Saracens lived up to their promise as potential English Premiership One champions with a dynamic display of running and handling skills that restored their winning habit at Sunbury last night.
Second-half tries by Ryan Constable, Michael Lynagh and Brendon Daniel were the least Saracens deserved against an obdurate Irish side who generally looked more composed in defence than attack.
The Exiles did develop a sharper cutting edge after Niall Hogan replaced scrum-half Peter Richards for the final quarter, but they never seriously threatened the 10-point lead their opponents established shortly after the interval. With 16 league points from nine games to date, the super-fit Saracens will make 1998 a tense and difficult year for their Premiership rivals.
It was ominous that they scored from their first incursion, Lynagh landing a simple penalty goal after the hosts killed the ball.
The pace and strength of the Saracens back row guaranteed a steady flow of quick, clean ball and their England scrum-half Kyran Bracken clearly relished the multiple options his team-mates created. He could either launch his midfield backs towards the Irish posts or occasionally lay the ball wide to the Ireland wing Richard Wallace, whose pace kept the Exiles guessing.
It was almost half an hour before London Irish won their first penalty, for killing the ball, and Niall Woods did well to read a treacherous cross-field wind and kick the goal from 45 metres.
At that stage the Exiles were fortunate to trail only 6-3, given their inability to establish a reliable platform or generate regular momentum. In contrast Saracens continued to move the ball sweetly through successive phases.
The hosts, though, looked confident and surefooted in defence where Conor O'Shea and centre Mark McCall made a number of crucial tackles to kill several Saracens attacking moves. When the Irish won a second penalty a metre inside their own half the kick was delegated to David Humphreys, who hammered the ball narrowly wide of the left upright.
On the stroke of half-time the Irish took the lead rather against the run of play when the industrious O'Shea followed up a speculative chip to touch down. Woods's astute kick sailed straight between the posts to put his side 10-6 in front.
It took Saracens only four minutes of the second half to regain their lead, the Constable cutting through to score behind the posts and leave Lynagh with a simple conversion.
Eight minutes later Lynagh added a quick-witted try from a swiftly-taken penalty, converting from in front of the posts, and near the end Daniel killed off the Exiles with a sparkling third try.
London Irish, are still joint bottom with Bristol on two points after this match.
Coach Willy Anderson said: "We are again facing a long, hard winter for first division survival.
"It was disappointing not to score in the second half. We turned over too much ball and made far too many errors."
Saracens player-coach Francois Pienaar was disappointed after the match to learn that his team had not leapfrogged Newcastle at the top of the Premiership. While Saracens were winning at London Irish, Newcastle retained the leadership with a 25-19 victory at Leicester.
However, Pienaar stressed that he did not think that Saracens and Newcastle were the only contenders for the title.
"Though we are on Newcastle's tail, this is not a two-horse race," he emphasised. "The other big clubs have to be met and combated by both us and Newcastle."
The former Springboks captain was particularly pleased with his side's second-half display last night. "Tonight I'd hoped that we would use the strong wind to our advantage when we turned round at half-time and I was delighted that Michael Lynagh controlled events decisively in the first 10 minutes after half-time to bring us two converted tries and take us in front," he said.
"We'd hoped for better in the first half, when we missed some try-scoring chances, but my constant search for the perfect game is still in the future."
