Saracens vs Gloucester match report: Charlie Hodgson helps Saracens overcome Gloucester

Saracens’ response to their eight-try shellacking by Wasps here last Sunday was a triumph of obdurate resistance against the odds, with a brand-new dad doing his bit from the bench. Playing one man short for an hour, due to a first-half red card shown to their ebullient hooker Schalk Brits, and a stint in the sin-bin for the captain, Brad Barritt, they nevertheless exposed the soft underbelly of the Gloucester pack.

The second half was a horror show of penalties conceded by the Cherry and Whites, and they were picked off from the tee by the Premiership’s all-time record scorer, Charlie Hodgson, who finished with 20 points.

The dismissal of Brits came after a video review of an incident in the 30th minute. With Barritt already in the bin for a tip tackle on Ross Moriarty, there was a ruck in midfield with Brits fishing for the ball. He was clattered into hard by the Gloucester prop Nick Wood, and slammed on to his back with his knee pinned to the ground – the same knee, it was mentioned in partial mitigation by Saracens’ director of rugby Mark McCall afterwards, that Brits had damaged his ACL in last September.

From that prone position Brits angrily retaliated with a left-handed jab to Wood’s face and followed up with an attempted right hook. After consulting the television match official, referee Craig Maxwell-Keys showed Brits the red card. Ordinarily nothing wipes the smile from the face of the South African, but this did the trick. And with the scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth and loosehead Rhys Gill off injured soon after, Saracens’ mood was collectively dark. Wigglesworth may be out for some time after breaking a finger. Wood went off, failed a head injury assessment, and did not return.

Amazingly for Saracens, and embarrassingly for Gloucester, the home team simply grew stronger as they extended their lead in the Premiership table to eight points. Saracens withdrew their right-wing Mike Ellery to maintain full numbers in the pack, and that unit strove brilliantly to rub Gloucester’s noses in the artificial turf. Having hoped to post three successive wins in the Premiership for the first time since October 2012, it was a bitter disappointment to McCall’s Gloucester counterpart, David Humphreys. “Saracens showed why they are a champion team,” he said, “but it was like watching Gloucester of 18 months ago with our indiscipline and turning the ball over.”

Saracens had begun sharply with a try inside three minutes in their efforts to show the 64-23 loss to Wasps had been a temporary aberration in this two-month period spent without their Six Nations players. The full-back Ben Ransom chased his own chip kick successfully on the short side of a ruck and Hodgson converted. Two penalties apiece by James Hook for Gloucester and Hodgson had Saracens 13-6 ahead by the interval.

Delightfully central to the scrum domination thereafter was Saracens’ Argentina prop Juan Figallo, who had arrived to do replacement duty 45 minutes before kick-off after his wife had given birth to their first child, a boy, at 11.30am. “We told Juan to stay where he was, at Stevenage hospital,” said McCall, “but he wanted to play. His mum and his wife’s mum were at the hospital and all was well. I’d first received a text from him at 2am, and heard again at nine o’clock that nothing was happening. He walked into the changing room to a big roar from the players.”

McCall had no complaint over the Brits sending-off, although he cited the probable fear of injury to that previously wounded knee. With Jamie George away in the England squad, Saracens’ hooking resources will be stretched. This clash of club and international fixtures was fiercely criticised in the chairman Nigel Wray’s programme notes. Citing the football Premier League’s multi-billion-pound broadcasting revenues since they split from the Football Association in 1992, Wray called for the Premiership to run its own show.

Meanwhile the England coach Eddie Jones, who must tread the club v country much more diplomatically, was here to see Will Fraser have the better of the opensides’ battle with Gloucester’s Matt Kvesic.

Saracens: B Ransom; M Ellery (J Saunders, 35), D Taylor, B Barritt (capt; sin-bin, 20-30), C Wyles; C Hodgson, R Wigglesworth (B Spencer, 35); R Gill (T Lamositele, 35), S Brits, P Du Plessis (J Figallo, 41), H Smith, J Hamilton, M Rhodes (K Brown, 53), W Fraser (J Burger, 79), J Wray.

Gloucester: B Burns; C Sharples, B Twelvetrees (capt), M Atkinson (H Trinder, 61), S McColl; J Hook, C Braley (W Heinz, 52); N Wood (D Murphy, 30), R Hibbard (T Lindsay, 71), J Afoa (P Doran-Jones, 68); J Thrush, M Galarza (T Savage, 55); R Moriarty, M Kvesic (sin-bin, 62; J Rowan, 63), S Kalamafoni.

Referee: C Maxwell-Keys (Staffordshire).