RUSTENBURG HERALD - RUSTENBURG - Let's face it, Owen Farrell will never need to buy an extra pen to sign autographs for South African fans.
He received a predictable welcome from the Pretorian crowd, who took a lot of devlish delight in booing every goal kick and every movement the England fly-half made.
But they need to thank him as it was his rustiness and misjudgement of the conditions that kept the brilliant Bulls Back Three in business as kick after kick ended up too long into the backfield.
It cost Saracens time and time again, with Kurt-Lee Arendse, Willie le Roux and Canan Moodie tearing Farrell's lads to shreds on numerous occasions.
The Bulls out thought, out attacked and out defended their visitors, whose lack of discipline simply prevented them getting any form of position in this match. The Bulls’ scrums and breakdown bossed the game all evening, and with the pace they have in their backline they are a real force to be reckoned with in this year’s Champions Cup.
Tries from David Kriel, Janko Swanepoel and Canan Moodie delighted the Loftus faithful, although a late rally by the visitors, with Theo McFarland and Elliot Daly crossing over for consolation tries, saw the score line retain some degree of respectability.
But by then the damage had been done and Saracens should thank their lucky stars that the Bulls did not do more damage to improve on the already impressive result of the final score of 27-16.
All of the traditional values of Saracens rugby fell apart in the altitude of Pretoria – spiral bombs overshot their chasing targets by some distance as kickers misjudged the effect of the atmosphere. To be honest, a lot of the punishment they received in this match was self-inflicted. None more so than Maro Itoje’s cynical attempt to knock the ball out of the scrum-half’s hand under posts that saw a second sin-binning.
However, this four-point win sees the Bulls move into second place in Pool 1 with Bordeaux Bègles topping the log after their disposal of Connacht in Galway on Friday night (8 December). In a highly competitive group, the Bulls look confident of qualifying. But for the most successful side in Europe over the last decade, Saracens, the Champions Cup future isn't looking too bright. With matches against Connacht, Lyon and UBB to come, there’s a serious chance that the great English club may well struggle to get out of this group.
