Saracens edge Leicester at Welford Road

An under-strength Saracens continued their winning run in the Premiership following a 27-22 triumph over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.

The Tigers opened the scoring through Joe Ford but the Londoners assumed command and touched down three times in five minutes via Ben Spencer, Alex Lewington and Alex Lozowski.

Brendon O’Connor responded with a brace of tries in the second period before Matt Smith crossed the whitewash to set up an exciting finale.

However, Sarries showed their experience to secure the victory following Spencer’s second three-pointer late on.

Leicester have endured a difficult start to the campaign and, against a Sarries outfit without several key players through injury and international duty, they will rue this missed opportunity.

The Tigers actually started the game on the front foot and were rewarded with a penalty from Ford before the hosts were twice denied by the TMO when both Jonah Holmes and Gareth Owen thought they had legitimately touched down.

It did not alter the momentum initially, with the Tigers remaining in the ascendancy, but they were soon made to pay for their profligacy when a loose kick from their fly-half landed in the arms of Spencer. The scrum-half is an excellently balanced runner and he managed to evade a couple of potential tacklers to scamper clear and score.

Buoyed by that try, the visitors took advantage of a side who are low on confidence and duly crossed the whitewash twice in quick succession.

The first was brilliantly constructed by Max Malins as the talented fly-half took a superb outside line before stepping inside and finding Lewington, who had a simple run to finish.

Sarries were not done there, however, and this time Lozowski, who was playing on the wing, made it an 18-point buffer by scampering down the right, coming infield and avoiding the attentions of Holmes.

It was another outstanding try but symptomatic of the defensive issues the Midlanders currently have as they went into the break 21-3 down.

To Leicester’s credit, they began the second-half well and deservedly went over when a powerful driving maul ended in O’Connor touching down.

Geordan Murphy’s men were initially unable to force the Londoners on the back foot, however, and Spencer’s penalty eased Saracens further clear.

The momentum was to change, though, when Owen broke clear and Ben Earl was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on. A penalty try was controversially not awarded but it did not matter as they kicked to the corner and forced Sarries to infringe once more.

Schalk Burger was yellow carded as a result and, with the back-rowers off the field, O’Connor and Smith crossed in quick succession to reduce the arrears to two points.

Leicester were on the front foot with a two-man advantage but, in champion fashion, Mark McCall’s charges ran down the clock, earned a penalty and Spencer duly sealed the win from the tee.

The scorers:

For Leicester:
Tries: O’Connor 2, Smith
Cons: Ford 2
Pen: Ford

For Saracens:
Tries: Spencer, Lewington, Lozowski
Cons: Spencer 3
Pens: Spencer 2
Yellow Cards: Earl, Burger

Leicester: 15 George Worth, 14 Adam Thompstone, 13 Gareth Owen, 12 Kyle Eastmond, 11 Jonah Holmes, 10 Joe Ford, 9 Sam Harrison, 8 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Brendon O’Connor, 6 Mike Williams, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Will Spencer, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs (c), 1 Greg Bateman
Replacements: 16 Jake Kerr, 17 Facundo Gigena, 18 Gaston Cortes, 19 Harry Wells, 20 Mike Fitzgerald, 21 Ben White, 22 Tom Hardwick, 23 Matt Smith

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Alex Lozowski, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Brad Barritt (c), 11 Alex Lewington, 10 Max Malins, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Jackson Wray, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Mike Rhodes, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Dom Day, 3 Christian Judge, 2 Christopher Tolofua, 1 Richard Barrington
Replacements: 16 Tom Woolstencroft, 17 Hayden Thompson-Stringer, 18 Hisa Sasagi, 19 Joel Kpoku, 20 Calum Clark, 21 Ben Earl, 22 Tom Whiteley, 23 Matt Gallagher

Referee: Karl Dickson
Assistant referees: Greg MacDonald, Simon Harding
TMO: David Rose