Saracens kicking game unlikely to tick boxes against Clermont’s back three

Clermont’s in-form full-back Nick Abendanon could force Sarries to mix up their usual tactics when the two sides meet in the European Rugby Champions Cup

• Clermont Auvergne aiming to repeat Northampton display against Saracens

• Sarries’ Billy Vunipola found not guilty of head-butting Mathew Tait

Sport can be cruel but imagine this. You are the national champions, you sit on top of the Premiership with a handy lead and you’ve just played a half-decent 40 minutes of rugby but the scoreboard shows you are 30 points down going to the interval and a probable tongue-lashing.

The key words are “a half-decent 40 minutes” but go back and look at the tapes of Northampton’s first half against Clermont Auvergne in the Champions Cup quarter-final and that would probably be the analysis. Northampton might have fallen off one or two tackles but the execution of their gameplan was not that far off. This will have caused more than a bit of head-scratching at Saracens in the past week.

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source Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1yxyPRD