Exeter Chiefs v Saracens
It’s a hard life. You finish the season with the same number of wins and losses as your coming opponents, but you have to travel around 200 miles to play them, because they scored three more bonus points than you.
This is the key battle of the two semis. Second versus third is bound to be less predictable than first versus fourth.
The two sides competed in last year’s final, so have form. Since Sarries won that duel, Chiefs will be all the more intent on correcting history at Sandy Park.
One glance at the Sarries’ line-up (down below), and you wonder how they ever lose a match, or even, why opponents bother turning up to dispute the issue.
But that isn’t how the season has worked out for them. Their stats are strikingly unimpressive by their normal standards: far fewer points scored than you’d expect; far more conceded.
Now Alex Austerberry shows his hand. It’s as full of trumps as is possible without the deciding card of Zoe Harrison at No 10. He prefers to keep Poppy Cleall in the second row. Fair enough, she is dangerous wherever she plays, but surely she can wreak most harm in the back row. Second row hasn’t been Sarries’ strongest suit all through their years of supremacy.
One team only too happy to confront them are the Chiefs. Their stats stand alone in the league.
They’ve scored 112 more points than Sarries and conceded 90 fewer. The question is why they aren’t the runaway leaders. But, like Sarries, they have lost three times, and in a cut-throat competition like the AP 15s that’s a few too many.
Susie Appleby manages to find room for a handful of English players, which is a relief, but the remainder, many from the New World, present a formidable array of talent to face the almost permanent winners of the top prize.
If you are of a nervous disposition, it would be sensible to remain strictly impartial when watching this battle unfold on Sunday.
Teams
Exeter Chiefs
15 Doidge 14 Buchanan 13 Zackary 12 Cantorna 11 Sinclair 10 McGoverne 9 Robinson 1 Rogers 2 Tuttosi 3 Menin 4 Fryday 5 Leitch 6 Fleming 7 Allen 8 Johnson
Bench: 16 Moloney 17 Turani 18 Jacoby 19 van der Velden 20 Jefferies 21 Macdonald 22 Wilkins 23 Cramer
Saracens
15 Breach 14 Grant 13 Gregson 12 McKenna 11 Clapp 10 Aitchison 9 Infante 1 Botterman 2 Campbell 3 Clifford 4 McMillan 5 P. Cleall 6 Evans 7 Kasolo 8 M. Packer
Bench: 16 Rettie 17 Carson 18 Evllis 19 McIntosh 20 Moore 21 Wyrwas 22 Williams 23 Alejandro
Officials
Referee: Charlie Gayther
ARs: Jonathan Cook and James Cornell TMO: David Rose
with thanks to rugbyreferee.net
Details: Sunday 11 June, Sandy Park, Exeter, KO 15.00 BST
