Kick to touch sends the crowd into euphoria
No one in the Saracens team on Friday knew that Gloucester scrum-half Ben Meehan’s left foot was laced with dynamite. That was shown by the fact that the players in the back field were about 40 metres too far forward to field his kick.
Then again, it is not very often that a player kicks a box kick over 70 metres, from their own 22 to the opposition’s five metre line to earn themselves a 50:22. But Meehan produced a kick at Kingsholm on Friday night that was so good, he even celebrated like he had just scored a try.
There was jumping and hugging as Gloucester, leading 13-11, thought that they could go for the kill. In the end, not only did nothing come from the lineout, but Gloucester actually lost 19-16 thanks to a last minute drop goal from Owen Farrell. Nevertheless, it was some kick. Take a look at Meehan’s 50:22:
What a kick! What a noise! 😲@gloucesterrugby number nine Ben Meehan gets the Kingsholm crowd on their feet with an incredible kick from one end of the field to the other.#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/kwKK9R02sn
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) January 6, 2023
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said after the match: “It is a tough place to come. We competed and scrapped for everything throughout the match.
“We showed a lot of resilience at key times. There were some great bits of defence and some great interventions by individuals.
“I can’t remember the last time Owen dropped a goal for us. It was a tough game, and we came out the right side of it.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington added: “I thought the boys played really well. I thought the kicking game and pressure game was outstanding, and we put ourselves in a position to win the game.
“We’ve tried to push our game on a bit. The players’ application was outstanding.
“It was a good ding-dong. If we had nicked it at the end, it would have been a fair outcome as much as them nicking it. A draw would probably have been a fair outcome.”
