Saracens may have already had their fate sealed, and have been dismantling their squad on loan deals to their Premiership rivals, but they have still had their good moments this season. This try was one of them, coming against Northampton Saints at Allianz Park, and we will now have a look at how it was scored.
Here, we see how Saracens have broken through the Northampton defensive line, and Ben Earl, who has been one of their most dangerous players this season in terms of scoring tries, has run in behind them. He has angled his run slightly towards the sideline, which has created a little space for Saracens to get another player behind the defensive line to join him. Full-back Matt Gallagher has also made the run through, doing just this.
However, Gallagher has run in the other direction, and the two red arrows show you how their different runs mean that the Saints defender trying to stop them advancing, marked by the green circle, is now caught in two minds. He has to go towards Earl, as the England flanker has the ball. However, that then gives Gallagher a clear route through to the try line. As soon as the defender is close enough, Earl offloads the ball to Gallagher, shown by the yellow arrow, and the full-back runs through, as the black arrow shows.
There isn’t much more to say about this try, but what it shows is that it really can be the little things like the direction of the run, or the timing of the offload, that can make all the difference in big games.
