This will go down as one of those beloved of champions, the kind won when not playing well. Saracens never quite found their rhythm, but a seven-try win over anyone must be accounted a decent result. All the more so, given their captain, Owen Farrell, left 13 points out there, landing just the two kicks from the tee – two out of eight.
That will not happen often – Farrell had never previously missed six shots at goal in a match at any level – so Bristol may feel they missed a chance here. The days of their superstar line-ups seem passed for now, with Charles Piutau and Semi Radradra moved on, but they boast two England props who proved the foundation of their best bits, most based around the set piece. Calum Sheedy did not miss from the tee, five from five, and his conversions were the difference at half-time, when Bristol were 21-15 ahead.
“It was a pretty ordinary first half,” said Mark McCall. “Over the course of the season, as much as you want to play at a high level all the time, if you’re able to do something about a poor first half, which it was today, and have a better second half, which it definitely was, that has to be a good thing.”
The visitors’ season is the mirror image of Saracens’, opening with two wins then tailing off with what is now five defeats on the trot. Their best period was the second quarter, when they scored three of their four tries for that half-time lead. Joe Batley had a magnificent gallop to the line to score their first, before Ellis Genge, Kyle Sinckler and their teammates started to turn the screw. Genge and Gabriel Oghre burrowed over after driven lineouts for two tries just before the break.
Saracens had opened with energy, racking up two tries in the first 12 minutes, even if Farrell could not add the extras to either. For all his troubles off the tee, he looked great with ball in hand. He it was who scored the opening try, going blind from the first of the game’s umpteen driven lineouts. He was integral to the second too, this one from a scrum, when a slick move in midfield paved the way for Farrell and Alex Goode to send Alex Lewington to the corner with slick hands.
In Farrell’s defence, none of his kicks was easy, although a missed penalty in the second half from 40 yards in front did raise the eyebrows. Billy Vunipola scored Saracens’ third, peeling round the front of another attacking lineout on the half-hour, but Bristol would not go away.
The missed kicks meant Saracens trailed at half-time, but their predicament did not feel urgent. Maro Itoje, superb again, thought he had scored straight from the restart, but the television match official spotted a knock-on. Farrell missed his penalty next, kick number four, but he was on the money with his cross-kick a few minutes later to set up Lewington for the bonus-point fourth. That conversion Farrell did land, from the touchline, but in off the post, to move Saracens back in front.
Sheedy’s penalty restored Bristol’s lead a few minutes later again, but then the hosts took over. Jamie George finished a driven lineout. Farrell converted that, too, before he secured a full house of missed kicks when his attempted drop goal was charged down. No matter, he inadvertently turned playmaker when Theo McFarland pounced on the loose ball and streaked away, Tom Willis finishing for Saracens’ sixth.
Farrell’s ignominy (a relative concept for a man of such standards) developed another dimension, with 10 minutes to go, when his clearance kick sparked a dazzling counter by Gabriel Ibitoye. Kieron Marmion finished for Bristol’s bonus-point try, the pick of the match.
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They might have come away with two points, but Saracens cranked up their lineout-and-drive routine once again. Fitz Harding, Bristol’s captain, saw yellow for collapsing one advancing maul, before George, another England international seemingly inspired by the World Cup, finished for a second time.
Saracens tuck in three points behind Sale at the top of the table. Last season’s finalists are showing the way again, but the team on the shoulder of the leaders look as menacing as ever.
