Saracens 48-20 Ealing Trailfinders: Owen Farrell scores 23 in five-try victory for Sarries

Saracens boss Mark McCall thinks his players will be in better shape for the Lions tour to South Africa than their Celtic counterparts, despite playing in the second tier.

Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Elliot Daly and Billy and Mako Vunipola all played as Sarries beat Championship table-toppers Ealing Trailfinders comfortably.

And their head coach reckons all will be in prime form to make Warren Gatland’s Lions squad on Thursday week having battled in the Championship — more competitive in his mind than the Pro14’s low-key Rainbow Cup.

‘Our players are getting more rugby than the Welsh, Scottish and Irish,’ said McCall, whose players were labelled as undercooked by the RFU’s review into England’s Six Nations.

‘They’re hardly playing at all. Alun Wyn Jones didn’t play for the Ospreys on Saturday. We don’t worry about that.

‘These games are physical. Ealing are a mid-table Premiership side in my opinion. Our players won’t be undercooked in any way.

‘Look at the Scottish, Irish and Welsh players and see if they’re undercooked.’

There was a small scare for Billy Vunipola in the win, the No 8 going off after an hour with a rib injury, but McCall said: ‘I don’t think it is anything too major.’

Owen Farrell scored 23 points and Saracens went over for five tries to move third in the table, one point behind Doncaster with a game in hand, thrashing their likely playoff final opponents to ease fears they would fail in their promotion bid.

They are destined to meet Ealing again in the two-legged playoff final in June, and have laid down a marker.

Having lost their opening game to Cornish Pirates, Saracens are back on track after winning their five games since. ‘We have put it firmly back in our own hands,’ said McCall, who now will rotate his senior men with games against Nottingham, Ampthill, Coventry and Hartpury to come in the regular season.

Ealing came into this unbeaten having taken maximum points from their first six games — and had some early joy in the scrum, tight-head Elliot Millar-Mills getting the better of Mako Vunipola.

But in the first 25 minutes Ealing only took two Craig Willis penalties as Saracens scored through Alex Lewington and Vincent Koch.

Ealing then forced a penalty try and yellow card for Jackson Wray after a huge maul collapsed over the Saracens’ line.

Farrell hit three penalties either side of half-time. The lead became a gulf as Koch grabbed his second, Aled Davies ran in the bonus-point score and Nick Tompkins completed the rout with a fifth try.

After James Cordy Redden and Lewis Thiede were sin-binned, Ealing scored a late try through James Buckley, which David Johnston converted.

As talk of ring-fencing the Premiership intensifies, McCall thinks Ealing should be given a chance to go up in future.

‘If a club is good enough and have got the appetite and resources, which I think Ealing are and have, then they shouldn’t be deprived an opportunity to step up a league,’ McCall said.