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Sarries know only one speed

Mark McCall admits a confident Saracens never thought about taking their foot off the pedal after dispatching London Welsh 78-7 and getting their Premiership campaign back on track.

"We're thrilled to get the five points, and a bit of confidence obviously as well."

The Allianz Park outfit – who had not won in the Premiership for three consecutive games – racked up 11 tries on an Exiles side still searching for their first victory of the campaign.

And the bonus point was secure within half an hour, as Mako Vunipola (two), Brett Sharman, George Kruis and Chris Ashton all crossed before the break.

Replacement Richard Wigglesworth then scored a second-half hattrick in addition to scores from Jackson Wray, Richard Barrington and Ben Ransom, while an eagle-eyed Owen Farrell notched 23 points from the tee.

Sarries know only one speedMouritz Botha (pictured) also appeared as a second-half replacement in his last game for the club before he heads back to South Africa, and McCall paid tribute to a loyal servant.

"It's a job well done," he said. "It was a clinical performance. Sometimes when you've got what you want at half-time it's easy to take your foot off the gas and do the wrong things.

"It can be scrappy, but the second half was probably better than the first half. We scored some good tries. Obviously we're thrilled to get the five points, and a bit of confidence obviously as well.

"I thought [Farrell] looked really sharp. He made good decisions, he passed the ball beautifully, he obviously place-kicked well. He had a great game as did a lot of people.

"[Botha] has been a huge part of what we've tried to build here over those five-and-a-half years. He's the ultimate team man. We're sorry to see him leave but glad he's got the opportunity he's got."

Elliot Kear's try just before half time did mean the Exiles got on the scoresheet and head coach Justin Burnell admits all his side can do is go back to the drawing board as a game against second-from-bottom London Irish awaits.

He said: "It's back to work on Monday morning. It's like anything else, you just work and try and really just try and close the gap. Today was an example of quality across the board, off the bench and in every aspect.

"You get a good hiding like that it's not going to be all-singing and dancing. [The dressing room] is very somber as you can imagine, and again I guess it's not pretty seeing it. We'll watch the match on Monday with the review.

"We've got to pick up three wins out of the next 12 games and obviously you want to hope that teams around you don't pick theirs up.

"We've got to get something out of the (London Irish) game and pick some others up. It's a huge game, and it's a game that we'll be going into to get a result and they're no different to us."

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