mens
Gallagher-Prime Minister
Saracens head coach Joe Shaw believes in his team’s dramatic victory at Leicester They needed the Tigers to keep their cool despite the adversity they faced.
In their opening match of the Gallagher PREM season, Sarries lost center Olly Hartley to a hand injury early in the seventh and winger Nick Isiekwe to a 20-minute red card in the second half.
They also had to twice come from behind against a red-hot Leicester – for whom Gabriel Hamer-Webb scored a hat-trick – with Rotimi Segun’s 73rd-minute try a breathless decider at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Shaw said: “The boys worked out very calmly what to do – Elliot Daly played four positions today and did very well in each.
“Then you get a 20-minute red card in a place like this, where everything is played.
“If you want to be in the top four, you have to be able to keep your cool, to sort things out and I think the last six or seven minutes – where we had 15 men and they had 14 men – was crucial.
“Adversity would be front and center of what we are happy with.
“If you get a few injuries early, you have to be happy to change things.
“There’s no point in me saying anything (about the red card) until I see it properly, but the referees have been very clear to us about what they’re going to referee this season, and we’ll work as one with them.”
Tries from Juan Martin Gonzalez, Tobias Elliott and Daly – answered by Solomone Kata and scores from Hamer-Webb – had Saracens 21-12 up at half-time.
Hammer-Webb completed his hat-trick either side of Ben Earl’s try and Segun ran in twice for Sarries after first Adam Radwan and then James Thompson had put Leicester in front.
Leicester manager Geoff Parling said: “They started well but we came back into the game and did a lot of good things.
“I think in the end it was our inaccuracy and failure to convert pressure moments that hurt us.
“The offense was good when we went hard and got through them first and we held up well and did the basics well and that opened up gaps for Jack (van Poortvliet) and gaps on the wings.
“But on the same side in attack, we gave the ball away too cheap and too early and that actually hurt us.
“I don’t think people will look at three defeats at the beginning of the season – two are cup games with a lot of youngsters.
“We know that defeat is not good enough for our team, home or away, but I saw enough today – we all saw them – that there are a lot of good things we can do.”