Bristol had averaged two tries a match this season while conceding a total of 21 and, if in the final match in their run against last season’s top three they took until the final 10 minutes of the game, rather than the first half, to give up a bonus point, they could not prevent Saracens showing in a largely uninspiring affair why they are the European and Premiership champions.
Despite the largely one-sided nature of the contest which Saracens controlled from the off, they never went off script and indulged themselves, sticking instead to the direct formula that has made them so successful in recent seasons. Where Wasps and Exeter gave Bristol a few bones to gnaw on, all they had from Saracens was a plate licked clean.
The outcome was Saracens’ biggest Premiership victory over Bristol, who failed to muster a point at home in the tournament for the first time and remain adrift at the bottom. They will not be judged by how they get on against the champions, last season’s beaten finalists, Exeter, and the current leaders, Wasps, but their performances against the teams in the bottom half of the table, starting with Newcastle next weekend.
Bristol held Saracens to 10 points in the first half, defending stoutly and attacking sporadically. Saracens, who at one point had a territorial domination of 74%, never deviated from the tried and proven, running hard, taking play through phases and waiting for defensive lapses which grew as fatigue became a factor.
Their first try came after 12 minutes when Alex Lozowski, marking his elevation to England’s elite squad in his fifth appearance for Saracens having been third choice at Wasps, ran at the outside shoulder of Jack Lam and away from the flanker. Otherwise Bristol held firm, defending driving mauls effectively and keeping their shape, restricting their opponents to a Ben Spencer penalty for the rest of the opening half.
Within five minutes of the restart it was all over. Spencer kicked his second penalty before Lozowski charged down Adrian Jarvis’s laboured clearance and somehow managed to apply downward pressure on the ball a millisecond before it and he reached the dead-ball line. It was a rare moment of skill on the night when the only issue was when Saracens would secure the bonus point.
They did so on 70 minutes. The full-back Chris Wyles had scored their third try, profiting from a pass by Schalk Burger, who spotted Ryan Edwards coming out of the defensive line too quickly and timed his pass to ensure Wyles had only space in front of him and the fourth immediately followed Max Crumpton’s dispatch to the sin-bin as the hooker paid for what had become persistent infringing by his side.
The penalty was turned into a driving lineout and there was no stopping Jamie George. The extra point did not satisfy Saracens who kept rolling forward and, after Jack Tovey had made his side’s first and only line break, George Kruis completed the scoring on the stroke of full-time, rewarding his side’s relentless, grinding efficiency.
Bristol had their moments, stealing a couple of lineouts, turning two driving mauls into scrums and shoving their opponents back in the scrum occasionally, but it was a night when their inexperience showed against opponents who gave them nothing. If Saracens had not been coming off the back of a rare defeat, they might have been more incautious but, given the unfamiliar back division they fielded because of injuries and the suspension to Chris Ashton, that was never likely on a night when their focus was on playing to their strengths and winning.
“I am bitterly disappointed,” said Bristol’s director of rugby, Andy Robinson, who opted in the post-match media conference to issue a monologue rather than take questions. “We started better but did not perform for 80 minutes and wasted the good work of the first half in the first five minutes of the second by giving away a penalty and having a kick charged down, things that were in our control. We have to learn and whether we are doing so quickly enough we will find out at Newcastle.”
Saracens moved to the top of the table, although their stay will be brief if Wasps defeat Harlequins on Sunday . If they were missing experience behind, they were at full throttle at forward where Kruis, Maro Itoje, Burger and Billy Vunipola, until he was taken off as a precaution following a knock on his shoulder, had too much know-how for Bristol. “It was a professional performance,” said their director of rugby, Mark McCall. “We put Bristol under pressure throughout and it told when they became weary.”
Bristol J Williams; Edwards (Wallace,60), Tovey, Hurrell (Jarvis, 29), Amesbury; Pisi, Cliff; Traynor (Bevington,48), McMillan (Crumpton, 60), Perenise (Cortes,60), Phillips (Joyce, 57), Sorenson, Fisher, Lam (capt; Eadie,55), Crane.
Saracens Wyles; Ellery (Perkins, 72), Tompkins, Barritt (Bosch, 67), Gallagher; Lozowski, Spencer (Wigglesworth, 55); M Vunipola (Barrington, 55), George (Spurling, 72), Du Plessis (Figallo, h-t), Itoje (Hamilton, 63), Kruis, Wray, Burger, B Vunipola (Rhodes, 46).
Referee I Tempest. Attendance 11,592.
