Earlier in the week, Saracens had opened their doors for a wine tasting led by Brendan Venter, their technical director a noted oenophile and all too happy to play sommelier over a selection of reds of outstanding vintage. One needn’t have the nose Venter the vintner to recognise a corked performance that followed on derby day against Harlequins, the kind to be tipped down the sink and yet still leave an acrid aftertaste.
A graphic on the wall on the way into their dressing room at the StoneX Stadium talks of finding the perfect blend, ascribing an area of rugby to the grapes that make up a brilliant Bordeaux. It will have displeased Venter and Joe Shaw, the head coach, greatly that each failed to pass muster here, with their defence and set piece (Cabernet Sauvingnon) matched in mediocrity by an attack that had nothing like the smoothness or silkiness of Merlot. “You can’t sugar-coat it,” Shaw said. “If you come and you play as individuals and you don’t play to the best of your ability, you are going to get punished. We didn’t do what we had planned to do. We just weren’t good enough today.”
