Saracens beat Worcester to return to winning ways, Gloucester suffer shock defeat and Dave Ward escapes red
Saracens beat Worcester to capitalise on Exeter's shock defeat at Northampton Saints
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Saracens returned to winning ways in the Gallagher Premiership with a battling 25-17 triumph over a resilient Worcester Warriors despite trailing at half-time at Allianz Park.
Mark McCall's men shipped a pair of early scores to the energetic Warriors before tries from Calum Clark and David Strettle turned the tide after the break.
Capitalising on Exeter's shock defeat at Northampton Saints, Saracens went some way to repairing their defeat at Sandy Park last time out but stay second in the Gallagher Premiership behind the Chiefs.
Worcester shocked the hosts as they made the perfect start, taking the lead when Francois Hougaard reacted first with the ball popping out of a ruck before offloading to the alert Duncan Weir, who sped to the corner despite the efforts of Alex Goode.
And with Saracens faltering, the Warriors pounced once more. Perry Humphreys broke the line on halfway before being hauled down by Ben Spencer, but Ben Te'o was first on the scene to gratefully receive an offload and dot down under the sticks on his return to the side.
Weir added the simplest of conversions, but the Warriors' second seemed to awaken the beast. Alex Lozowski burst through the Worcester ranks as the hosts looked to claw back a score, but they were made to settle for a penalty as Owen Farrell reduced the arrears.
Mako Vunipola made the breakthrough when the Saracens forwards drove over from a lineout with the prop crashing down on the half-hour mark, with Farrell spurning the conversion.
Weir hit back with a penalty and Farrell replied with another of his own, but it was Worcester who took an unlikely 17-11 lead into the break.
Saracens' start to the second half sat in stark contrast to their opening in the first as they went close on several occasions, with only a combination of handling errors and solid rearguard action from the Warriors keeping them at bay.
But McCall's side took the lead for the first time in the contest when Clark made the most of an overlap to score and Farrell converted to make it 18-17.
Substitute Strettle buffed the lead, charging through on his return from injury to break Warriors hearts with what was to be the final score of an attritional contest.
Sale pulled off one of the shocks of the season with a comprehensive 30-15 defeat of third-placed Gloucester at a sold-out Kingsholm.
The ninth-placed club trailed 10-0 at the end of the first quarter before Sale scored 30 unanswered points as the home side had no answers to the ferocity and commitment of their opponents.
Sale tries came from Chris Ashton, Faf de Klerk, Rob Webber and Denny Solomona, with Robert du Preez adding two conversions and two penalties.
Jaco Visagie and Henry Walker scored tries for Gloucester with Billy Twelvetrees kicking a penalty and conversion.
Harlequins hooker Dave Ward escaped a red card after spitting in the direction of Thomas Young in an incident that marred a 20-13 Gallagher Premiership victory over Wasps.
A sell-out crowd for Big Game 11 at Twickenham saw Ward spit towards Young in the 11th minute before stepping on his ankle, provoking an angry reaction from the prone Welsh flanker.
Referee Craig Maxwell-Keys sent Ward to the sin-bin but only for treading on Young having appeared to miss the more serious offence, for which he is almost certain to be cited under the banner of acting against the spirit of good sportsmanship.
Citing officer Buster White has 24 hours to lodge a complaint against the Quins front row, who was a fringe England contender in 2014 and now faces a minimum four-week ban that could climb to 12 weeks if it is deemed high end.
White will also be interested in an earlier incident that saw Ward perform a neck roll on Young, which went unpunished.
The foul play failed to take the shine off Harlequins' fifth win of the season, a result founded on resilience and tries by Alex Dombrandt and Joe Marchant that lifts them to fourth in the Premiership.
Wasps were their own worst enemy at times and are heading in the opposite direction, with one win in 13 games leaving them in seventh, although they will take comfort from a strong finish that yielded a losing bonus point.
PA
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments