Sarries shoot down Falcons

Hougaard: 13 points

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• Saracens

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• Richard Haughton
• Derick Hougaard

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  • Chris Wyles
  • Jimmy Gopperth

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Saracens regained the top spot in the Guinness Premiership with a 22-15 victory over Newcastle at Kingston Park on Sunday.

Tries from Richard Haughton, Derick Hougaard and Chris Wyles, plus a further eight points from the boot of Hougaard gave the visitors their fifth straight win of the current campaign.

Newcastle's points came courtesy of five penalties from fly-half Jimmy Gopperth but they were unable to capitalise on the chances they created.

The hosts got off to the worst possible start when, after just five minutes, winger Haughton intercepted Falcons scrum-half Micky Young's pass to stroll in under the posts from 30 metres.

Hougaard added the extras with the simplest of conversions before Gopperth cut the deficit to a point with two penalties after some enterprising attacking play.

Hougaard replied with a penalty of his own soon after to put his side 10-6 up but Saracens began to leak penalties as the Falcons sought to stifle the kicking game that has helped them remain unbeaten so far this season.

Superb

Gopperth slotted three to take Newcastle into the lead for the first time, but a period of sustained pressure on the Newcastle line culminated in Hougaard dummying his way over out wide for a converted try to give Sarries a 17-15 lead at the break.

Despite a positive start to the second half the Falcons could not make the pressure count and the visitors slowly began to grind their opponents down.

Hougaard missed with two long-range drop-goal attempts but an otherwise superb tactical kicking display from both he and fellow half-back Neil de Kock saw Sarries take control of field position.

Jackson, who replaced Hougaard for the final 15 minutes failed to close out the game, sending his own drop goal effort wide and missing a penalty.

But, with the visitors enjoying territorial dominance, Newcastle never looked likely to launch a late attack to steal the points.

Their dominance finally told when Fijian centre Kameli Ratuvou got his hands out of an attempted tackle to allow Wyles to cross with four minutes to play.

The result saw Saracens maintain their 100 percent record and leave the Falcons still in search of their first win of the season.