We were dealing with certainties in Barnet. Everyone knew what was going to happen before it happened and so it did. We had the expected rout of unmotivated French visitors; we had a hat-trick from Chris Ashton, which seemed more than familiar, albeit distantly so. We even knew the destiny of a prospective England coach. All seemed straight with the world in the week before Christmas.
We cannot quite add the qualification of Saracens from Pool one of the Champions Cup to the list of certainties but an eight-try win over Oyonnax represented the next-best thing. Only Ulster can deny them and the Irish side still have to come to Barnet.
After last Sunday’s match in the Rhône-Alpes, Saracens made a calm announcement about the above-board approach from the RFU regarding Paul Gustard, their defence coach, and the business had been concluded in good time for this weekend’s. How easy life is made to look sometimes.
“We’re pleased for Paul,” said Mark McCall, the Saracens coach. “He fully deserves it and will do an unbelievable job. The opportunity to coach England is a big one, but he knows what we’ve got here at the moment doesn’t come along very often. So it was a tough choice and he made it with our blessing. We’ve no complaints about how it was done.”
Gustard duly presided here over what was almost another shut-out. Alas, Charlie Hodgson, who had just sent Jamie George careering over from a sublime pass, did the same for Fetu’u Vainikolo, the Oyonnax wing, with a little more than 10 minutes to go and the score at 48-6. It was the seventh try Saracens have conceded this season and an intercept, so technically this was on the attack coach’s watch. Maybe Gustard’s Christmas will not quite be ruined by it.
The attack coaches had plenty to purr over too, even if this Oyonnax team was far from first-choice with bigger issues on their mind at the bottom of the Top 14. Ashton was the prime beneficiary, his hat-trick completed with the last try of the game. “Chris has had to deal with the setback of not being picked internationally in the past 12 months,” said McCall. “A lot of people concentrate on what they think he’s not good at; we concentrate on what he’s good at. He’s been playing well for a while.”
The winger opened and closed the scoring. He might have had his hat-trick in the first half-hour but for a forward pass by George, who otherwise took and gave with the panache of a centre. Either side of that near miss, Alex Goode and Brad Barritt put him away for his first, and the imperious Owen Farrell created the second with a grubber to the corner, just as Richard Wigglesworth would lay on his third.
Ashton’s second was scored on the half-hour and Oyonnax had at least looked competitive at that point but Saracens turned the screw – and claimed the bonus point – with a try either side of half-time, both from driven lineouts and both dotted down by Samuela Vunisa, a like-for-like replacement for the rested Billy Vunipola.
Billy’s brother, Mako, meanwhile, was playing like a centre himself in the loose as Saracens enjoyed themselves and Oyonnax imploded somewhat after the bonus point had been registered. Goode went on an outrageous run through a scattered defence for the fifth, Mike Ellery, the busy, bruising wing, galloped home for number six after Oyonnax had spilled the ball, before George picked a fine line for his rampage through the visitors’ midfield.
Barnet was revelling by now, Saracens sending them off into Christmas with a smile after a year to remember. “It’s been a season where we’ve had fantastic success with a Premiership title, an LV= title, an A-League title and a women’s title,” said Barritt, captain for the day. “The European focus is huge for us now. Hopefully, we can push forward in 2016.”
No one can accuse them just now of lacking certainty in that pursuit.
Saracens: Goode (Ransom 50); Ashton, Taylor, Barritt (capt), Ellery; Farrell (Hodgson 56), De Kock (Wigglesworth 50); M Vunipola (Barrington 50), Brits (George 22), Du Plessis (Figallo 50), Hamilton (Fraser 64), Itoje (Rhodes 56), Wray, Brown, Vunisa.
Tries: Ashton 3, Vunisa 2, Goode, Ellery, George. Cons: Farrell 4, Hodgson 2. Pen: Farrell
Oyonnax: Denos (capt); Ikpefan, Bousses, Tawalo (Martin 52), Vainikolo; Lespinas (Clegg 53), Blanc (Aziza 62); Delboulbes (Wright 19), Maurouard, Clerc (Pungea 48), Power, Fabbri, Ursache (Bordes 66), Wannenburg, Faure (Ma’afu 50).
Try: Vainikolo. Con: Clegg Pens: Lespinas 2
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Att: 9,207
