Sarries may call for their Lions to bite the Saints

SARACENS face a tough call on whether to involve any of their returning Lions stars against Northampton this Saturday after they sat out Friday’s friendly win.

Try-doubles from Scott Spurling and Sean Maitland, looking ultra-sharp on his return from the ankle injury that forced him to miss May’s Champions Cup final, along with five-pointers from Schalk Brits, Jackson Wray and Hayden Thompson-Stringer saw off their spirited Romanian partner club.

However, a stop-start display could see heavyweights George Kruis, Maro Itoje and Mako Vunipola drafted in for the Premiership opener.

Saracens coach Alex Sanderson said: “The majority of our Lions players will be left out, but those who didn’t play as much will be under consideration. We’ll be really hurting ourselves if we don’t involve some of them as long as we don’t negate their long-term fitness plan. A lot of our training is designed to mimic games and they’ve all been flying and taking shots, so they’ll be ready to snap back into it against Saints.”

While the Saracens pack may need bolstering, their backline shone during an electrifying first-half in which Maitland got on the score-sheet early after a lovely passage of interplay

involving Alex Lozowski, Brad Barritt, Alex Goode and Duncan Taylor.

Maitland then laid on a try for Brits before excelling again when he plucked a Wigglesworth box kick from the skies and made ground before releasing Taylor, who sent Spurling to the line.

Try No.4 was another beauty when recently capped England fly-half Lozowski, who looks to be growing in confidence and stature with every outing, combined with Goode and Schalk Burger before Wray stepped inside the last defender to score.

Maitland finished smartly at the corner on the stroke of half-time, with Lozowski nailing his fifth straight conversion from the touchline, but a strangely subdued start to the second period enabled Timisoara to enjoy their best period of the game.

Florin Papa went close before Lucian Muresan fumbled as the line beckoned, which was the signal for Saracens to up their game in the final quarter. Spurling bagged his second try on 62 minutes before Thompson-Stringer rounded things off.

Star man Maitland told TRP: “It was fantastic to get 60 minutes and the ankle felt good. Scoring some good tries was great but we bombed some chances too.

“We need to look closely at that because we’re not going to get as many chances against Saints.”