Sarries hold off Exiles

Saracens held off a late challenge from London Irish to record a narrow 18-14 victory in the first match of the Twickenham double-header on Saturday.

Sarries looked to be in complete control as they took an 18-3 lead into the break thanks to a try, conversion and two penalties from Glen Jackson, and another try by Andy Saull.

The Exiles fought back in the second half but despite George Stowers' try and penalties from Ryan Lamb and Delon Armitage, their comeback fell just short.

The two clubs have had vastly different summers with Irish making a couple of astute signings but keeping the majority of the squad that reached the Guinness Premiership final last season.

Summer clearout

Meanwhile, Saracens were given a complete clearout, with 12 players coming into a club that now has a strong South African spine.

It was Sarries who first got on the scoresheet when the reliable Jackson slotted over a third-minute penalty.

The Exiles, tipped to shrug off their 'nearly men' tag this term, replied with a penalty of their own in the ninth minute through Lamb, who made up for an earlier miss.

The former Gloucester stand-off's touch-finding was impressive but both back lines were feeding off scraps in the opening quarter.

Jackson's try, therefore, came somewhat out of the blue. Irish lock Nick Kennedy failed to roll away at a maul, and after a confrontation between both sets of forwards, the England international was given a ticking off.

In the meantime, his side had failed to organise themselves for the resulting penalty. Most were thinking Jackson was going to kick at goal but he chose to run the penalty and dummied his way over the line from 20 yards out.

The Kiwi converted his own try and knocked over a penalty soon after to put Sarries 13-3 up after only 26 minutes of action.

Irish were giving an error-strewn performance and they slipped further behind just eight minutes later.

Alex Goode and Chris Wyles cut the Exiles' defence to ribbons down the left and, when the ball was set up, Jackson sent over a cross-field kick behind a stranded defence for Saull to ground.

Jackson did not convert the extras but Saracens still had a comfortable 15-pont lead at half-time.

Lamb wasted a chance to reduce his side's deficit when he was off target with a 44th-minute penalty and then missed a simple kick eight minutes later.

Mini-brawl

Both sides were reduced to 14 men when Armitage and Schalk Brits were yellow-carded for their parts in a mini-brawl, before Lamb finally found his range from 20 yards out to make it 18-6.

Saracens went down to 13 players with 20 minutes left after Ernst Joubert was cautioned and Stowers made them pay when he burrowed over from close range after Irish had turned a scrum to earn the put-in.

Lamb missed the conversion to leave his men still seven points behind but Sarries were by hanging on by now as their defensive line became stretched.

Armitage, replacing the substituted Lamb as kicker, booted over a penalty with seven minutes remaining to make it a four-point game but Saracens held on.