- London Irish 29-20 Saracens
- Both sides have a man sent off in the first half
London Irish’s bright young things dazzled in front of the watching Steve Borthwick to seal a well-deserved victory and condemn top-of-the-table Saracens to a first Premiership defeat of the season. Chandler Cunningham-South sealed the win with a late try, teed up by the stand-out performer of the night in Tom Pearson, while it was Ollie Hassell-Collins who got the ball rolling for the Exiles. Borthwick will have left with food for thought as a result.
Saracens, for their part, were out of kilter. They were frustrated by London Irish’s defence and took it out on the referee Matthew Carley too often. Both sides were shown red cards for high tackles in the first half – Adam Coleman for Irish, Ben Earl for Saracens – but for the best part of 10 minutes in the second, the Exiles were down to 12 men after two more yellows. Saracens rarely looked like scoring in that period – too frenetic in the face of Irish’s resilience – and accordingly, lost their nine-match winning run in the competition.
