Hat-Trick Frank
Rafael Ibanez's somewhat over-the-top try celebration four minutes into last Sunday's game came about after a woeful re-start. It's not as if Rafa did the same as Cencus against Sale now was it? It was bloody easy, wasn't it?
Five minutes later, Tom Voyce's try in the corner mad Rafa's effort look like John Bentley on the 1997 Lions tour such was it's simplicity. Pick up ball, dot down over try line. What Adam Powell was thinking at the time he threw out probably the most ill-judged, badly-aimed, poor-timed pass of his career to date is beyond my comprehension. Poor old Frank Leonelli, who was left on the wing to pick up the pieces, was caught in two minds; go for the ball or go for the tackle. In the end, he did neither and that was another seven Wasps points giftwrapped.
I'll give Wasps some credit for both Dominic Waldouck tries. Cipriani showed why he is the next superstar of rugby (God, after all the hype in the media the kid is actually living up to it) as he set up and converted both of them.
Back to rugby balls with pink ribbons on them. And half a nod to the Wasps Wunderkind for spotting Sackey unmarked on the far side. Cipriani made sure he looked up before deciding what he was to do and he picked the right option. Nul points for Niles for missing touch with his box kick which gifted him the opportunity in the first place.
At the start of the second half, Saracens made it a bonus point's worth of Wasps tries as they coughed the ball up to Eoin Reddan who scampered 40 metres unopposed to score.
Thankfully, Sarries woke up in the next half hour to allow Frank to bag a second hat-trick in three games and for Niles to make amends partially for his first half faux pas as he squeezed through a gap that was just about wide enough for a Shaun Edwards smile, not to mention a deserved try for Del Boy who must have made an impression on the watching England coaching (and Leicester Mafia) duo Graham Rowntree and John Wells.
Saracens, let's be blunt here, have been far too generous in points and tries condeded and it's a huge frustration to us all that, on their day, they can beat teams who are supposedly much better. Think Ospreys and Biarritz for the good, think the last two league games and any others since Newcastle on 30 Decemberr for the proof.
Will Saracens be capable of beating Munster? Yes, if they can ensure that, like they did against the Ospreys, they can hold onto the ball and ensure that they get it off they field when that is the intention.
Munster, who are so experienced at this level thanks to an annual free meal ticked afforded to them by the IRFU's shameful underfunding of Connacht, will not need any gifts to scure a win. They proved against Gloucester at Kingsholm that they can take on the best teams and grind them into submission and, just after they grind them into submission, they move in for the kill.
Alan Gaffney and Saracens know that this is the last chance they will have of ensuring Heineken Cup rugby next season, and they know they cannot afford to be generous to anyone, not least the three-times finalists and 2006 champions. Let us hope, then, that Sarries can pull another big one out of the fire and that the next ribbons we see will be black and red ones on a long-overdue piece of silverware, not red ones on oval-shaped gifts from the Sarries players.
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