Saracens eventually stirred from their slumber to hit London Irish for six but on the weekend when seven of Mark McCall’s men report for England duty, it was those overlooked by Eddie Jones who emerged with most credit.
Alex Goode, just as he has all season, shone brightest in the backline, while Jackson Wray again caught the eye in the pack. Nathan Earle was also ignored by Jones this week but an impressive late cameo from the bench here yielded two tries.
“[Alex] had a magnificent game, in every respect really,” said the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall. “They kicked the ball a lot and he had to be good under the high ball and his counterattacking was amazing. Fingers crossed he gets what deserves some day. He won the Premiership player of the year a couple of years back and he had a phenomenal year last year. He keeps on producing the goods for us.”
Owen Farrell was also among the try-scorers – although he endured a torrid first half – while Mako Vunipola, Liam Williams and Chris Wyles also got in on the act. For London Irish, there is little consolation that the scoreboard does not reflect their endeavour, only that this was never a fixture they were likely to collect anything from.
“That last half hour was about how good Saracens are – they’re years ahead of where we are on our journey,” said Irish’s director of rugby, Nick Kennedy. “Our defensive wall was excellent [in the first half] and against such a good team we were very much in the game at half-time. But we need to play the game for 80 minutes, which we haven’t been doing so far.”
Saracens were initially afflicted by a sluggishness that perhaps owes much to their recent European exertions. While they had too much firepower for London Irish, certainly enough to monopolise possession, it was far from a vintage performance.
“We didn’t play that great in the first half, we made too many errors, too many poor decisions on the ball despite dominating,” added McCall. “In the second half we were just a bit more simple, we were more direct and made better decisions.”
Maro Itoje was given the day off – on his 23rd birthday – for the first time this season, and how Saracens could have done with his dynamism in the first half. His fellow second row, Nick Isiekwe, meanwhile, did not come out for the second half due to a concussion that will be monitored by the England management.
There were just seven points in it at half-time thanks to some resolute Irish defence as well as the rarest of a hat-tricks: three consecutive missed penalties from Farrell. He did eventually slot two penalties towards the end of the half to add to Vunipola’s opening try, but that will not have saved Saracens from an earful at the interval.
Tommy Bell had opened the scoring with an early penalty and he struck again just before the half-hour mark after a rare foray from Irish into the Saracens half. Farrell then found his range – though he could not miss his second penalty, which came shortly after a yellow card for Filo Paulo for an off-the-ball tackle.
Will Skelton was introduced for his second Saracens debut at the break and it paid dividends. A couple of strong shoves, one a scrum, the other a lineout drive, led to a try for Farrell after a smart offload from Williams. A pushover score for Irish – finished by the captain, David Paice – was evidence, however, that Saracens had not fully woken up and Bell’s conversion brought Irish back to within a converted try.
Saracens then moved through the gears, Williams finishing his sixth try in as many matches to the right of the posts after a scrum on the left. Two minutes later Wyles was the beneficiary of some Goode magic, the full-back gathering his deft chip over the top and finding his winger on the left. That made it job done in terms of the bonus point, before Earle rounded things off with a well-taken double – the first in the right-hand corner at a stroll, the second a classy finish on the left at the death.
