Premiership: Leicester Tigers 12-16 Saracens

Owen Farrell scored the game's only try after 54 minutes

Owen Farrell scored all of Saracens' points against Leicester, but victory was not enough to return the London club to the top of the Premiership.

In a tense first half, during which Leicester's injury-plagued England winger Manu Tuilagi limped off, the scores were locked at 6-6 as Farrell traded penalties with Owen Williams.

Farrell scored and converted the only try after adding a further penalty.

Williams kicked two penalties to ensure Leicester took a losing bonus point.

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Leicester pressed until the final moments as they looked to avoid just their second defeat in 15 home games in all competitions, but two missed penalties from Williams proved costly.

In a game England boss Eddie Jones watched from the stand, much attention was focused on centre Tuilagi, who was called up on Saturday for a national team training camp.

But it proved little more than a cameo showing by the 25-year-old as he was forced off with an apparent right knee injury, suffered as he came down in a tackle.

Saracens were dealt a setback of their own as winger Chris Ashton - making his first start in 15 weeks after serving a suspension for biting - was forced off after a clash of heads with Jack Roberts.

However, despite losing the prolific Ashton, Saracens came up with the game's only try soon after - Brad Barritt collecting the ball from Williams after a poor Ben Youngs pass before Farrell threw a dummy to race clear.

Saracens did enough to hold on for the win, moving them to within one point of Wasps at the summit.

Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill: "It was tight, we played very well, they played well. We defended outstandingly well and our set-piece was dominant.

"Saracens' pack don't get dominated very often but we dominated their pack today. Our boys were fantastic.

"There are a lot of positives. I know we are five points from the top four but we were playing the best side in Europe last season.

"If we can play like that away we will win more than we lose and we will keep in the mix."

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall: "We are chuffed to bits to come here and win where they have not lost this season.

"Not everything in our game was perfect, far from it. But what was tremendous was the fight we had and the effort we showed all the way through the game.

"We had to win without a platform because our scrum today was poor. To get a result without a scrum is tough."

Leicester Tigers: Burns; Betham, Roberts, Tuilagi, Thompstone; O. Williams, B. Youngs; Genge, T. Youngs (c), Cole, Slater, Fitzgerald, M. Williams, O'Connor, McCaffrey.

Replacements: McGuigan, Cilliers, Bateman, Kitchener, Evans, Harrison, Worth, Brady.

Saracens: Goode; Ashton, Bosch, Barritt (c), Maitland; Farrell, Spencer; Barrington, George, Figallo, Skelton, Itoje, Rhodes, Burger, Wray.

Replacements: Brits, Thompson-Stringer, Lamositele, Hamilton, Brown, De Kock, Lozowski, Earle.

Ref: JP Doyle

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