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 pace-setters Bath and Bristol over the next fortnight and this emphatic win over last season’s champions 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.

The fly-half Fergus Burke was among the beneficiaries, finishing with two tries and a haul of 19 points, with the home back-row of Tom Willis, Ben Earl and Juan Martín González all enjoying excellent games. 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, until a second-half rally, here was another example of the difficulty of switching seamlessly between competitions and radically different conditions. The absence of their injured captain, George Furbank, felt significant and physically they were a distant second in a first half that could have been even more painful.

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.

Nick Tompkins made his 200th appearance for Saracens in the win over Northampton. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

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 the post from point-blank range but, on this particular day, it mattered not.

With Northampton still not able to deal with the ball in the air and 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 heavily 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 play-offs.

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