Saracens 35-3 Warriors
Aviva Premiership
Aaron Wise reports from Twickenham
WORCESTER’S poor pre-season continued into their opening Aviva Premiership match as they shipped 32 unanswered points to last year’s champions Saracens on Saturday.
A brave first-half performance, which saw the Sixways side head into the interval 6-3 down, was turned on its head in the second half as Sarries scored tries through Jamie George, Alex Lozowski, Schalk Burger and Ben Spencer.
Head coach Carl Hogg handed debuts to summer signings Ben Te’o and Jackson Willison as he took charge of his first competitive match and his side enjoyed the early possession.
But Saracens soon piled on the pressure as the Warriors defence was called into action time and again, before Lozowski eventually put the hosts ahead with a penalty.
The visitors’ first and biggest chance of the game came midway through the first half as Te’o raced down the right towards the tryline, but the England prospect didn’t quite have the legs to make it all the way.
The visitors’ brave effort was finally rewarded when Ryan Lamb scored a penalty to level the scores after 26 minutes.
Warriors’ stubborn defence would have pleased Hogg and a superb try-saving tackle from young Springbok Dean Hammond on Chris Ashton restricted the hosts to just the three points, resulting in a very quiet Saracens’ contingent in a Twickenham crowd of just under 50,000.
Despite a last-second penalty by Lozowski giving Sarries a slender 6-3 lead heading into the interval, the game was still all to play for going into the second half.
But the hosts came out the blocks with real intent as Lozowski made it a hat-trick of penalties, before George bundled his way over from a driving line-out for the game’s opening try.
Alex Goode’s penalty attempt cannoning back off the post didn’t halt Saracens’ momentum, as moments later Lozowski found a gap and dived over the whitewash to put Mark McCall’s men 23-3 up.
Christian Scotland-Williamson’s introduction after 51 minutes was the Worcester lock’s first appearance after two years out of the game with a pelvic injury.
But despite the changes, Warriors were letting the match slip away as James Johnston was sin-binned for grabbing Lozowski around the neck.
This gave way for Burger to find the tryline for Saracens’ third try of the afternoon just before the hour mark.
Ben Spencer then rounded off proceedings with a sublime solo effort which saw him dance his way through Warriors’ defence to secure a try bonus point for the hosts.
Next up for Hogg’s men is a local derby against Gloucester on Sixways’ new artificial pitch on Friday night at 7.45pm.