No Owen Farrell, no problem. Saracens will face considerably sterner tests than this as the season goes on but life without the former England captain got off to just about the ideal start.
After 16 years as a key cog in the side, it is inevitable Farrell’s influence is going to be missed this term – they could have done with his trusty right boot here, maybe his ruthless professionalism towards the end too – but five tries and an impressive performance from Elliot Daly helps Mark McCall in ushering in the new era he is determined to build.
The same cannot be said for Gloucester, who finished second-bottom last season and did little to suggest it will not be another campaign of upheaval. They proved far too accommodating for their new-look opponents, who ran in tries through Rotimi Segun, Ivan van Zyl, Tobias Elliott and two for Andy Onyeama-Christie. A brief flurry with the match already taken away from them added a little respectability, but not a great deal more.
That both Vunipolas have left and that McCall opted to start with Jamie George and Ben Earl on the bench only added to the sense of something different in the Saracens ranks but in Daly they had the supreme performer. He set up two tries and linked well with Fergus Burke, the 25-year-old Kiwi making his debut at fly-half.
Maro Itoje, another England stalwart, who has assumed the captaincy, was another fine performer, while McCall is particularly enthused by the development of Onyeama-Christie and on this evidence it is easy to see why.
For Gloucester, much of the pre-season optimism has evaporated. They, too, have undergone a summer makeover and if Saracens’ is more pronounced due to the personnel they have lost, the sheer number of international caps, Gloucester have a new, all-Welsh half-back partnership in Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe and an intention to play on the front foot.
They also have Christian Wade in their ranks, someone who will send a crackle of anticipation through the Shed whenever he gets near the ball while there was a first league start for Afolabi Fasogbon, tighthead for England’s World Cup-winning U20s and somebody for whom there are high hopes given England’s lack of depth in his position.
Accordingly, they began in a hurry – forcing Burke into a rank pass early on – but soon ran out of ideas. Saracens are nothing if not dogged in defence and in the opening 15 minutes they drew the sting from the home side, scrambling when they had to or holding firm on the gain-line with Itoje putting in a fearsome shot. The visitors had threatened through Segun a minute before his opening try, his grubber was too heavy but when Daly went to the boot his kick was perfectly measured for his winger to gather and score.
Try No 2 came when Van Zyl picked off Anscombe far too easily and had enough pace to get to the line before Elliott added a third with Daly again the provider. It was hard to see a way back for Gloucester but Burke’s two missed conversions gave them a glimmer of hope and after battering away at the Saracens line on the stroke of half-time, Freddie Thomas squeezed over to get the Cherry & Whites on the board.
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Whatever hope they had did not last long. An inability to gather Saracens’ kick-off for the second half proved costly – George Skivington will be furious as a result – and soon enough Onyeama-Christie plunged over at the back of a driving lineout.
A Burke penalty turned the screw, pushing Saracens’ lead out to 20 points, and though Freddie Clarke burrowed over on the left for Gloucester shortly after coming on, Onyweama-Christie had his second after a smartly taken lineout from George, straight to van Zyl.
Burke continued to polish up his goalkicking with another three points before a late rally from Gloucester brought tries from Jack Clement and Seb Blake. You suspect that had Farrell been playing, Gloucester might have found those last two scores harder to come by.
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