Jamie George all but confirms move to outside centre with O’Driscoll-esque run
Is it Brian O’Driscoll? Is it Conrad Smith? Is it Tim Horan? No! It is Jamie George tearing through the middle of the reigning Gallagher Premiership champions Leicester Tigers’ defence!
That’s right, the Saracens hooker looked at the crisis England and Eddie Jones have had on their hands regarding their midfield players at the moment and he did the noble thing of converting himself into a centre.
His 114kg spherical frame does not cry out ‘world class centre’ but the line he hit at the StoneX Stadium on Saturday did. The British & Irish Lions hooker was on the end of an Owen Farrell skip pass after drifting wide, which left experienced Leicester centre Jimmy Gopperth only able to watch him break the line. From there he was able to get a soft pop pass to winger Max Malins for the try. It was an epic try, all made by a hooker.
This gave Saracens a 27-13 lead in a repeat of last year’s Premiership final although unfortunately for George he rolled his ankle in the first half, meaning he was forced off at half time. At least he made his mark beforehand. Take a look at the try:
Is that @J_George2? Or @BrianODriscoll? 😂
Some line from the @Saracens hooker to create for Max Malins.
He loved that one! 💪#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/OZYtURIOsf
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) October 1, 2022
Saracens XV:
1 Mako Vunipola
2 Jamie George
3 Christian Judge
4 Callum Hunter-Hill
5 Hugh Tizard
6 Theo McFarland
7 Ben Earl
8 Billy Vunipola
9 Ivan van Zyl
10 Owen Farrell (c)
11 Alex Lewington
12 Nick Tompkins
13 Alex Lozowski
14 Max Malins
15 Elliot Daly
Replacements:
16 Kapeli Pifeleti
17 Eroni Mawi
18 Marco Riccioni
19 Andy Christie
20 Jackson Wray
21 Ruben de Haas
22 Alex Goode
23 Sean Maitland
Leicester XV:
15 Freddie Steward [57]
14 Anthony Watson *
13 Phil Cokanasiga [3]
12 Jimmy Gopperth [3]
11 Kini Murimurivalu [38]
10 Freddie Burns [105]
9 Ben Youngs (vc) [285]
1 James Cronin [3]
2 Charlie Clare [55]
3 Joe Heyes [103]
4 Harry Wells [159]
5 Eli Snyman [21]
6 Olly Cracknell [3]
7 Tommy Reffell [81]
8 Hanro Liebenberg (c) [62]
REPLACEMENTS:
16 Joe Taufete’e [2]
17 Francois van Wyk [20]
18 Dan Cole [293]
19 Ollie Chessum [33]
20 George Martin [42]
21 Jack van Poortvliet [50]
22 Handré Pollard *
23 Chris Ashton [15]
* Leicester Tigers senior debut
