BISH BOSCH! Marcelo’s untouchable Sarries make easy work of sad Sharks
SARACENS’S boss Mark McCall insisted Owen Farrell can handle the England skipper’s job after watching his star fly-half demolish Sale.
Farrell is in the frame for the England gig with Dylan Hartley possibly out of the picture and showed why, as he led from the front as Marcelo Bosch kick-started a try romp to see Sarries in total control of Pool 3 of the Champions Cup.
No Billy Vunipola but no problem for the defending champs, as they pushed Sale through the door marked Brexit and out of Europe with the group stage only half finished.
Farrell scored 13 points before going off after 41 minutes with a tight thigh – but Sarries were in cruise control by then.
And McCall reckons Farrell is ready to step up and follow his old man Andy – who skippered the Great Britain rugby league team at just 21.
McCall said: “He is ready. He is one of those players who leads in every way as he leads from the front.
“He leads through his actions and also through the communications and messages that he sends to the team.”
Sale did not help themselves – with three players yellow carded – but Sarries would have beaten most teams in the competition in this form. And Sharks boss Steve Diamond was not in the mood to explain as he blanked the media. Farrell was majestic at 10, Maro Itoje and George Kruis ruled the line-out and Jamie George was superb – with England boss Eddie Jones present. The game was over as a contest inside the first quarter when Saracens cruised to a 10-point lead. Scrum- half Richard Wigglesworth loaded the gun and Farrell fired the bullets with two early penalties. Wigglesworth then made a score for centre Bosch ( left). Farrell left just after the break and McCall was grumpy about that, but it was job done by then. Sale were clueless and Farrell cut them to pieces. One neat chip ended up with Alex Goode touching down but was chalked off by the video ref. Farrell knocked over a penalty anyway for an earlier infringement.
Then on 26 minutes – with Sale No.8 Laurence Pearce binned – wing Sean Maitland added Sarries’ second after another neat Farrell pass.
Sale could not get a hand on the ball and when they did near halftime Itoje turned it over and the game moved into car-crash territory for the Salford mob. They were playing with the wind in the first half. It could only get worse and did.
Saracens cranked it up after the break with George touching down from a driving line-out and they had the bonus point wrapped up after 51 minutes when Goode’s chip through found Chris Wyles.
It was then a procession as Sarries made it half-dozen touchdowns with Maitland adding his second and Richard Barrington going over.