Hartley hook proves costly

Lozowski kept knocking over penalties and a Vunipola drive set up Nick Tompkins to put Ashton away in the corner to make it 25-17. Vunipola then made a break and Saints wing Ben Foden was harshly judged to have knocked on in an attempt to intercept a pass to Ashton out wide.

Saracens won another penalty from the resulting scrum and Lozowski put them within one score.

The killer blow the 78th minute. ball carrier, and fly-half Stephen Myler to injury – and a lack of direction would prove their undoing at the death.

They did get their lead up to 13 points with

❑ Hartley burrowing BRISTOL have been over from a driving relegated with two lineout – taking games remaining after George over with losing 36-21 to Wasps. him – and Pisi’s try Josh Bassett’s brace in the corner after helped Wasps restore a neat inside pass their five-point lead at from Ahsee Tuala. the top of the table.

Then Saracens called up the cavalry, with Vunipola in particularly snorting form. In his 25 minutes on the pitch the match was turned on its head. came in George’s replacement, Schalk Brits, blew a hole in the Saints midfield after a Lozowski break and Big Billy, who else, fed Bosch to score. Lozowksi’s conversion sealed the deal and Saracens stay third, but they will need more of the same in Dublin on Saturday.

McCall said: “That is exactly what we want from Billy. With a six-day turnaround, we didn’t want to expose him to a full 80 minutes, but for him to have 25 minutes was perfect.

“It was a bit of a lesson to us about big things that need to be right on the day. We will need to work hard on some of these things and get them right next week.”