Saracens upbeat over Farrell fitness

Saracens Director of Rugby Mark McCall tried to allay concerns over the fitness of Owen Farrell after the England flyhalf missed Saturday's 40-19 Premiership win over Sale with a thigh strain.

Fears had been raised over Farrell's availability for 2015 World Cup hosts England's November internationals at home to New Zealand, South Africa, Samoa and Australia after he suffered the injury in last weekend's 36-32 victory against London Irish.

Farrell also missed the last Test of the June series against world champions New Zealand because of a knee problem and returned to the treatment room having started just one match of the new European season.

However, McCall, speaking after Saracens' comprehensive defeat of Sale – a result that left last season's losing Premiership finalists with the only perfect played four won four record in this term's English top flight – said: "We don't expect Owen to be out for long, we're looking at it on a week by week basis.

"It's a very minor strain and we're looking at a couple of weeks, maximum."

Bath, fresh from their spectacular 45-0 thrashing of Leicester last weekend, saw their unbeaten start to the Premiership end with a 24-31 loss away to champions Northampton.

After the match, Northampton boss Jim Mallinder also found himself playing down injury concerns regarding the Saints' trio of England forwards in Tom Wood, Courtney Lawes and Alex Corbisiero.

Neither flank Wood nor lock Lawes started the match while injury-plagued prop Corbisiero went off during the second half at Franklin's Gardens.

"Alex took a bang to his shoulder. I don't think it is anything worse than that," Mallinder said.

"Tom has got a bit of a sore back and Courtney a sore shoulder," he added.

"They are improving and hopefully with an extra week they will be fit to play down at London Irish next Saturday."

Northampton came through a gruelling match, scoring an early penalty try before Calum Clark crossed Bath's line.

Second-half tries from lock Christian Day and centre George Pisi helped secure the bonus points, with Saints flyhalf Stephen Myler landing all four conversions and kicking a penalty too.

Bath pushed Northampton hard, though, thanks to tries by prop David Wilson, wing Olly Woodburn and replacement forward Nick Auterac, with England flyhalf George Ford kicking a penalty and three conversions.

Meanwhile Leicester boss Richard Cockerill risked disciplinary action by slamming referee Greg Garner after the injury-hit Tigers, with nearly half their first-choice team sidelined, suffered back-to-back defeats with a 22-19 loss at home to London Irish.

Cockerill was at a loss to understand how Leicester No.8 Jordan Crane was sent to the sin-bin for barging into a ruck while Exiles flank Blair received nothing more than a talking-to after appearing to punch Jamie Gibson in the face.

"If a punch in the face is a penalty and a ticking off – I thought it was an automatic red card – and a player who drops his shoulder into someone lying on the wrong side gets a yellow card…

"I didn't think the referee had a good performance," Cockerill said.

"Clearly, Greg Garner thinks it's all right to punch someone in the face and it's a penalty.

"I don't want any sympathy, I just want referees to referee properly," the former England hooker added.

"The Jordan Crane decision was pretty off the scale!"

Shane Geraghty kicked a penalty following Crane's yellow-card that saw London Irish win at Welford Road for the first time in 11 years.

"The result is great, but we are not crowing because we realise the Tigers are wounded," said London Irish boss Brian Smith, the former Australia and Ireland flyhalf.

All Saturday's scores and scorers:

Leicester Tigers 19-22 London Irish

The scorers:

For Leicester Tigers:

Try: Goneva

Con: Burns

Pens: Burns 3, Williams

For London Irish:

Try: Aulika

Con: Geraghty

Pens: Geraghty 5

Yellow cards: Shane Geraghty (London Irish, 34), Jordan Crane (Leicester Tigers, 59)

The teams:

Leicester Tigers: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Blaine Scully, 13 Vereniki Goneva, 12 Owen Williams, 11 Miles Benjamin, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Ben Youngs (captain), 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Jamie Gibson, 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Sebastian De Chaves, 3 Fraser Balmain, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Tom Bristow.

Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs, 17 Riccardo Brugnara, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Laurence Pearce, 20 Robert Barbieri, 21 Harry Wells, 22 Sam Harrison, 23 Matt Smith.

London Irish:15 Andrew Fenby, 14 Alex Lewington, 13 Fergus Mulchrone, 12 Shane Geraghty, 11 James Short, 10 Chris Noakes, 9 Scott Steele, 8 Luke Narraway, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Kieran Low, 5 Jebb Sinclair, 4 George Skivington (captain), 3 Halani Aulika, 2 David Paice, 1 Tom Court.

Replacements: 16 Gerard Ellis 17 Matt Parr 18 Leo Halavatau 19 Dan Leo 20 Tom Guest 21 Tomás O'Leary 22 Eamonn Sheridan 23 Topsy Ojo.

Referee: Gregory Garner

Assistant referees: Simon Mcconnell, Paul Burton

TMO: David Sainsbury

Saracens 40-19 Sale Sharks

The scorers:

For Saracens:

Tries: Goode, Joubert, Penalty try, Barrington

Cons: Hodgson 3, Wigglesworth

Pens: Hodgson 3, Goode

For Sale Sharks:

Tries: Seymour, Brady, Penalty

Cons: Cipriani 2

Yellow cards: Alex Goode (Saracens, 59), George Kruis (Saracens, 72), David Seymour (Sale Sharks, 74)

The teams:

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Duncan Taylor, 12 Brad Barritt (captain), 11 David Strettle, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Neil de Kock, 8 Ernst Joubert 7 Jacques Burger, 6 Jackson Wray, 5 Mouritz Botha, 4 George Kruis, 3 James Johnston, 2 Jamie George, 1 Rhys Gill.

Replacements: 16 Scott Spurling, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 Petrus Du Plessis, 19 Jim Hamilton, 20 Kelly Brown, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Ben Ransom, 23 Nick Tompkins.

Sale Sharks: 15 Luke McLean, 14 Tom Brady, 13 Jonny Leota, 12 Mark Jennings, 11 Tom Arscott, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Mark Easter 7 David Seymour, 6 Magnus Lund, 5 Michael Paterson, 4 Jonathan Mills, 3 Eifion Lewis Roberts, 2 Shalva Mamukashvili, 1 Alberto de Marchi.

Replacements: 16 Cameron Neild, 17 Ross Harrison, 18 Vadim Cobilas, 19 Josh Beaumont, 20 Viliami Fahiki, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Joe Ford, 23 Andy Forsyth.

Referee: JP Doyle

Assistant referees: Kelvin Stewart, Nigel Carrick

TMO: Trevor Fisher

Northampton Saints 31-24 Bath

The scorers:

For Northampton Saints:

Tries: Penalty try, Clark, Day, G Pisi

Cons: Myler 4

Pen: Myler

For Bath:

Tries: Wilson, Woodburn, Auterac

Cons: Ford 3

Pen: Ford

Yellow card: Luke Arscott (Bath, 6)

The teams:

Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Ken Pisi, 13 George Pisi, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 George North, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Samu Manoa, 7 Jon Fisher, 6 Calum Clark , 5 Christian Day, 4 James Craig, 3 Salesi Ma'afu, 2 Dylan Hartley (captain), 1 Alex Corbisiero.

Replacements: 16 Ross McMillan, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Gareth Denman, 19 Teimana Harrison, 20 Phil Dowson, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 Will Hooley, 23 James Wilson.

Bath: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Kyle Eastmond 11 Olly Woodburn, 10 George Ford, 9 Chris Cook, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Guy Mercer, 6 Alafoti Fa'osiliva, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Stuart Hooper (captain), 3 David Wilson, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Paul James.

Replacements: 16 Tom Dunn, 17 Nick Auterac, 18 Henry Thomas, 19 Dominic Day, 20 Charlie Ewels, 21 Peter Stringer, 22 Gavin Henson, 23 Ollie Devoto.

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth

Assistant referees: Andy Watson, Peter Huckle

TMO: Rowan Kitt