A desperate lunge for the line with the last touch of the ball by Al Kellock salvaged a bonus point for Glasgow Warriors at the end of a hugely entertaining Heineken Cup tie at Vicarage Road yesterday. However, the captain was far from a happy man as he looked back over the game.
"That was a good way to finish, but we're killing ourselves, aren't we?" he asked rhetorically.
"Coming down here and getting anything is something, but our set-piece did not function as it should and individual errors cost us.
"You have to wonder how we managed to get that close when we made so many mistakes. We couldn't string together five passes in the first half.
"That's what hurts most. We are professional athletes and we can't expect to be competitive if we perform like that."
All of which only made it all the more frustrating that in spite of that they got themselves in a position to win but could not clinch it.
"When we got within range late on we were talking about going on and winning it," said Kellock. "A good team will win these kind of games, games they are not meant to and we have to be able to do that if we want to consider ourselves a good team."
For the most part they suffered death by set-piece at the hands of Saracens as in the corresponding fixture last season, but this was no bog standard meeting of gutsy Scots with a bullish English side. Both teams played expansively, with Saracens winning the try count 4-3.
In many ways the tone was set from the start as the Saracens pack pressurised the Warriors pack at a scrum in the home 22, but it was worked out to Dan Parks, whose cross kick was brilliantly collected by Bernie Stortoni. The Argentine full-back was brought down just short and, while he recycled the ball well, Lome Fa'atau was penalised for hanging on to it after failing in his bid to stretch to the line.
Parks did nudge them ahead with a penalty but moments later dreadful defending allowed Saracens the game's opening try. After gathering a bouncing ball midway inside the Warriors half Glenn Jackson sailed through untouched down the middle of the pitch, deep into the 22, where Matt Cairns linked neatly to send Hugh Vyvyan in untouched.
The speed of play was frenetic, but the Warriors lost their paciest player when Thom Evans, who suffered a broken jaw on this ground a year ago, was forced off with a hamstring ankle injury.
Moments after his departure Jackson looped Andy Farrell before delivering a perfect finger-tip pass to reward Rodd Penney's well-angled run that let him cut clean through.
As well as their set-piece struggles the Warriors were letting themselves down with careless handling errors and weak tackling. Jackson, who had converted both tries, added a penalty, but with it looking like the visitors needed something special to have any hope, Stortoni provided it.
Gathering deep in his own half the full-back scythed his way through the Saracens defensive line before looking for support. It was provided by Parks, who delivered a sweeping pass to Johnny Barclay and the flanker, with support on his outside, backed his own running power to get to the corner.
Parks failed to convert and while he was on target with a long-range penalty soon after, that was quickly cancelled out by another Jackson strike. Saracens' scrummage asserted itself with a push-over score as they split the Warriors pack apart before Ben Skirling picked up to score.
Parks knocked a penalty from inside his own half immediately after the re-start then fell inches short with another. Saracens made their scrummage power tell again deep in opposition territory, providing the platform for Skirling to pick up and shift it wide, slick handling ending with Kameli Ratuvou cruising into the left corner for the bonus-point-earning try.
Parks reduced the arrears with a penalty but Saracens continued to dominate until, with less than five minutes left, the Warriors produced another try out of nothing. His quick thinking set it up and the ball was shifted swiftly from right to left, but little looked on as Barclay delivered what looked an overly early pass to Hefin O'Hare. Yet the replacement wing, full of bounce throughout, cut infield then suddenly spotted a gap and was clean through.
Suddenly the Warriors had a sniff of the most unlikely of wins and they continued to take risks. Jackson looked to have denied them even a bonus when kicking a penalty two minutes into injury time, but the bounce of the ball favoured the visitors at the re-start.
They kept it moving and Scott Barrow drove deep into the defence before Barclay timed his pass to Kellock perfectly to let his captain take the ball with sufficient momentum to hold off three attempted tackles and claim something from the game. Saracens F Leonelli (E Thrower 64); R Penney, K Sorrell, A Farrell, K Ratuvou; G Jackson (G Ross 80), N de Kock (M Raulini); K Yates, M Cairns (F Ongaro 80), C Johnston, H Vyvyan, K Chesney (T Ryder 69), P Gustard, R Hill (D Seymour 68), B Skirving.
Glasgow Warriors B Stortoni (S Barrow 2-7); L Fa'atau, A Henderson (S Barrow 54), D Gibson, T Evans (H O'Hare 18); D Parks, C O'Young (S Pinder 56); J Va'a (E Kalman 56), F Thomson (E Milligan 69), M Low, A Newman (D Turner 40), A Kellock, K Brown (J Eddie 69), J Barclay, J Beattie.
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