Saracens vs London Welsh

Oh my word - is Matt Stevens eating the profits from the coffee shop he owns with Lee Mears?


Great ambition form Sarries so far - for limited reward.

What a try by Stegman, LW defence was superb in the build up to that.

Henson hits the post

6-5

Quick game this

Ref is too whistle happy.

YC for Welsh, but Welsh still doing well in defence

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Ref is too whistle happy.

He is, yet doing nothing about Welsh being permanently offside in the backs.

Welsh giving away a lot of penalties, and losing a lot of lineouts

Another YC and a penalty try

Welsh down to 13, this could be a thrashing

Welsh enjoying their broken field running, and they are the first to score when down to 13

13-8

Welsh doing well with the players down, good heart and ambition with the ball. Good game so far, must be the pitch...

Henson manages to bounce a DG off the crossbar from long range

16 - 11 HT

Fantastic product placement for Dominos there

Yep, bit strange

Bloody hell I want a pizza...

Fantastic finish by Henson, but the TMO denies Henson his first try with an obstruction in the play leading up

Refs have not helped Welsh at all have they. sometimes it just goes that way. Would have been a try in other leagues as the replay refs rules are different are they not?

Henson is just pathetic there.

Harsh on Welsh to lose that try.

Henson trying to even it up with a dive that Luis suarez would be embarrassed by.

Welsh do seem at times to be hard done by at the hands of refs, but they spend so much time on the fringes of legality that it is understandable.

Havent seen the whole game. But from what i have seen Henson as played very well.

A good win for Sarries. well done.

final score? Did LW get a losing bonus point?

Coleman wrote:final score? Did LW get a losing bonus point?

Sarries 35 - welsh 14

TBP to sarries

Awww no. Be pretty gutted if they go down this season. Everyone loves an underdog!

I think it will only be gutting if decided off the pitch.

If they end up bottom after losing more games then that's life.

How did Taylor get on at 12?

Not bad had some good powerful runs and showed some good lines and hands

LondonTiger wrote:Welsh do seem at times to be hard done by at the hands of refs, but they spend so much time on the fringes of legality that it is understandable.

Except when they played London Irish and the ref handed them the game by red-carding the No. 8 for a perfectly legal tackle after about 10 minutes. Without that they'd already be bottom of the table 8-10 points behind LI and 1 point behind or level with Sale.

TJ wrote:Refs have not helped Welsh at all have they. sometimes it just goes that way. Would have been a try in other leagues as the replay refs rules are different are they not?

Yep. One of the things I dislike about this system is that it inevitably leads to less trys...they are never going to go to these replays to check every successfully defended phase of play (hopefully!) ...just possible incidents of foul play and tries.

Having said that you can hardly say a sides been hard done by when they are picked up for an illegal act.But then what we do see is that there is still an issue with interpretation and uncertainty in video replays.

TJ wrote:Refs have not helped Welsh at all have they. sometimes it just goes that way. Would have been a try in other leagues as the replay refs rules are different are they not?

Wasn't an element of a thread you started about stricter enforcement of the laws of the game? If something prevents the allowing of a try that shouldn't have been given according to the laws of the game, surely that is just?

TJ I think refs have helped them quite a bit actually but eventually the refs have to say enough is enough.

Exactly LondonTiger. London Welsh do certainly try to bend and break the rules as much as they can without getting caught.

I thought Henson's try was rightfully ruled out for an obstruction but also possibly a double movement too.

Also this was balanced out by Saracens not being given a penalty try when a LW player did a high tackle on Short in the corner as he was about to score. Certainly foul play.