Saracens’ 20-year-old hooker looked freakishly strong in four-try display
It was just the four tries for Saracens hooker Samson Adejimi on Wednesday night against Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens in the Premiership Rugby Cup, but that was still not enough to secure a win for his side.
It is not very often that a player bags four tries and still ends up on the losing side, not to mention losing by 24 points at that. With both sides fielding experimental sides, the hosts triumphed 58-24 with 12-cap Springbok Courtnall Skosan also scoring a hat trick for the Saints.
Skosan is a winger though, so hat tricks are a bit more common. Then again, in this day and age of hookers topping scoring charts in various competitions, it might not come as a surprise that a No2 grabbed four. After all, all four were from driving mauls.
It would be unfair to say that these were simply driving mauls that Adejimi was fortunate to be at the back of. That was only half the story for his second try, where the 20-year-old showed some freakish strength after peeling off the back of the maul to shrug off multiple tackle attempts and wrestle his way over the line. This was far more than just dotting the ball down at the back of the maul.
Take a look:
Northampton Saints XV
15 James Ramm, 14 Courtnall Skosan, 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Joel Matavesi 11 Frankie Sleightholme 10 James Grayson 9 Callum Braley (c) 1 Alex Waller 2 Aston Gradwick-Light 3 Oisin Heffernan 4 Brandon Nansen 5 Tom Lockett 6 Kayde Sylvester 7 Henry Pollock 8 Aaron Hinkley
Replacements: 16 Isaac Bell 17 Marty Mulhall 18 Ehren Painter 19 Emeka Atuanya 20 Angus Scott-Young 21 Jake Garside 22 Archie Kean 23 Toby Thame
Saracens XV
15 Tobias Elliott, 14 Ben Harris, 13 Brandon Jackson, 12 Josh Hallett, 11 Francis Moore, 10 Manu Vunipola (c), 9 Sam Bryan, 1 James Flynn, 2 Ethan Lewis, 3 Eduardo Bello, 4 Alex Wardell, 5 Kaden Pearce-Paul, 6 Obinna Nkwocha, 7 Toby Knight, 8 Ollie Stonham
Replacements: 16 Samson Adejimi, 17 Jevaughn Warren, 18 Christian Judge, 19 Max Eke, 20 Nathan Michelow, 21 Charlie Bracken, 22 Jenson McInulty, 23 Charlie Reynolds-West
