RUGBY/ENGLISH PREMIER SEMI-FINALS:SARACENS SET up a repeat of last season's English Premiership final against Leicester after a 12-10 victory yesterday against Gloucester.
Teenage outhalf Owen Farrell kicked all the points for Saracens with four penalties at Vicarage Road in Watford. Nicky Robinson got Gloucester’s points, from a converted try and a penalty.
Saracens finished the regular season with 10 straight wins to take second position in the standings behind Leicester. The top four then compete in the play-offs to decide the winner of the title.
Leicester beat Heineken Cup finalists Northampton 11-3 on Saturday to reach a seventh straight Premiership final. The final will be played on Saturday week at Twickenham.
But their relentless quest for an eighth Premiership title could be interrupted by Rugby Football Union disciplinary chiefs following a volatile semi-final victory.
Leicester’s England World Cup midfield candidate Manu Tuilagi looks likely to miss the May 28th showpiece, while Tigers coaches Richard Cockerill and Matt O’Connor might also find themselves in hot water.
Tuilagi, 19, can expect to be cited for punching Northampton and England wing Chris Ashton eight minutes before half-time.
The incident saw both players sin-binned by referee Wayne Barnes following a discussion with his assistant Robin Goodliffe, but such was Tuilagi’s behaviour that it clearly warranted a straight red card.
Cockerill and O’Connor, meanwhile, ensured an uncomfortable afternoon for watching RFU referees’ assessor and former international official Brian Campsall, who was subjected to both coaches furiously voicing their displeasure at Barnes’ performance.
Campsall was sitting just a few seats away from them – in the same area of the grandstand as England boss Martin Johnson and next to England forwards coach John Wells – and RFU disciplinary officer Jeff Blackett will undoubtedly be made aware of what happened. Blackett wrote to Cockerill last year warning him about his future behaviour after an impassioned performance during a play-off game against Bath.
Former Saracens boss Brendan Venter was handed a 10-game matchday coaching ban for histrionics in a league match against Leicester last season, which meant he missed the Premiership final.
Cockerill said: “Sometimes I find some of the decisions frustrating.”
Asked during the post-match press conference if his behaviour towards Campsall had been appropriate, he added: “Probably not. No.” And when asked what he was going to do about it, Cockerill replied: “Yeah, probably not do it.”
Cockerill claimed he did not see the Tuilagi incident, and grew exasperated about suggestions that it might have been the turning point of a semi-final his side sealed through wing Alesana Tuilagi’s try eight minutes from time.
He said: “I was watching the ball, but the assistant referee clearly saw it and deemed it as a yellow-card offence.
“That was a good performance against a really good side. Let’s talk about that shall we? Let’s talk about how we controlled the game, let’s talk about Alesana’s try, let’s talk about the scrum contest, not all the crap you boys want to talk about and make headlines out of.”
The game had a simmering undercurrent throughout, with the tone set early by England team-mates, Leicester outhalf Toby Flood and Northampton’s Dylan Hartley, when the latter’s questionable tackle on the Tigers number 10 provoked a furious reaction.
Flood said: “When Northampton get on the front foot they are a very dangerous side, but we tried to snuff that out at source.
“They want to get in your face, and our mindset before the game was not to take a backward step. It’s a trademark of the side – it is in the blood in terms of what this club is about and its culture.”
Saints, beaten for the fourth time in a Premiership semi-final, have now got to recover for Saturday’s Heineken Cup final against Leinster in Cardiff.
ENGLAND World Cup winner Ben Cohen has announced his retirement from rugby. The 32-year-old wing, who scored 31 tries in 57 Tests for England, has been released by Sale Sharks despite being the club’s player of the season.
The former Northampton and Brive wing will now focus on heading up the Ben Cohen Stand Up Foundation, an organisation set up to tackle bullying and homophobia.
