Old friends are best as Gaffney looking forward to reunion
There were few outside the Saracens dressing room that believed they could beat the star-studded Welsh side in Sunday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final at Vicarage Road, Watford, and set up a clash with Munster at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena on April 27.
But instead of heading to the Millennium Stadium later this month to take on the much-fancied Ospreys, Declan Kidney’s squad will now have to prepare for a reunion with former boss Alan Gaffney and his buoyant Sarries.
Gaffney, the director of rugby, guided the English side to a first Heineken Cup semi-final thanks to a spirited and well deserved 19-10 victory and while much will be made of the injury toll suffered against the Welsh, with centre Andy Farrell out for the rest of the season, try scorer Francisco Leonelli suffering a dislocated finger, full-back Brent Russell nursing a hamstring strain and flanker Paul Gustard suffering a shoulder injury, the Australian has plenty of firepower left at his disposal to stage another European upset.
In wing Richard Haughton, Gaffney has a linebreaker with pace to burn, as the 27-year-old displayed in outshining the Ospreys’ Welsh Grand Slam hero Shane Williams on Sunday.
“I have nothing against what Shane Williams did but on a one-for-one I have no doubt who won that contest,” Gaffney said having put forward a case for Haughton’s inclusion in the England national set-up.
“This year he has been one of our most consistent performers. How he is not in the top 64 in England is quite an amazing situation.”
It is throughout the Saracens pack, however, that Gaffney has most to be proud of. From a front row led by South African tighthead Cobus Visagie to the back row prowess of the veteran World Cup winner Richard Hill, the Sarries forwards shut down what was in essence the Wales Grand Slam-winning pack plus former All Black flanker Marty Holah.
“We had to make sure our set-piece was solid and we’ve got an absolute top scrummager in Cobus. Our set-piece two weeks ago (against Ospreys) was all over the shop. We didn’t have any ball to play off in Cardiff and the one thing we did (on Sunday) was to make sure we had ball we could play off.”
Gaffney is now relishing a battle with Munster’s scrum, which the Australian has clearly been keeping tabs on.
“It will be interesting. They didn’t play (Marcus) Horan due to an injury and they brought in Tony Buckley who’s not a loosehead — he’s a tighthead. So they brought on Freddy Pucciarello on to sort of stabilise the scrum.
“But speaking on the basis that Marcus isn’t badly injured and will be back; scrummaging isn’t one of Marcus’s strengths either I suppose, he’s best known for his work around the paddock and what he does in his work rate. But Cobus will be important.”
Gaffney has options at tight-head with Visagie far from certain of his place with Samoan prop, 6ft 2ins, 20 stone Cencus Johnston in the squad.
However good the Saracens front five proved to be against Ospreys it was the back row that were the real stars of the show. Led by 34-year-old Hill with fellow veteran flanker Gustard, 32, and Ben Skirving at No 8, the back row put in the lion’s share of a ferocious tackle count that Ospreys head coach Lyn Jones could only admire.
“Saracens made it very hard for us to play the type of game we wanted to play,” Jones said. “They made things very difficult for us at the breakdown and put a lot of big hits in.
“The tackle count was 150-180, which shows how hard they were prepared to work.”
Hill said: “We put in a fantastic effort, didn’t give them any time to settle on the ball and forced some uncharacteristic mistakes.
“It was great to be part of a team effort and fighting to the very last. We had that cushion but we still didn’t want to give them a try at the end.”
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