| Saracens (27) 51 |
| Tries: Lozowski, Earl, Malins, Van Zyl, Daly, McFarland, Maitland Cons: Farrell 4, Daly Pens: Farrell 2 |
| Leicester Tigers (13) 18 |
| Tries: Cronin, Steward Con: Burns Pens: Burns 2 |
Saracens kept up their winning start in the Premiership with a dominant victory over defending champions Leicester.
In a repeat of June’s Premiership final, Sarries blew away Tigers with a stunning first-half showing.
Alex Lozowski finished a superb move at the StoneX Stadium before Ben Earl, Max Malins and Ivan van Zyl stretched the hosts’ lead to 14 points at the break.
Elliot Daly, Theo McFarland and Sean Maitland capped Saracens’ dominance as they made it three wins in three.
James Cronin and Freddie Steward crossed in each half for Leicester, but that was as good as it got for Steve Borthwick’s side.
To compound their misery, South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard had to come off with an injury after making his debut as a half-time replacement.
Following tight victories in the opening two matches against Harlequins and Gloucester, Sarries demonstrated all of their quality to overpower their opponents and go top of the early-season table.
Freddie Burns, whose last-minute drop-goal clinched an 11th Premiership title for Tigers in the summer, gave the visitors an early lead with a couple of penalties.
After Lozowski dotted down from a slick passing move that began in Sarries’ own 22, Cronin collected Burns’ chip to give Tigers a brief advantage.
From then on in the first half, it was all Saracens. Daly broke free to set up back-rower Earl, England hooker Jamie George burst forward to provide the assist for Malins and Van Zyl went over from close range on the stroke of half-time.
Leicester’s best spell came following the restart and Steward powered over in the corner to reduce the deficit to nine points.
However, Daly then saw off three tackles to weave his way into the corner and McFarland bundled over from a metre out to put Sarries out of sight.
Scotland wing Maitland, returning to the side off the bench, completed the rout as he raced in from halfway and Daly’s conversion took Saracens past 50 points.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:
“We played well and looked dangerous with the ball, we asked them some questions.
“We actually gave away a lot of penalties in the first half and sometimes that can be game losing.
“We don’t want to give that many penalties away but our reaction is what pleased me most – we rolled our sleeves up.
“We didn’t feel sorry for ourselves at all and almost took it on as a new challenge – bring it on kind of thing.”
Leicester boss Steve Borthwick:
“Saracens are the standard bearers and they have been for quite some period of time.
“They have got superstars throughout their squad and superstars who aren’t able to make the 23. They are a very difficult opposition to play against.
“They are a team packed full of power and pace. There is a lot less power in the English game, it is very expensive and tends to go elsewhere, but Saracens have got power and pace.”
Saracens: Daly; Malins, Lozowski, Tompkins, Lewington; Farrell, Van Zyl; M Vunipola, George, Judge, Hunter-Hill, Tizard, McFarland, Earl, B Vunipola.
Replacements: Pifeleti, Mawi, Riccioni, Christie, Wray, De Haas, Goode, Maitland.
Leicester Tigers: Steward; Watson, Cokanasiga, Gopperth, Murimurivalu; Burns, B Youngs; Cronin, Clare, Heyes, Wells, Snyman, Cracknell, Reffell, Liebenberg.
Replacements: Taufete’e, Van Wyk, Cole, Chessum, Martin, Van Poortvliet, Pollard, Ashton.
Referee: Matthew Carley
