Heineken Cup Pool 3: Saracens earn the bonus point at Zebre
Saracens centre Chris Wyles became the club's record Heineken Cup try scorer in the 39-10 win over Zebre in Italy.
Last Updated: 07/12/13 5:30pm
Three tries in the first half laid the platform as Saracens cruised to a comfortable victory in Pool 3.
Sarries made the trip to Italy in tremendous form, and having edged out Sale a week earlier, while the Italian hosts had been stuck in a rut. And the game reflected the form book as the visitors dominated the contest from start to finish.
Saracens wasted little time in establishing an advantage. Charlie Hodgson booted over a penalty, before George Kruis went over for Hodgson to convert and put the visitors 10 points up within the first 15 minutes.
Hodgson put his side further in front five minutes later with a second penalty, and when Ernst Joubert shimmied over following smooth play from the line-out, Sarries had a decent cushion.
Samuela Vunisa's sin-binning then helped prise open the door a third time, and Chris Wyles lapped up the opportunity to score the try and become Sarries' all-time leading try scorer in the Heineken Cup.
Hodgson added the conversion to make it 0-25 at half-time, which was an accurate reflection of the visitors' dominance in attack and defence.
Zebre finally got off the mark early in the second half thanks to Gonzalo Garcia's penalty goal, but that was as good as it got for the hosts.
Quickfire double
Normal service resumed just after the hour as Sarries crossed for a quickfire double of converted tries.
Chris Ashton snapped up Marcelo Bosch's inside ball to secure the bonus point, and he grabbed his second seven minutes later, when he finished off a thrilling move through the backs, following good work from Alex Goode.
Zebre had the final say through Vunisa's breakaway try, converted by Luciano Orquera, but Sarries were worthy winners.