Following Saracens’ 35-26 victory over the Bristol Bears in the Gallagher Premiership, here are our five takeaways from the action at the StoneX.
Top line
It wasn’t quite a vintage Premiership top-four clash but it was an entertaining one once it warmed up as Saracens outscored Bristol Bears five tries to four to get their year off to a winning start.
Tom Willis was the star of the show once again as his two tries all-round superb performances was pivotal to Mark McCall’s side’s success. In addition to the in-form loose forward’s brace was another pair from one of the signings of the seasons, Fergus Burke, and Los Pumas star Lucio Cinti.
For Bristol, Pat Lam’s side struggled to get their attack firing again with AJ MacGinty’s absence absolutely felt once again with Harry Randall scoring early in the first half with Kalaveti Ravouvou and Harry Thacker grabbing one apiece in the second.
Jake Heennan’s late try off the back of a rolling maul sealed a losing bonus with Harry Byrne missing the conversion that would have resulted in two points for Lam’s charges which frankly, they did not deserve.
Late arrival for the top four battle
It was rather fitting that there was a timekeeping error at the start of this Premiership encounter as both teams took their time to get into the swing of things in 2025.
It was an awkward start to the match even though Saracens had opened the scoring through Willis by the time Matthew Carley was alerted to the mishap with the stadium and broadcast clock.
Funnily enough, Carley had already started his stopwatch early, doing so when he ran out onto the pitch, making his timekeeping utterly useless.
While Saracens eventually started to hit their stride, Bristol did not and outside a bit of sharp play from Harry Randall, the hosts were dominant and well deserving of their 22-7 half-time advantage.
Saracens recover from festive hangover
Returning to normal business in January is something that we can all relate to but for Saracens and Bristol, recovering from the December hangover was even more challenging after their post-Christmas humblings.
Last time out in the Premiership, Sarries were hammered 68-10 by Bath at the Rec, while their opponents today were held scoreless in a 38-0 defeat at home to Sale Sharks.
For the most part, it was Saracens who looked to have loaded up on the electrolytes and got sufficient recovery in as for the first hour of the match, they were comfortable the more accurate and well-drilled team.
Tom Willis deserves a call-up
Planet Rugby writers have been banging this drum all season and the same calls have been sounded out by oh so many fans, pundits and writers, but surely Steve Borthwick cannot continue to ignore the Saracens man.
Much like the case with Zach Mercer, it is clear that there are parts of Tom Willis’ game that just don’t fit Borthwick’s requirements, but even if there are limitations in his game that are off-putting to the England boss, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to snub him.
Today, he grabbed a smartly taken try after a rather messy first half and was one of his team’s busiest tacklers and again their most evasive ball carriers. Ben Earl is becoming quieter and quieter as the weeks go by and while he is certainly not playing poorly, his telling impacts are not nearly as frequent as they have been in recent times.
He impressed even more later in the first half scoring a stunning try off the back of Maro Itoje’s sensational intercept. He brilliantly sped down the touchline, evaded the scrambling Bristol defence and finished his score off in style.
His influence on the match continued as the game went on and he crucially sprinted up on Harry Byrne, hammered the Irish fly-half to the ground and won a penalty that put his side’s lead beyond two converted tries.
Saracens as a whole were far better today but Willis was clearly the best player on the pitch with his masterclass and simply has to be rewarded for his efforts.
England watch
While Borthwick is likely to have the option to stick with the back-row that did service during the Autumn Nations Series last year, he will need to make a change at full-back with George Furbank ruled out of the Six Nations. And today, Elliot Daly made a strong case for a return to the starting England lineup having done so time and time again under Eddie Jones. Daly was excellent under the high ball and flexed his booming boot once again with some absolute rockets. He added real value in attack joining at key times and made excellent decisions on the whole. Today’s performance was a statement of intent from Daly.
Sticking with Saracens and Itoje had a strong outing overall in all facets of the game but his discipline is becoming a concern once again as he spent time in the sin bin again. The second rower has been carded eight times in his last 21 matches. He certainly racks up a ton of work and his style of play does come with its risks but that statistic is an eye-sore.
Bristol were largely kept at bay today but there were some standouts including number nine Randall. The best bits of the Bears’ attack came through the livewire number nine. He was a real threat around the fringes and like all good number nines, he provided great support to the ball carriers on line breaks.
Finally, the last word of the night has to go to England captain and Saracens legend Jamie George who notched up his 300th appearance for the club and did so with a fantastic 80-minute performance although he wasn’t always on the right side of Carley. However, that showed that there is still plenty of fight and bark in the old dog.
