■From NICK CAIN at Allianz Park
A SECOND-HALF hattrick by Saracens super-sub Nick Tompkins in 14 minutes booked the reigning English and European champions a place in the Premiership final at Twickenham next weekend.
And with it came the chance of claiming their fourth domestic title in the last five seasons, as well as their second ‘double’.
The truth is, however, that before the turbocharged Tompkins brutally exposed the gulf in class between these semi-final contestants after the interval, Gloucester were already on a hiding to nothing.
After a ferocious opening in which Gloucester drew first blood with a try within two minutes by Ben Morgan, they were rapidly introduced to the reasons why this Saracens outfit has earned the accolade of being arguably the best side English club rugby has produced – and certainly the best of the professional era.
There was always a strong suspicion that Gloucester’s ability to control the ball, and keep their error-count to the bare minimum, would be subjected to microscopic examination by the European champions.
For the opening quarter they made a good fist of it, but the difference in firepower became evident shortly before the half-hour when each side lost a talisman.
The punishing Gloucester lock Ed Slater was forced off with a shoulder injury, and soon afterwards Saracens’ captain courageous Brad Barritt followed him with a hamstring tear which make his chances of playing in the final doubtful.
While Saracens absorbed the loss of Barritt seamlessly, with Tompkins coming on to give a display of such direct, full-throttle physicality it would have earned the applause of his skipper, the Gloucester pack started to lose the collisions with Slater out of commission.
The visitors were also unable to find an answer to the ‘Saracens Squeeze’. This is the inexorable rampingup of pressure that eventually did for Leinster in the European Cup final in Newcastle a fortnight ago.
It is based on a precision high ball game – with Ben Spencer and Owen Farrell providing the bombardment – and outstanding aerial athletes led by Liam Williams, Sean Maitland and Maro Itoje getting the crucial catches, or touches, that unravel the best laid plans.
Initially, Gloucester confirmed that there is nothing illusory about Danny Cipriani’s influence, when he made the most of a rare George Kruis spill from the kick-off. A move that started with Cipriani’s pass back to Billy Twelvetrees reached fruition when the ball whisked from Mark Atkinson to Jason Woodward, before Tom Marshall sent Morgan in untouched.
No sooner had Twelvetrees converted for a 7-0 lead than Saracens struck back from the re-start. A superb leap by Williams saw the Welsh acrobat keep the ball in play, and Farrell capitalised with a pin-point chip into the path of Maitland, whose try in the corner trimmed the arrears to 7-5.
Farrell, who had an uncharacteristically hit-ormiss day with his goal-kicking, missed the conversion, and then put Saracens 8-7 ahead with his first penalty, before hitting the post with one of three unsuccessful penalty attempts.
Having taken the lead Saracens never looked like relinquishing it, and just before the half-hour they punched through the heart of the Gloucester defence with alarming ease. It started when Billy Vunipola burst away from a maul before linking with Itoje, and, as the big man strode into the 22, he sold a sweet dummy to continue his charge, before putting Ben Spencer over.
When Farrell converted and added a penalty to make it 18-7, Gloucester were left to rue a rare scoring chance when Charlie Sharples tried to exploit a three-man overlap, only to see his long pass picked off by Alex Goode.
With Gloucester forced into errors galore with the Saracens wolf-pack defence ripping them to shreds with their line-speed, the home side capitalised with Williams scoring after a Farrell hoist had been won on the run brilliantly by Alex Lozowski.
That gave Saracens a 23-7 half-time lead – and at the start of the second-half the Tompkins try blitz turned it into a procession. Having blasted down the tramline for his first, the stocky centre then ran in the best try of the game as Saracens turned swarming defence into lethal attack.
Billy Vunipola’s swivel pass to Jamie George started a move which saw Goode, Lozowski, Williams and Farrell handle in a flowing move before Tompkins finished it off. When he bashed over for his third try to give Saracens a 44-7 lead with 25 minutes left on the clock the game was up for Gloucester.
However, with coach Johan Ackermann emptying his bench, Gloucester found enough energy in the guise of Jake Polledri, and late try-scorers Lewis Ludlow and Ruan Dreyer, to open a few holes in a Saracens defence that had chewed-up the visitors when it mattered.
Ackermann should probably have sent them on sooner, although against a side as special as Saracens no matter who was on for Gloucester, this was always about damage limitation.
TEAMS
SARACENS: Goode 7.5; Williams 9 (Strettle 63, 6), Lozowski 8, Barritt (capt) 7 (Tompkins 27, 9), Maitland 8; Farrell 7.5, Spencer 7.5 (Wigglesworth 52, 7); Barrington 7 (Adams-Hale 58, 6), George 8 (Gray 65, 6.5), Koch 7 (Judge 58, 6), Skelton 7.5 (Isiekwe 53, 6.5), Kruis 7, Itoje 8, Wray 7, B Vunipola 8 (Rhodes 59, 6).
GLOUCESTER: Woodward 5 (Vellacott 73); Sharples 4.5 (Purdy 53, 4), Twelvetrees 5.5, Atkinson 5.5, Marshall 5.5; Cipriani 6, Heinz 6 (capt); Hohneck 5 (Rapava Ruskin 58, 5), Marais 4.5 (Sherry 58, 4.5), Balmain 5.5 (Dreyer 58, 6), Slater 6 (Savage 26, 5), Mostert 5 (Polledri 57, 6), Ackermann 4.5, Kriel 5.5 (Ludlow 57, 6), Morgan 5.
REFEREE: Luke Pearce
ATTENDANCE: 9,768
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Nick Tompkins – Saracens
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