Venter blames the sin-bin
Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter has blamed the sin-binning of Alex Goode as the main reason the club lost their first Premiership match of the season.
Saracens went down 33-16 at the hands of London Irish and conceded 15 points during the period that they only had 14 players on the pitch. Goode was sent from the field when he knocked the ball away from an offside position.
Saracens' players were obviously a little annoyed and confused by the decision of the referee at the time and they lost their heads, which allowed London Irish to score the points needed to go on and win the game.
Saracens must do a number of things better during a game when they are at a numerical disadvantage and have their backs to the wall. Venter will also have to watch what he says because he has a long history of poor discipline in the sport.
Tightening up
In any sport when a side loses a player then the natural reaction is to tighten up and defend with double the effort and energy. This did not happen when Goode was sent to the sin-bin and Saracens opened up with very little resistance.
Someone in the side needs to take some responsibility if this sort of thing happens again. It's very unlikely that the side would have crumbled if captain Steve Borthwick had been fit and in command. Anyone could have stepped up as a temporary leader to make sure that no gaps appeared in the Saracens defence.
It was obviously a very frustrating game for Saracens because they did not get off to an emphatic start in a season when they are being tipped to push for the Premiership title. They are now under increased pressure because other sides will see that the team can crumble when they are up against it.
Venter said: "The sin-binning swung the game, it was the issue today. I'll get myself into trouble if I debate the decision. We'll look at it again on Monday. Of course it was an issue. It was 10-6 at half-time then the sin-bin came and then we conceded 15 points."
Curbed temper
A lot of people agreed that the reason Saracens lost out to Leicester at the back end of last season was because they were forced to go a long period of matches without Venter on the side of the pitch.
The team has enough problems in terms of having to cope without their captain and finding a way to win when the side is not in full flow. While Borthwick is not present in the team, Venter will be the person that a lot of players at the club look up to. He cannot get himself banned all over again.
He added: "Give Irish some credit during the sin-binning, they started slow in the first half but got better. But the score was not a fair reflection of the game, that was a close match which was swung by other things."
Betting advice
Saracens looks as though the team will collapse under the slightest hint that an opposition team can put pressure on them for a sustained period of time. It's now up to Venter and the players to react in a positive and emphatic fashion.
Hold off from betting on them for now and wait to see how they play in the next game. If they bounce back well and look fluent in all areas of the team then there's very little reason not to take a punt on them winning further matches. Be a little more wary of backing them for title success.
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