There was a lot going on in Hendon. The day started and looked as if it might end as a story about England fly-halves. Then there were seven tries on a miserable wet day, controversial refereeing decisions and squad-rotation dilemmas. But at the end the most pertinent feature was a record Premiership defeat for the current champions, inflicted on them by the champions of a couple of years ago. Mightily impressive it was too from Saracens.

"I was really pleased with the performance in both halves," said Mark McCall, their director of rugby. "We had use of the wind in the first half and eight points was a nervous lead for us at half-time. We felt we'd played better than that. But to win the second half 31-0 and to play the kind of rugby we did into those conditions was obviously very satisfying."

The controversial refereeing decisions, all taken in conjunction with the video referee, were concentrated in the 10-minute period either side of half-time, but the key decision was the first, which led to Graham Kitchener's yellow card for a tackle on Owen Farrell. It was marginally late and ended with Farrell being dropped on to his back but it was clearly neither dangerous nor malicious.

The Tigers' rugby director, Richard Cockerill, doffed his cap to Saracens afterwards, but he was furious about that yellow, laying into the law-makers who he feels left the referee with little choice. "Absolute", "joke", "rubbish" and "laugh" were just some of the words he reached for. His side had just pulled the score back to 13-10, when Kitchener himself had scored a try from a charge-down on Farrell, no less, and they were about to inherit the assistance of the elements for the second half.

But Saracens put their foot down and scored 15 unanswered points while Kitchener was away, leaving Cockerill to bemoan his own selection, after two intense matches against Montpellier in the Heineken Cup. "We had to rest Dan Cole [for England elite player squad reasons]. The others we didn't. The calculated risk was changing the side we took to Montpellier, who have had two massive games. You come from the highs of that to try to get something out of the game here. Clearly I pick the team, I got it wrong, it's my fault, I'm to blame. But with the injuries we have, how many times do you keep rolling these blokes out? We've got two very important home games, then we're back into Europe, then they all go and play Test matches for eight weeks ..."

There were momentary concerns that Farrell might be in doubt for those Tests when he was carried off with his neck in a brace in the final quarter, but he was up and about minutes later and is fine. Toby Flood, though, his understudy for England, has decided that he will be leaving Leicester and therefore England, almost certainly for Toulouse. Cockerill announced it in a television interview just before the game. Whether he was meant to is another matter, Flood having issued a fairly categorical denial of all rumours only a day earlier. That may or may not have been a little dig but after the game Cockerill had only nice things to say about his captain (currently injured), who leaves with his blessing.

Pleased as McCall was with his team's performance, he was under no illusions that this was Leicester at full strength but his side are shorn of a host of players, too. They lost another, Marcelo Bosch, 30 seconds before kick-off, when the Argentina centre, who had been ill overnight, swooned one more time just as they were leaving the changing room. Up stepped Tim Streather, who had run 4.5km in a conditioning session the day before, to turn in a fine performance, one of many. Jamie George, the 23-year-old hooker, was another, and he should be interesting the England hierarchy before long.

Meanwhile some cavalry are set to return in the coming weeks – Brad Barritt, Duncan Taylor, Jacques Burger, Rhys Gill and Mouritz Botha, to name a few. And they return to a Saracens side top of the table, scoring freely on their artificial pitch, come rain, wind or shine.

Saracens Goode (Ransom 70); Ashton, Streather, Wyles, Wilson; Farrell (Hodgson 67), Wigglesworth (De Kock 54); Barrington (M Vunipola h-t), George, Stevens (Johnston 54), Borthwick (capt), Hargreaves (Kruis 57), B Vunipola, Brown, Joubert (Wray 67)

Tries Wilson, Ashton 2, B Vunipola, Wray, Penalty Cons Farrell 2, Hodgson 3 Pens Farrell 3

Leicester Tait; Morris, Goneva, Smith (Hepetema ht; Thompstone 48), Benjamin; Lamb, B Youngs (Mele 65); Stankovich (Ayerza 45), Briggs (T Youngs 45), Balmain (Schuster 45), Slater, Kitchener (De Chaves 73), Gibson, Matera (Waldrom 54), Crane (capt)

Try Kitchener Con Lamb Pen Lamb

Sin bin Kitchener 39, Waldrom 71

Referee W Barnes Attendance 9,999