Saracens serve Premiership notice with six-try victory against Northampton

It was a cold, bleak midwinter afternoon in north London but the race to be crowned as England’s top club side in 2025 is hotting up. Saracens also have key upcoming games against the Premiership pacesetters Bath and Bristol over the next fortnight and this emphatic win against the champions of last season underlined their ambitions to finish top of the tree in six months’ time.

If it helped that Northampton, 24-0 down at half-time, were initially miles off the pace there was no doubting the hosts’ superior power, aggression and defensive line speed off the back of a couple of encouraging Champions Cup results. Their aerial game also heaped pressure on Saints’ rearguard and the upshot was six tries and third place in the table heading into Christmas.

Fergus Burke was among the beneficiaries, the fly-half finishing with two tries and a haul of 19 points, with the home back row of Tom Willis, Ben Earl and Juan Martín González enjoying excellent games. “That was as good a 40 minutes as we’ve had for a long time,” said Mark McCall, Saracens’ director of rugby, praising his team’s first-half “intensity and physicality” along with Burke’s decision-making. “He was up against two England half-backs today and I thought he was outstanding. He was very smart and out them under a lot of pressure.”

Maro Itoje did spend 10 minutes in the sin-bin after a high challenge on his opposing lock, Tom Lockett, who took no further part in the contest, while Elliot Daly pulled out late with a tight hamstring but otherwise there was nothing to spoil Sarries’ Christmas celebrations.

Northampton were enjoying the warmer climes of South Africa last week and, with a blustery wind making life even less comfortable, here was another example of the difficulty in switching seamlessly between competitions and radically different conditions.

With their injured captain George Furbank also a significant absentee, Saints’ director of rugby, Phil Dowson, refused to duck reality when assessing his side’s physical and mental shortcomings. “There are a hundred reasons we could use to look for excuses but we’re not going to do that,” Dowson said. “We didn’t perform very well in the first 40 minutes and we need to be better.”

A sobering first half could have been even worse for the visitors. Saracens’ long-serving centre Nick Tompkins was denied an early try on his 200th appearance by an offside decision and a little knock-on by Ivan van Zyl also denied Willis a barnstorming score. In between, though, a lovely chip and chase down the right touchline by Tobias Elliott put Burke over for the game’s opening points and a well-judged conversion from the New Zealander converted it into a seven‑pointer.

Rhys Carré extended the lead from close range after 24 minutes and almost all the individual duels were proving one-sided. Theo Dan, in particular, was clearly determined to make an impact against his England A opponent Curtis Langdon and was already succeeding even before he roared off the side of a maul to score Saracens’ third try. This time Burke somehow hit a post from point-blank range but it was a rare blemish on the day.

With Northampton still not able to deal with the ball in the air and George Hendy having treatment on the touchline it felt all too inevitable when another reclaimed kick ended with Burke scampering over for his second try. The half-time margin did not lie; Saints were as poor as they had been outstanding in the Champions Cup in the previous fortnight.

A finger-pointing Dowson appeared to be making that point forcibly in the dressing room at half-time. Normally a model of restraint it said everything about his team’s level of performance and there was an immediate response within four minutes of the restart when Tommy Freeman, barely sighted in the opening half, slalomed over for Saints’ belated first points.

It sparked the visitors briefly into life, with Tom Pearson adding a second try six minutes later, but the departure of a limping Manny Iyogun soon made life tricky again. England’s captain, Jamie George, fresh off the bench, scored his side’s fifth before Earl, as energetic as ever, surged away for the sixth. Saints did manage late tries from Ollie Sleightholme and Archie McParland, which rescued a bonus point but they remain in eighth place and have it all to do to make the end-of-season playoffs.

It also offered a potential glimpse into the future. Bristol may have looked irresistible at Leicester on Saturday but on this evidence their opening game of the new year, against Sarries, will be a significantly sterner test. Whatever the weather the resurgent men in black have a glint in their eyes once more.