Sarries shock sees friends reunited
Munster have been to the Ricoh before, losing there 24-23 to Wasps during this season’s group stages in November, and semi-finals are by now second nature but Gaffney, who twice led the Irish province into the last four, will take his latest charges into a first such contest on April 27.
Having seen Saracens overpower Ospreys at a sold-out 18,000-plus Vicarage Road, Gaffney admitted the text messages between Watford and the south-west of Ireland had been flying back and forth over the weekend but the Australian refused to look too far ahead to plotting the downfall of a team he coached for three years.
“The easy thing we’ve got between now and Munster is we’ve got Gloucester away and Wasps at home,” Gaffney said. “That’s what we’ve got to concentrate over the next fortnight, the Guinness Premier League.
“Munster is out there, there’s no doubt, but we’ve still got to continue to try and perform as best we can in the Guinness.”
Success has been thin on the ground for Saracens and yesterday’s meeting with Ospreys was the Londoners’ first European Cup quarter-final.
“We’ve been talking about that all week,” Gaffney said, “and saying this is an experience some of these guys may never experience again. So one of the things we talked to them about was ‘don’t leave anything out there’.
Against a team that provided the backbone for Wales’ Grand Slam success last month and was topped up by a sprinkling of former New Zealand All Blacks, Saracens were not expected to be troubling the historians any further by reaching the last four, particularly having been embarrassed by the Ospreys 30-3 a fortnight ago in Cardiff in the EDF Energy Cup semis.
No-one told Sarries the direction the script was heading, however, and against an ineffective, misfiring and often sloppy Ospreys XV, they outplayed and outfought the visitors with equal measures of grunt and heart.
The travelling Welsh fans had been singing ‘Bread Of Heaven’ as early as the second minute when James Hook sent over a penalty from in front of the posts but once Saracens hit their stride there was no stopping the English side in a pulsating encounter.
Glen Jackson levelled and then sent Saracens into a lead they would not surrender with successful ninth and 15th minute penalties. From there, the home side asserted such will over their guests that Ospreys were at times reduced to a bewildered and frustrated huddle.
Even when full-back Brent Russell and centre Andy Farrell were lost to injuries around the half-hour mark, Saracens did not miss a beat and were very nearly rewarded with a try on the stroke of half-time when lock Hugh Vyvyan slid over the try line under a pile of bodies. Irish referee Alan Lewis called for Television Match Official Brian Fitzgerald to adjudicate and when his compatriot said ‘no try’, the half-time whistle blew with Saracens protecting a narrow 6-3 lead.
That was blown wide open just 80 seconds into the second half when Argentine wing Francisco Leonelli, who had replaced Russell, ran the length of the Ospreys half to score a try in the corner, converted by Jackson to open up a 10-point lead.
Ospreys had their chances to get back on terms only to see sloppy errors undermine the cause, the worst of which came in the 48th minute when prop Adam Jones knocked on the gentlest of passes out of the back of a ruck from Justin Marshall. Full-back Lee Byrne then found his way to the sin bin after deliberately knocking on and Gavin Henson departed the midfield with an injury before Jackson slotted over another penalty to compound Welsh woes.
When Ospreys did cross the Saracens line, with a 76th-minute try from sub Paul James, it was too late and fittingly the English side had the last laugh, Jackson arrowing a drop goal between the posts a minute from time, a dagger through Welsh hearts. Victory has come at a cost as Gaffney ruled out Farrell for three months.
Try: Leonelli Con: Jackson Pens: Jackson 3 Drop: Jackson
James Con: Hook Pen: Hook
B Russell (F Lionelli, 30; M Raulu Ni, 69), R Haughton, K Sorrell, A Farrell (A Powell, 31), K Ratuvou, G Jackson, N De Kock; N Lloyd, M Cairns (F Ongaro, 76), C Visagie, H Vyvyan, K Chesney (T Ryder, 76), P Gustard (D Barrell, 53), R Hill, B Skirving.
L Byrne, J Vaughton (A Brew, 65), S Parker, G Henson (A Bishop, 59), S Williams, J Hook, J Marshall; D Jones (R Hibbard, 52), H Bennett (P James, 52), A Jones, I Gough, A-W Jones, J Thomas (F Tiatia, 49), M Holah, R Jones.
Alan Lewis (Ireland).
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