Report: Scintillating Saracens score seven tries to breeze past Lyon
On a night when StoneX hosted a light show, the action on the pitch was electric throughout as Saracens scored seven tries in an entertaining encounter in London.
The match started with both teams showing superb attacking intent but the defences were resolute. Early chances were easily shut down by both teams’ defences. Alex Goode’s early 50:22 amounted to nothing as Saracens were penalised at the subsequent lineout which Lyon cleared.
Lyon clearly looked like a team ready to play with their ability to swing the passes around, but without any points on the board to show for all their extravagance.
It was in the 6th minute when Saracens started had their first real opportunity of the match.That was until an illegal intervention by Lyon’s Dylan Cretin with a deliberate knock down which saw him booked by referee Andrea Piarcdi.
Saracens were not to be hard done as their line speed won them an interception through Alex Lozowski who managed to read Lyon’s attack play and freely ran under the posts to put Saracens ahead by seven with Goode converting.
That opened the floodgates for Saracens as a pressure release kick by Lyon found an awake and attentive Elliot Daly who wiggled his way past half the Lyon team to score his team’s second try which Goode converted with ease.
Daly’s Saturday night was just starting to illuminate as he found space outside of his opposite number from a well-timed and weighted pass from Goode, using his pace to dazzle past the Lyon defence to score the third in the left corner with an acrobatic finish.
Lyon hit back when Josiah Maraku coasted through from 35 metres after what looked to have been an infringement in the middle. Fletcher Smith’s conversion made it 26-7 with 10 minutes left of what was an action-packed half.
Saracens continued with their attack, when Marco Riccioni found himself at the end of a rolling mall to score his team’s seventh try stretching the lead to 31-7 before Lyon found their second try through some heavy carrying and stepping from Ethan Dumortier.
Lyon got the second half started as Ethan Dumortier found the try line for his second putting his team 17 points behind. That momentum was soon taken away by Goode who slotted an easy penalty to keep the scoreboard moving and increase the buffer for his team.
South African Arno Botha soon made the StoneX faithful a bit nervous as he got his team’s fourth just before the hour mark after grabbing a Sonny Bill-esque offload from Josua Tuisova, which Lyon’s number 10 Fletcher Smith converted to reduce the deficit to only 13.
That hope of a typical French comeback was soon snuffed out as Tuiova was sent to the sin bin for a stiff forearm that went to the face of Goode.
Ben Earl then put the final stamp onto the match with a try as he dotted down from the base of a Saracens rolling maul which Goode converted to end the encounter 48-28 in favour of Saracens.
Saracens play Scottish side Edinburgh in the next round, while Lyon host the Bulls in France.
