England hooker Jamie George plundered a hat-trick of tries as Saracens climbed to the summit of the Aviva Premiership with a 38-19 victory over Wasps at Allianz Park.
Owen Farrell was forced to withdraw from the bench shortly before kick-off due to a calf injury but the composure shown by Alex Lozowski meant the European champions were in good hands and his fly-half understudy finished with 18 points.
Saracens had galloped out of sight with half an hour remaining, George’s trio of tries including one that saw him bullock over adding to Chris Wyles’ opener to deliver the bonus point and a record win in the fixture.
Jamie George scores Saracen’s second try of the game
What they said
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall on George’s chances of starting for England: “Playing well here was going to be important for him and playing well in the next couple of weeks is going to be important for him as well to get himself into Eddie Jones’ mind. We’re going up to Northampton on Sunday and Dylan Hartley will be starting so it will be an important game for Jamie.” Wasps boss Dai Young: “When your luck’s down, everyone keeps running over to kick you in the nuts. If it was any less of a turnaround, we’d have to go straight to Ulster from here. It’s not ideal, but we have to get on with it.”
Tweet of the match
Moment of the match
Wyles initiated a landslide victory by running in the opening try, but better was to come from the American three minutes later when he cleverly took advantage of Wasps’ lapse in concentration to set-up George for the first of his three touchdowns.
Haskell off the pace
James Haskell has been Eddie Jones’ first choice openside since the Australian took over in 2015, but his grip on the jersey is surely loosening. Wasps’ pack being bullied hardly helped his cause, but Haskell looked off the pace while Bath’s Sam Underhill is tackling his way into England’s back row for the autumn.
Stat of the match
Wasps slumped to a fourth successive Premiership defeat for the first time since March 2014.
Talking point
Saracens were impressive, but what has happened to last season’s Premiership runners-up? Even allowing for an extensive injury list accounting for 15 players, this was a disappointing performance from a team that sits 10th after six rounds of the competition.
Who’s up next?
Northampton v Saracens (Champions Cup, Sunday, October 15)
Ulster v Wasps (Champions Cup, Friday, October 13)
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