Ben Earl cameo helps turn the tide as Saracens battle back to rout Cardiff Blues and extend winning run
Saracens 51-25 Cardiff Blues: The home side made it three wins from three in the Champions Cup and moved top of Pool Three with a thrilling comeback victory
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Your support makes all the difference.Ben Earl produced one of the great cameos in European rugby as he scored with both of his first two touches, to help a ferocious second-half Saracens fightback see off Cardiff Blues in a 51-25 rout that keeps them sitting pretty at the top of Pool Three.
Cardiff deservedly led at the break thanks to a tries from Blaine Scully and a wonder-score from Matthew Morgan in response to Richard Wigglesworth’s early opener, but doubles from Earl and Sean Maitland as well as tries through replacements Ben Spencer and Christian Judge secured the emphatic result of the weekend, regardless of Olly Robinson’s late consolation.
Saracens have been relentless so far this season as the only team left in England unbeaten across the Premiership and Europe, but no one has been able to carve up their defence quite like Morgan did. The Cardiff full-back scored one of the individual tries of the season that will surely be in the hunt when awards are dished out next summer, and it lit up an entertaining and even first half in which two periods of Saracens domination sandwiched a phase of brilliant running rugby from the Blues.
Eight teams have come to Allianz Park before today and eight have left in defeat, and when Wigglesworth scored the opening try of the match with just 3:14 minutes on the clock, it looked to be business as usual.
Sean Maitland collected a clearing kick from Blues scrum-half Lloyd Williams and crashed into the chasing line, and from the ruck Wigglesworth fed Owen Farrell whose short pop-pass to Brad Barritt allowed the skipper to burst through the line and offload to Alex Lozowski, who drew in Morgan and passed inside to Wigglesworth to score between the sticks and celebrate a week that saw him sign up for another season with Saracens in perfect style.
Reigning Challenge Cup champions Cardiff are not in this competition this year to make up the numbers though and their response showed exactly that. With 10 those players who triumphed in Bilbao last May in this squad, the Blues had the big-match temperament needed for a contest like this, and when Wales No 10 Gareth Anscombe turned down a kick at goal for the corner, they did not disappoint.
Cardiff smartly worked the ball from right to left, opening up the gaps in the defence as they looked for any chink on the try-line armour, and it came back on the right as Ascombe shifted the ball to Morgan, who drew in full-back Alex Goode and sent Scully over.
Anscombe missed the conversion but Cardiff were suddenly in the ascendancy after flanker Olly Robinson, son of former England coach and international Andy Robinson, secured a crucial turnover on their own line.
Morgan’s moment of magic came in the 20th minute that even had some Saracens fans applauding, such was the quality. Collecting a deep Farrell kick outside his own 22, the 26-year-old stepped the onrushing Maitland and galloped up-field, breezing past Michael Rhodes and bouncing through the feeble tackle attempts of Farrell and Wigglesworth with Alex Goode already beaten.
Immediately from the restart Cardiff broke free again through Robinson and a high tackle in their own 22 gifted Anscombe three more points to build the lead to 15-7. although a Farrell penalty soon after reduced the gap to five.
Cardiff’s attack was certainly their strong point, but their defence was proving vulnerable and twice Saracens looked to have taken the lead, only for the TMO to halt them. First, Rhodes looked to have scored when he collected a Lozowski chip in the right corner, only for his left foot to land on the touchline as he caught the ball, before Lozowski himself saw a try chalked off for a forwards pass from Maitland to Barritt in the build-up - though it could easily have been reversed for a penalty to Cardiff for Lozowski running a blatant blocking line that allowed Maitland to break free.
In the end, Saracens would settle for a penalty that sent Cardiff in 18-13 to the good, but the tide was about to turn heavily against them.
Scoring with your first touch is never a bad impact to make as a replacement, but scoring with your first two touches is unheard of, yet Earl fully deserved his first try as he created it himself. Three minutes after coming on, the former England Under-20s captain charged through a ruck that caused replacement scrum-half Ethan Lewis to knock it on, and after Lozowski collected and broke into the 22, a smart switch-back run from Farrell to the blindside found Earl in space to score in the corner.
Farrell missed the extras, but two minutes later he had another successful conversion attempt thanks to Earl’s second score, with the replacement No 8 picking off Anscombe’s attempted pass to Josh Turnbull to run in unopposed.
The shackles were well and truly off and, inspired by his teammate’s double Maitland added his own two-minute brace to kill off the game. The first came immediately after Robinson was sent to the sin-bin for slowing the ball down and petulantly kicking it away, with Wigglesworth throwing a Hail Mary miss-pass over the heads of Farrell, Barritt and Lozowski to the wing to score in the corner, and his second came little more than 90 seconds later when Goode broke free from the 22 after a smart dummy-switch line from Earl and passed to the Scotland international to glide over.
Now 37-18 to the good, Saracens cut loose and Cardiff simply could not get their hands on the ball. Earl turned from scorer to provider in the 69th minute when his pop up to replacement No 9 Ben Spencer off a five-metre scrum allowed him to dummy his way past Anscombe to score, before Christian Judge, on loan this season from Cornish Pirates, marauded through a giant gap in the defence thanks to Nick Tompkins’ perfectly-timed pass.
Cardiff scored a consolation though Robinson after a dubious TMO review, a worthy score for the 27-year-old despite the yellow card, but for all their good work in the first half, they deserved nothing from the second half.
Teams
Saracens: Alex Goode; Sean Maitland, Alex Lozowski, Brad Barritt (Nick Tompkins, 68), Alex Lewington; Owen Farrell, Richard Wigglesworth (Ben Spencer, 59); Mako Vunipola (Richard Barrington, 65), Jamie George (Tom Woolstencroft, 68), Vincent Koch (Christian Judge, 67); Nick Isiekwe, Will Skelton (Dom Day, 59); Michael Rhodes, Schalk Burger (Calum Clark, 62), Jackson Wray (Ben Earl, 42).
Cardiff Blues: Matthew Morgan; Blaine Scully, Harri Millard, Jarrod Evans (Steven Shingler, 46), Jason Harries (Garyn Smith, 42); Gareth Anscombe, Lloyd Williams (Lewis Jones, 21); Rhys Gill (Brad Thyer, 55), Kirby Myhill (Ethan Lewis, 70), Dillon Lewis (Scott Andrews, 55); George Earle (Rory Thornton, 62), Seb Davies; Josh Turnbull, Olly Robinson, Samu Manoa (Macauley Cook, 67)
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
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