Maro Itoje takes World Cup heartbreak out on Leicester as Saracens’ big guns return

Saracens 32 Leicester 17

Maro Itoje and his England colleagues took their World Cup frustrations out on Leicester Tigers by leading Saracens to a four-try win that finally gives them some momentum in the Premiership.

All seven of Saracens’ returnees were in the 23 for the gut-wrenching World Cup semi-final defeat by South Africa and made Tigers pay.

Lock Itoje was in imperious form, picking off the Leicester line-out, dominating at the breakdown and proving a handful in the loose as the reigning champions got a head of steam up.

Itoje, 29, even got on the score sheet with the game’s first try and Saracens had a bonus point wrapped up in 53 minutes when hooker Jamie George went over.

George and flanker Ben Earl were others to show no ill effects of making it to the last week of France 2023 and Elliott Daly and Owen Farrell were in the same boat.

And No 8 Billy Vunipola, not at his best in the World Cup, also looked like he was returning to form with some marauding runs, but Itoje was the standout.

Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby, said: “He [Itoje] was magnificent as were all the other international players who have been away at the World Cup. Maro is one of these players you can always count on and rely on, he plays at a high level all of the time. If you are a young player and you want to know how to become a great player you have to look at some of our senior players.

“It was a bit of a gamble. We had seven English internationals coming back who had not been at the club and had had two days’ prep. It was up to them when their rest period was and they wanted to come in and be part of this game.”

Itoje and Nick Isiekwe, who signed a new contract last week, made a nuisance of themselves at the line-out at one point winning three Leicester throw-ins in 10 minutes in the Saracens 22. That figure rose to five in the second half as the visitors failed to capitalise on the territory they did have.

Leicester head coach Dan McKellar took a different approach with Ben Youngs, Freddie Steward, Dan Cole and Ollie Chessum not picked after their differing workloads at the World Cup and George Martin unavailable. Argentina hooker Julian Montoya was not selected and Handre Pollard and Jasper Wiese were celebrating in South Africa meaning with four games out of 18 gone in the league, Tigers fans have yet to see their big international stars in action.

McKellar said: “My approach was always to give the boys a week off after the World Cup, let them connect with family. It’s a huge emotional and physical toll on their bodies to go through a World Cup. Mark [McCall] took a different approach. There’s no right or wrong.”

Four of Saracens’ England returnees were involved in their first try which gave the Londoners the lead after an early Jamie Shillcock penalty for Tigers. Farrell, Daly and Earl were in on the action which ended with Itoje stretching over. Then Earl and Farrell were in the thick of it after Saracens kicked for the corner and their pressure ended with flanker Andy Christie burrowing over the line to give them a 14-3 lead at the break.

Vunipola stormed over for the third and the bonus point came when George got on the end of a driving line-out to make it 24-3 and the game was up for Tigers.

Former Saracens scrum-half Tom Whiteley grabbed one back for Leicester running in from 20 metres when he picked off a Farrell pass before George, with the rest of the front row, and Vunipola was replaced.

But the Saracens version of the ‘Bomb Squad’ won a scrum penalty almost immediately and Farrell did the rest.

M‌atch details

Scoring sequence: (Saracens first): 0-3 Shillcock pen, 5-3 Itoje try, 7-3 Farrell con, 12-3 Christie try, 14-3 Farrell con (half-time), 19-3 Billy Vunipola try, 21-3 Farrell con, 26-3 George try, 26-8 Whiteley try, 26-10 Atkinson con, 29-10 Farrell pen, 29-15 Shillcock try, 29-17 Shillcock con, 32-17 Farrell pen

‌Saracens A.Goode (T.Parton 67); S.Maitland, A.Lozowski, N.Tompkins, E.Daly; O.Farrell (capt), A.Davies (I.Van Zyl 61); M.Vunipola (E.Mawi 57-70), J.George (T.Dan 57) , M.Riccioni (A.Clarey 57), M.Itoje (C.Hunter-Hill 7), N.Isiekwe, A.Christie (H.Tizard 63), B.Earl, B.Vunipola (T.Willis 57)

‌Leicester: M.Brown; J.Bassett, G.Porter (S.Kata 51), D.Kelly, O.Hassell-Collins; J.Shillcock (C.Atkinson 44-56), T.Whiteley; J.Cronin (F.Van Wyk 51), C.Clare (N.Dolly 64), W.Hurd (D.Richardson 77), C.Henderson, S.Carter (H.Wells 63), H.Leibenberg (capt), T.Reffell, O.Cracknell (M.Rogerson 32)

‌Referee: C.Maxwell-Keys (RFU)

Attendance: 9,261