PREVIEW...
Bordeaux v Saracens
Today. Kick-off 5.30pm, Stade Chaban-Delmas
SARACENS over the years have been a model of consistency, but they today face one of the toughest assignments in the Champions Cup in Bordeaux on their worst run of the season.
The three-times Champions Cup winners face Bordeaux-Begles on the back of four defeats in their last six matches with their last win on the road coming against Harlequins in November.
The champions have slipped into the bottom half of the Premiership and the face a team unbeaten at home since La Rochelle’s visit 10 months ago and boasting Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey on their flanks.
“They have been outstanding,” said Saracens coach Kevin Sorrell. “They have not lost in recent times (since October), although Bayonne pushed them close last weekend. They are a side with multiple threats, a strong pack, good halfbacks and centres with a symbiotic relationship, and they revel in unstructured play.
“We are up and down, striving for consistency. There have been moments when we look like the animal we want to be and others when we are off it. We feel we are close, but the last bit is always the hardest to nail.”
One area where Saracens have struggled, and it cost them in recent Premiership defeats at Sale and Leicester when they were regularly penalised, is the scrum which has been missing a number of leading front rowers.
There will be no Jamie George, Mako Vunipola, Tom West, Marco Riccioni, Ollie Hoskins or Eroni Mawi in France with Logovi’i Mulipola, Theo Dan and Christian Judge making up the front row. Bordeaux-Begles’s starting props are both internationals, Jefferson Poirot and the 23st 11lbs Tonga captain Ben Tameifuna.
“The scrum is a big factor in the game,” said Sorrell. “It can provide your with a good platform to attack from or you can find yourself 40 metres down the pitch. We have been working hard on it.”
Saracens have over the years proved to be at their most dangerous after a poor run of results, not that there have been many. They will need all their old resilience and doggedness if they are to leave Stade Chaban-Delmas victorious ahead of their final group match at home to Lyon. deaux-Begles with the form they are in will be right up there. We know what it will take after ending Toulon’s home record in Europe in 2016.”
More than 28,000 tickets had been sold at the end of last week with only a few hundred still “When there is white noise around, we focus on ourselves and look internally,” said Sorrell.
“We have been inconsistent and we have stripped things back, identifying what we need to go after.
“We love a challenge and going to Boravailable. For all their front r
