As statements go, inflicting on Leicester the heaviest defeat they have suffered in the Premiership is a bold one. On an afternoon that fluctuated between the hostile, the controversial and the downright bizarre, Saracens transcended it all to put six tries past the champions. Being top of the table at Christmas might not carry the same cachet in rugby as it does in football, but Saracens are happy with where they are.
There is no doubting their worthiness in victory – too physical, fast and precise for a Leicester team suffering the greater of the Heineken hangovers – but the game turned on a yellow card for Graham Kitchener just before half-time. At that point, a try by Kitchener, who had charged down Owen Farrell's ugly, flat clearance for a simple score, had brought Leicester to within three points, at 13-10, despite having played 37 minutes with heads down into a vicious, soaking wind. After their heroics on the sun-kissed Mediterranean six days earlier, this ordeal in rain-lashed Hendon was something of a reality check.
But having charged him down, Kitchener next failed to put Farrell down safely. He hit him just after the fly-half had slipped a reverse pass away. Farrell went beyond the infamous "vertical" and then fell on his back. It all happened very quickly, but on the big screen in slow motion the referee felt he had little option but to issue Kitchener with yellow, to the despair of Richard Cockerill.
"It's not Wayne Barnes's fault," said Leicester's director of rugby, "because that's what he's told to do, but a yellow card for that is a joke. Is that what we're coming to? The game's soft. The law-makers are having a laugh."
It heralded a particularly cruel few minutes for the visitors, whose day had begun with Cockerill's admission that Toby Flood would be leaving at the end of the season. Two minutes after the yellow card, Chris Ashton was sent into the corner for Saracens' second try, on the stroke of half-time. More lengthy deliberation by the TMO (TV match official)followed over another final pass that will have annoyed those who refute Newton's second law. And the IRB's laws are unclear about the influence of the wind on a pass. This one seemed to catch a gust after it left the hands.
Either way, the try was allowed to stand, and another marginal decision had gone against Leicester.
There was little arguing with Saracens' excellent third try, just after the break, scored by the rampaging Billy Vunipola, but then came the final insult – of this 10-minute sin-bin period at least. Terence Hepetema was knocked out cold by the knee of Vunipola and taken off in a daze. Then, after further consultation with the TMO, Barnes penalised him, after he had gone, for not using his arms in the tackle.
"We don't practise that at training," said Cockerill. "Knock yourself out, rule yourself out for a week or two. And concede three points. Brilliant."
That made it 15 points conceded in Kitchener's absence. Game more or less over. Leicester did try manfully, with the wind now at their backs, to force their way over Saracens' line, but the home defence was ruthless. Farrell suffered as much as anyone in the line of duty. He received lengthy treatment, having been knocked out himself by the hip of Niki Goneva in the final quarter, and was taken off on a stretcher, his neck in a brace. He was back at pitch-side a few minutes later, though, and will "observe the usual protocols". It will mean a well-earned rest over the Christmas period.
As soon as he was gone, Saracens scored their bonus-point try with Jackson Wray's first touch, to turn what was by then quite a rout into the humiliation it would become. Tries five and six followed in the final 10 minutes. Exacerbated by that harsh yellow card it may have been, but a record defeat of Leicester is a record defeat of Leicester. It leaves Saracens nicely poised for the second half of the season.
