Daly eager to keep attacking
It’s been a near-perfect start to the season for Saracens in the Gallagher Premiership, with four straight bonus-point wins lifting the side to the top of the table.
Whilst pundits and media have picked up on the evolution in the Saracens attack in the early weeks of the season, one of the key men has been Elliot Daly.
Firmly putting his disappointment at missing out on England’s summer tour behind him, the fullback has started the season in red-hot form, assisting four of his side’s five tries in last weekend’s victory up at Newcastle.
Daly feels that he is in a good place with his own performance but highlighted how he feels more confident in himself the more he plays.
“I feel pretty good but obviously you can get better each day. It comes with game time for me. The more I play, the better I feel, and I can get into a bit of form. I just love playing for this club and the way we’re moving the ball at the moment is brilliant for the way I attack.”
The fullback admitted that there was an air of disappointment after missing out on touring Australia but insisted that all he can do is focus on his own performances, as he looks to force his way back into Eddie Jones’ thoughts.
“I love playing for England. It hurt a bit not going on the tour, but for me all I can do is play well for Saracens and see what happens. Hopefully I can do that in the first half of the season and see where that takes me.”
Reflecting on that victory up north, Daly felt that his side didn’t quite kick-on as they had hoped, after a blistering first-half performance, as Saracens went down to 14-men after Mako Vunipola’s red card. Although, Daly accepted that coming away from Kingston Park with another bonus-point win was important.
“We came in at half-time feeling like we were coming into our stride. The red didn’t help us, but you’ve got to be really careful nowadays,” he explained. “Credit to Newcastle, they put some really good shape together to score a couple of tries. At the end of the day, for us to come up here and get the five points, we’re pretty happy with that.”
Discussing the Saracens attacking game this season, Daly felt that whilst the shape wasn’t ‘too dissimilar to last year,’ it was the increased understanding within the squad that had helped the attack to flourish in these early weeks of the season.
“I think the way that we are all understanding it now and trusting each other when we’re in the system is brilliant. The stuff we’re seeing, even from deep now is brilliant. We can go from anywhere, which is the way you want to play the game.”
