A few hours after the test match in Auckland, we were transported to North London for another game that was a test match in all but name.
As you watched this top-table clash, you had to wonder how either side might have got on if they’d been in North Harbour too. Could G-H have beaten the Black Ferns? Surely Sarries would have beaten the Wallaroos!
Wild imaginings apart, this was a game of the highest class, international players everywhere you looked. Gloucester-Hartpury had 13 test starters plus five on the bench; Saracens Sarries 13 plus six.
In a titanic struggle Sarries at last halted G-H’s unbeaten run. The difference between them was – to pick just one dramatic moment of many – when a long conversion kick by Emma Sing pranged back from the right-hand post. Had it gone over that would have made it 33-33. Sarries squeezed home by two points.
For them it means an all-important home semi-final against the Bears on 9 June. Away teams don’t expect an open door to the final.
The tension in the game was summed up on 79 minutes 20 seconds. There was a lengthy pause for an injury. When play resumed the visitors had to win their own scrum put-in and work their way over the line. Mo Hunt inserted, the ball was heeled, then somehow it richoteted back the other way. Sophie de Goede, only recently introduced from the bench – who needs the best all-rounder in the world at the start? – hoofed the ball into touch and the crowd erupted.
One concern for G-H is Alex Matthews’ well-being. She was hurt making a last-ditch tackle as Sarries drove for the line. She left the field with a head bandage and blood visible beneath it.
Sale Sharks heard my heart-rending pleas for a turn-around and obliged. They won thrillingly away to defeat the team directly above them, Tigers, by a convincing fifteen points.
Trailfinders suffered the agony of going down at home to Lightning by a single point. They were 18-12 up at the break, but the only score in the second half fell to Kathryn Treder, back from the US Eagles’ triumph in the Pacific Four. That left them one point behind. Who shall we call up to take the conversion? Let’s take a punt with Emily Scarratt. That was a good idea! She converts to ensure a four-point win and confirm their fifth position.
But it’s a sign of the times that they lie a massive 15 points behind the Bears.
Bears had a pleasing win at the Stoop, to place them four points ahead of the Chiefs. Their passing game is thrilling to watch, but difficult to execute every time without error. A number of final passes were decreed forward or finished in touch.
But the forwards held the upper hands over Quins, though the hosts had very fine moments. The trouble is that these days they are guilty of small inaccuracies that bring promising moves to an abrupt halt.
Still, it is good to see Amy Turner happy to place Ella Cromack, the England U20 prospect, at 10 rather than Emily Scott. That is a pointer to the future. Whether Quins would have won with Ellie Kildunne prowling at the rear is another matter.
Results
Leicester Tigers 21 Sale Sharks 36
Trailfinders 18 Loughborough Lightning 19
Harlequins 25 Bristol Bears 47
Saracens 33 Gloucester-Hartpury 31
Table W L Pts
Gloucester-Hartpury 15 1 76
Saracens 13 2 65
Bristol Bears 11 4 56
Exeter 9 5 52
Lightning 7 8 37
Quins 4 10 28
Trailfinders 4 11 24
Leicester Tigers 2 13 9
Sale Sharks 2 13 8
Note: the leaders have played 16 games, the rest 15. Exeter and Quins played out a draw.
Afterthoughts
This may well have been the best day’s club rugby since the Prem 15s started seven years ago. A one-point game, a two-point game, the unbeaten leaders beaten and the tailenders scoring a signal away victory.
It’s a small comfort that the bottom three clubs now have eight wins between them. Next year, more of them need to come against sides way above them in the table.
We still await news of the board’s thinking about the PWR’s future course. They set themselves a ten-year structure, which at least gives them breathing space to observe how things are developing.
