalk

Brits and Brad Barritt combined astuteness with a disregard for punishment

that was truly remarkable. Denied time and space, Clermont’s creative

players such as Wesley Fofana had nowhere to go and the power that has

overwhelmed so many teams was met full on and neutralised, often behind

Clermont’s gain line. The patterns of defence showed that Saracens have

learned from previous reversals and that is a sign of astute coaching. The

execution of those patterns, theoretically easy but practically difficult,

is a sign of intelligent players.

Fortunate or not to get a penalty try, the sharpness of Chris Ashton was

significant not only for fans but also the watching England

management. It is churlish not to acknowledge Ashton’s return to form, and

the work it has taken, just because you do not like the way he celebrates –

and I do not. You also cannot maintain that Saracens do not seek to play

with ambition given the contributions of David Strettle and Alex Goode on

the counter-attacks that met with a surprising amount of kicking from the

French side.

You should also take notice of the way in which the attacking strategy was

planned. The probing of Clermont’s short side defence was purposeful and

productive and was clearly the result of planning. If you think that

planning means sterility you need to look at how this was done because it

was anything but.

When criticisms of the play ended, some even resorted to moaning about the

relatively small crowd of 27,000 and this was disappointing. However, if you

want big games like this to be seen by as many people as possible, you need

a discounted ticketing policy. That this was not possible is a failure in

imagination of the soon to be redundant governing body European Club Rugby

(ERC), not Saracens.

Whether the north London club can take the trophy from Toulon is questionable

but if you agree with the criticisms of Saracens, what can you say of Toulon

and the way in which their success has been created? The fact is that both

have managed to forge a team and club spirit; without it neither would be

successful for any amount of investment. Money makes success more likely, it

doesn’t guarantee it.

Article source: http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/tv3-secures-rights-to-2015-rugby-world-cup-30187579.html

Saracens deserve credit not criticism for becoming one of the strongest teams ...