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CLUBS UPDATE, 8th November 2005

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Next Home Game

20th November 2005
Saracens vs. Newcastle Falcons

Glen Jackson is set to come face-to-face with Jonny Wilkinson at Vicarage Road in two weeks’ time and tickets for this potential Battle of The Boot are on sale now. Save money by buying online at www.saracens.com or call the Ticket Team on 01923 475222. Tickets are also on sale at the Real Sports Shop in Watford and St Albans and the Customer Service Desk in the Harlequin Centre (Rover South tickets only)

Match report

Saracens 28 Northampton 22

Saracens rolled their sleeves up to record an important 28-22 win over Northampton Saints in the Guinness Premiership at Vicarage Road with Glen Jackson landing 23 of them with his boot.

The home side certainly didn't have it all their own way with the visitors leaping into the lead through a Mark Robinson brace inside the opening 10 minutes after some good running from the visitors caught Saracens cold. But strong words from captain Hugh Vyvyan saw his side tighten up and respond through a Dan Scarbrough try and an impressive haul of penalties from Jackson as the visitors discipline slipped as Saracens piled on the pressure.

Coaches praise character as team come from behind to win...

Head Coach Mike Ford praised the character of the Saracens side after coming from 14-0 down to beat Northampton Saints 28-22 on Saturday.

Ford said: “We showed great character to come back from 14-0 down. They are a good side with a great backline. Earlier in the season we were throwing the ball around and losing games, but today we had to roll up our sleeves and do what needed to be done to win the game.”

Director of Rugby Steve Diamond added: “We made a few errors early on in not getting the ball out into touch and they ran it back at us. We talked about their elusive runners in training all this week and we could hardly believe what we were seeing in the opening minutes especially after working on it all week.

“We were unable to play our normal game of field position in the opening minutes, but when we did get hold of the ball, Saints hardly saw it for the rest of the game. We didn’t score as many tries as them, but we need to know how to win games and that’s what we did today. We were looking to score tries, but they kept infringing so we were happy to kick our points and do what needed to be done to win the match.”

Player News

Byrne to start against All Blacks...

Saracens' hooker Shane Byrne has been named in the starting line up for Ireland as the take on the mighty All Blacks at Landsdowne Road on Saturday afternoon.

The Kiwis will be looking to make it two from two as they embark on their attempted Northern Hemisphere Grand Slam this autumn after already over coming the threat of the Welsh.

Vyvyan scoops Player of the Month award...

Saracens captain Hugh Vyvyan has scooped the October Player of the Month Award after a series of outstanding performances during the period. Hugh, who was in contention last month, has got through a huge amount of work, scored two tries and a drop goal and managed to help turn the team's fortunes round as leader but he did have a fight on his hands as Glen Jackson was a very close second after the fly half helped to orchestrate an unbeaten run in October

Top scoring Scarbrough happy to be winning...

Dan Scarbrough’s try against Northampton Saints on Saturday took him to the top of the Guinness Premiership try scorers list with five this season as the Men In Black recorded their fifth consecutive victory.

And although Scarbrough scored the only Saracens try of the game, the full back praised the performance of the team after the victory – especially as the home side found themselves 14-0 down after the opening 10 minutes.

Scarbrough said: “We did what we had to do really to get the win. They were able to break out early on and score two tries and we were sloppy in defence, so we just had to grind out a win.

Scarbrough’s try just before the break came after good work from Richard Haughton who skipped his way through three tackles before being pulled down just short of the line. “It was a good team try,” explained Scarbrough. “Del did really well and I just shouted at him to keep on running. When he was pulled down, I just had the simple task of picking the ball up and diving over”

The win was Saracens fifth in a row. “We’re playing winning rugby at the moment,” added Scarbrough. “Early in the season, we were playing some nice stuff but were losing games so we’ve pulled it back a bit to playing a more forward orientated game. But as we move forward I think we’ll develop and good balance between the two.”

Bartholomeusz glad to be back...

A neck injury forced the utility back to have surgery in the summer, but now he’s back to full fitness and raring to go.

“I’m just pleased to be back especially as I’ve been out for a long time,” he explained. “It’s been a very frustrating time – particularly in the last three or four weeks. As soon as you start training you want to get out on the pitch straight away and with the lads playing really well recently, I’ve just wanted to be back in action and not missing out on the big European games.”

“When you’re out injured for a while, it means you are able to work on other things and areas of your game that you wouldn’t normally have time to work on and that’s what I’ve been focusing on,” he explained.

But after those frustrating few weeks, Bartholomeusz is now back and was named in the started line-up against Northampton Saints

Other News

Saracens on the up…

Saturday’s attendance took the total number of fans to have watched rugby at Vicarage Road this season to nearly 40,000 – a 40% increase on this time last year.

In fact, just under 20,000 fans have attended Saracens’ last two matches at Vicarage Road with 8,524 watching the Men In Black’s victory over Northampton Saints and 11,167 seeing French champions Biarritz beaten 22-10 in the Heineken Cup.

Those attendance figures are set to get even better when Jonny Wilkinson and his Newcastle Falcons side visit Vicarage Road in the Guinness Premiership on Sunday 20th November – kick off 3pm.

On Saturday, the new Nando’s outlet proved to be a huge success with the staff having to run back to their main branch in Watford to get more food. And hungry fans also munched their way through two whole pigs at the Hog Roast stand!

The Guinness Mobile bar (capable of serving up to 1,000 pints an hour!) was a very popular addition and the ‘Casbah’ bar marquee was just as busy, catering for those who fancied something different to a pint of the black stuff.

Nicky Little and Ben Johnston mixed with supporters pre-match in the Village, whilst Ben Russell spent time signing autographs in the Club Shop. With the face painters roaming the village looking for kids and adults alike to decorate and the Master Blaster firing t-shirts and goodies into the crowd, there were plenty of sparks off the pitch as well as fireworks on it.

The Saracens Foundation

The Charitable arm of Saracens Rugby Club

Saracens move into Welwyn, Hatfield and Luton...

The 2005/06 academic year has seen the Sport for Health programme expanding and improving. We now work in two new areas: Welwyn/Hatfield and Luton, have expanded our team with the recruitment of a new Community Development Officer plus a whole host of volunteers have been out delivering the programme to over 12,000 children and 150 teachers in just 6 weeks.

In just six weeks Saracens Foundation has delivered 12 Ready for Rugby Inset sessions training over 150 teachers. We have supplied 1560 tag belts, over 300 rugby balls and 320 session plans to our local partner schools, the teachers have use this equipment to deliver over 160 hours of tag rugby and our community development have assisted them with this in the delivery off over 50 Ready for Rugby lessons.

Our community development officers have been out worked with over 12,000 children challenging them to incorporate physical activity into their daily lives through the delivery of 53 assemblies. In this assembly the children are treated to a behind the scenes look into what Saracens Players do in training, and match days and then are challenged by players top tips on how they should get active.

If you require any more information regarding the work of the Foundation please call 01923 204 612 and speak to Hannah.





 

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