Saracens needed a bonus-point win to retake their position at the top of the table, so that was what they took. For the majority of the match a bonus point, at least of the attacking variety, was the farthest notion from any of the minds assembled here in Barnet. Indeed, with an hour gone, Saracens were trailing, as they had for the entirety of the third quarter. The stuff of champions it was not.
This was one of those domestic matches in the shadow of the Six Nations that tend not to linger in the memory. Saracens took their first try early, but thereafter neither side could make anything stick. With a try all of a sudden on the stroke of half-time, it was Leicester who took an unlikely lead into the break.
Saracens, as so often, took control when it mattered, in the final quarter and so, another maximum haul in the bag, they move level with Exeter at the top of the table, ahead courtesy of an extra win. Three tries for 22 points in the last quarter of an hour completed the job.
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With the internationals away, it was over to the support acts to catch the eye. Matt Gallagher, son of former All Black John, was the one to make the deepest impression, solid under the high ball and alert to any chinks in the opposition lines. “He deservedly won man of the match,” said Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall. “We had Sean Maitland and Liam Williams available this week, but we decided not to use them, because these windows are crucial periods for us to develop some of the players coming through the academy.”
Gallagher vied with Alex Goode for the most line breaks and, with one, glided through the Leicester fringe defence to find Nick Isiekwe. The lock then sent in Richard Wigglesworth for the game’s first try in the 12th minute. The early promise was not maintained.
Leicester owed their positions and their points – one successful kick from two by Matt Toomua, who kicks for the Wallabies, no less – to penalties, until they rounded off the half with a nicely worked try. George Worth made the break out wide and found Jonah Holmes for Leicester’s 10-5 lead at the break.
Toomua’s kicking was wayward, missing a further penalty early in the second half. Instead, it was Saracens who broke the deadlock with penalties by Alex Lozowski either side of the hour mark to put Saracens ahead at the dawn of the final quarter.
At that point the bonus point was unlikely enough not to have occurred to anyone. Tom Woolstencroft brought one a try nearer when he touched down at the back of a driven lineout in the 66th minute.
Even then, though, Saracens seemed more intent on securing the win, Goode landing a third penalty in the 73rd minute for a 21-10 lead.
Then came the bonus bonus, with two tries in the last three minutes, the first a simple intercept by Ben Spencer when Toomua forced a pass in his own 22. In the final minute, Mike Rhodes broke from the base of a ruck to send David Strettle in for the fourth.
The champions could not believe their luck. The rest will simply note another home match, another bonus-point win.