Premiership: Saracens 61-29 Worcester Warriors

Billy Vunipola celebrated signing a new Saracens deal with two close-range scores

Saracens maintained the pressure on leaders Leicester with a nine-try rout of Worcester at StoneX Stadium.

Alex Lewington (2), Billy Vunipola, Alex Goode, Nick Tompkins and Nick Isiekwe all crossed as Sarries raced into a 40-7 half-time advantage.

Francois Venter went over for Worcester before Vunipola, Max Malins and Ben Earl further stretched the hosts' lead.

But late scores from Venter, Gareth Simpson and Ashley Beck gave spirited Warriors a bonus-point for four tries.

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Saracens had trained together for the first time on Christmas Eve after a 13-day enforced break following a Covid-19 outbreak, but the five-time champions showed no signs of rustiness and powered to a try bonus-point inside 21 minutes.

Goode put Lewington in for an easy finish in the corner and things looked ominous when the Saracens pack easily shoved their opponents over their own line from five metres out, with Vunipola claiming the pushover try.

Alex Lewington crossed twice before the break

Fly-half Goode went over following a powerful Malins break and then turned provider with a delightful grubber kick for Tompkins to race onto.

Lock Isiekwe showed the deft skills of a back, selling the Warriors full-back a slick dummy to score and rub more salt into Worcester wounds.

But the Warriors built momentum late in the half, and after Sione Vailanu was held up just short, Joe Batley went over from close range after a pick and go.

The hosts were in ruthless mood, however, and went into the interval with the final word as Goode once again teed up Lewington, and Alex Lozowski kicked his fifth conversion.

Venter crossed after good work from Batley as the visitors drew first blood in the second half, but normal service was quickly resumed as Earl strolled over after the bounce of the ball bamboozled two Warriors.

The visitors, who are without a win on the road in any competition since September 2020, were steamrolled again by a line-out catch and drive, giving Vunipola his second try to celebrate his new Sarries deal in style.

A fine offload from Vincent Koch put the Premiership's leading try scorer Malins in for his ninth try of the season with 17 minutes left as Saracens threatened to inflict an even heavier defeat on the Warriors than the club record Premiership 62-5 rout two seasons ago.

Francois Venter's brace helped the Warriors outscore Saracens 22-21 in the second half

But a remarkable finale belonged to Worcester as Venter capped a length-of-the-pitch break, Simpson forced his way over from close-range and Beck finished off another superb long-range effort to give the Warriors plenty to take back to the Midlands.

Worcester head coach Jonathan Thomas told BBC Hereford and Worcester:

"Before you even start talking about the physical side of the game, mentally you need to be in the right place.

"It's a champion team and Sarries is a tough place to come so if you're not on top of things mentally and physically, or if you're 1% off, you're going to get exposed massively.

"The questions we need to ask the players and the staff is why weren't we more physical and why weren't we more emotionally up for it in that first 40 minutes, because we have shown we are a good team.

"At half-time we said 'we have scored a try and the minimum requirement now is that we come away with a point, we have to show some fight around our defence'. We improved our defence and scored some really good tries, and won the second half."

Saracens: Malins; Maitland, Lozowski, Tompkins, Lewington; Goode, Davies; Mako Vunipola, Lewis, Koch, Itoje, Isiekwe, Wray, Earl, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Woolstencroft, Barrington, Beaton, Swinson, McFarland, Van Zyl, Manu Vunipola, Daly.

Worcester: Shillcock; Hearle, Venter (co-capt), Beck, Van der Merwe; Smith, Chudley; Waller, Baldwin, Tyack, Batley, Kitchener, Hatherell, Hill (co-capt), Vailanu.

Replacements: Annett, Owen, Judge, Kvesic, Lewis, Simpson, Morris, Nanai.

Referee: Christophe Ridley.

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