Ill-discipline proves costly as Saracens crash to defeat

SARACENS crashed to a 25-10 defeat at the hands of French champions Clermont-Auvergne in their Heineken Cup opener in Leinster’s pool on Saturday.

The Londoners’ game was marred by ill-discipline as they continued to give away penalties and turnover ball throughout the match.

Clermont did not create many chances, but neither did they need to as Saracens missed most of their own.

Canadian lock Jamie Cudmore put the first points on the board when he crossed in the 10th minute after both sides had missed penalties in the opening exchanges. The try came after a cheeky crossfield kick by fly half Derick Hougaard backfired spectacularly when Cudmore intercepted and charged in on the left.

Morgan Parra added the extras to make it 7-0, but 10 minutes after his heroics Cudmore turned villain when he was sin-binned for throwing a punch. To make matters worse for Sarries, Clermont’s second try came just three minutes later, Julien Malzieu crossing to make it 12-3.

Sarries were given another chance to close the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Davit Zirakashvili became the second Clermont player to be shown the yellow card, but Hougaard sent his penalty kick wide.

Saracens wasted no time in making their hosts pay after the restart when quick ball out to the backs found them with a man over on the wing. David Strettle completed the move for a well-worked 43rd minute try and Hougaard converted.

But the mistakes kept coming and within three minutes the French side had pushed the lead back out to five points after Sarries were pinged within Parra’s range.

As the clock ticked down, Sarries desperately tried to work themselves into a position to claim the three points that would secure them a losing bonus point. But Hougaard missed a penalty with five minutes to go and then, with their final throw of the dice, gifted up possession allowing Rougerie to feed Nalaga for an easy try to seal the victory.

Meanwhile Scarlets director of rugby Nigel Davies admitted his side still had plenty of work to do despite opening their Heineken Cup Pool Five campaign with a 43-34 victory over Perpignan in a nine-try thriller at Parc y Scarlets.

Said Davies: “We are nowhere near being the finished article. We have come a long way in a short space of time and we are moving in the right direction but there is plenty of work to do.”