Saracens flew off to Pretoria happy to find some winter sun but this was a blast of cold reality. The Bulls fancy their chances of becoming the first South African side to win Europe’s Champions Cup and it is easy to see why. Most opponents leave the Loftus Versfeld Stadium empty handed and the three-times champions were no exception.
Of course, no team with Owen Farrell in their side will be a pushover. The fly-half we now have to call England’s former captain was making his return to club colours after the bombshell announcement that he was side-stepping the Six Nations. Saracens were always competitive but the writing was on the wall at the interval when they were 14 points down. At altitude and against a team with this much power in their pack and guile behind the scrum, this was always going to be a mountain to climb on the Highveld.
All is not lost in Pool One but Saracens’ discipline let them down. Billy Vunipola has had a wretched few months and his sending off for a reckless charge 10 minutes after half-time followed two early yellow cards by teammates. How Saracens missed Ben Earl.
Elliot Daly, a recipient of one of those early yellow cards, finished smartly in the last quarter but his try and a second by the replacement Theo McFarland were not much of a consolation. Saracens finished strongly as the Bulls’ own discipline crumbled and the introduction of Theo Dan and McFarland gave Saracens a late boost. For the Bulls there was frustration that they could not manage a try bonus point but the result was never really in doubt.
This is a hostile place and Saracens were under the hammer right from the start. Willie le Roux helped stretch play to the visitors’ left and David Kriel cruised over the line for the first try of the evening before Saracens got their breath back in the thin air and Farrell landed a reassuring penalty.
The Bulls, though, began another stampede and only a forward pass from Kriel denied them a spectacular second try from their captain, Elrigh Louw, in a move that began in the home side’s 22. Johan Goosen and Farrell exchanged penalties but the evening got trickier for Saracens when Alex Goode was judged to have impeded Kurt-Lee Arendse as the wing chipped the ball ahead. Goode was shown a yellow card by the Italian referee, Andrea Piardi.
Buoyed up by their one-man advantage, the Bulls were then denied another try, Stedman Gans just making contact with the touchline before racing in for what would have been another terrific score. Up went the touch judge’s flag but nobody in a partisan crowd was going to tell Signore Piardi.
When Daly was judged to have deliberately knocked the ball on the Bulls launched more blue waves of attack. Maro Itoje was shown a yellow card for lying on the ball and the return to the field of Goode was cancelled out. The Bulls spurned the opportunity of three points and Janko Swanepoel drove over for their second try on the stroke of half-time.
After the break the Bulls conceded a soft penalty only for Farrell to misjudge and see his kick to the corner fly too far and beyond the corner flag. It looked a costly mistake and another forward pass denied Swanepoel a second try after a stunning break by Arendse. A huge scrum by the Bulls gave them a platform to launch a drive to the Saracens’ line but great work by Farrell and Vunipola prevented a third try.
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The crowd didn’t have long to wait. Arendse was sprinkling magic dust over the occasion and his break gave the Bulls’ other wing Canan Moodie a chance of for the best score of the game.
Vunipola’s reckless challenge on Embrose Papier then helped settle Saracens’ fate. This was an 11,000 mile round trip for Saracens and the home flight would not have been a happy one.
