LEICESTER — Saracens overcame a second-half 20-minute red card for Nick Isiekwe to begin the Brendan Venter era with a seesaw 40-38 win over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road in a breathless 12-try affair on the opening weekend of The Prem season.
Saracens struck fast with two converted tries inside the opening 10 minutes from Argentina flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez on his 50th league appearance and Tobias Elliott. Leicester answered through Solomone Kata, who shrugged off Elliott, and Gabriel Hamer-Webb after a fine ball from Freddie Steward. Elliot Daly, back after a broken arm, restored the visitors' lead out on the left, while Hamer-Webb completed a hat-trick with two second-half tries involving impressive new signing Aaron Wainwright. Leicester tries came from Kata, Hamer-Webb 3, Adam Radwan and James Thompson with four conversions from Billy Searle, while Saracens tries came from Gonzalez, Elliott, Daly, Ben Earl and Rotimi Segun 2 with five conversions from Fergus Burke.
The match turned in the 54th minute when referee Ian Tempest showed Isiekwe a 20-minute red card for a high tackle on Steward in the build-up to Radwan's try, which gave Leicester their first lead after a deft chip from scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet. With Saracens employing a 6-2 bench split, they had already lost centre Olly Hartley early to an arm injury and temporarily lost Elliott to an HIA, forcing Earl to fill in at centre before returning to the back row after Alfie Barbeary's half-time withdrawal to thunder over from Tomos Williams' flat pass. Down to 14, Saracens regained the lead through Segun after a pinpoint cross-kick from Daly, and after Thompson burrowed over to put Leicester back in front, Segun struck again wide on the left with seven minutes remaining to seal the win. Eoghan Clarke replaced Isiekwe after the 20-minute sanction to restore Saracens to 15.
The result was the fourth away win from five matches on the opening weekend and a perfect start to Venter's second stint in charge, whose colourful first spell brought a series of disciplinary run-ins but set the foundations for the success that followed under Mark McCall. Saracens have not made the play-offs for the past two seasons but showed resilience here, led by man of the match Williams, the Wales scrum-half and one of their smart summer signings, as they held on with 14 men.