No8 shows his class after 250kg tackle of the season against Saracens
As soon as Saracens scrum-half Ivan van Zyl released his pass to his second-row teammate Hugh Tizard on Sunday against London Irish at the StoneX Stadium, he surely knew he had made a huge mistake.
By the time the ball had left the No9’s hands, opposing No8 So’otala Fa’aso’o had already rushed out the line with his eyes solely fixed on the lock. Tizard did not even have time to brace before the full 130kg of the Kiwi was smashing into his ribcage.
The 120kg Saracen crashed to the ground as if he were a tackle bag, in a 250kg collision that will surely go down as one of the most ferocious of the season. It was actually so powerful that it allowed Fa’aso’o’s back row teammate Tom Pearson to swoop in over the ball at the breakdown and win a penalty for his side.
It was all class from the No8 after the tackle, as he actually went over to help Tizard back to his feet, before the Exiles squad rushed around him to congratulate him for the hit. Then again, from Tizard’s perspective, the last thing he would have wanted to see standing over him after the tackle was the 130kg frame of the No8.
Take a look at the tackle:
BANG! 💥
So'otala Fa'aso'o with an expert tackle on Hugh Tizard for @londonirish ☘️ #GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/MD5jnFp6Ww
— Rugby on BT Sport (@btsportrugby) April 23, 2023
Saracens came away 45-21 winners in the contest, meaning they secured top spot in the Gallagher Premiership table going into the play-offs. Director of rugby Mark McCall said after the match: “We weren’t very good in the first 25 minutes as there were a lot of basic errors but I thought we coped well with that sticky period as our leading players dragged us through it.
“We scrapped ourselves out of it and by half-time we had laid the foundations for an excellent second-half performance.
“We’ve had a disjointed couple of weeks after the La Rochelle game and we needed to give some of leading players a rest which we succeeded in doing last week.”
