England flanker Richard Hill's first-half try settled a desperate struggle in
atrocious conditions to earn Saracens their sixth win of the season.
The game survived a pitch inspection an hour before the kick-off with both
coaches keen to play despite the treacherous underfoot conditions at Vicarage
Road.
And Saracens coach Wayne Shelford will be happiest with the decision now after
a win that moves his side above Harlequins to seventh place in the Zurich
Premiership table.
Leeds will have to reflect on three missed penalties from Braam van Straaten
and a yellow card for fly-half Gordon Ross that disrupted their chances of
snatching more than the one bonus point from the game.
A thigh injury to Thomas Castaignede handed the Saracens fly-half role to
double World Cup winner Tim Horan.
And it was Horan who was instrumental in setting up the field position - with
a mixture of kicking - that kept the pressure on Leeds after his side survived
some early alarms.
Christian Califano was sent to the sin-bin in the fifth minute, but van
Straaten missed the resulting shot at goal from halfway before stroking over an
easier effort two minutes later.
The Frenchman's absence had little effect on the shape of the game, with
Saracens dominating territorially against a rugged defence in conditions that
stopped Leeds unleashing the likes of full-back Dan Scarbrough on the break.
The Tykes suffered a further set-back when Ross was yellow-carded for pulling
back Horan, as his opposite number chased his kick ahead.
Winston Stanley was forced to carry ball over his own dead ball line to
concede a five metre scrum and Scarbrough also hacked clear from behind his own
line as Horan's kicks drove Leeds backwards.
But it took until the third minute of time added on by referee Robin Goodliffe
for Saracens to make the breakthrough - thanks to Califano's slight of hand.
Abdel Benazzi had forged his way through the middle initially and a series of
raids ended with the ball shovelled out to the right by Darragh O'Mahony.
Califano summoned up all his prop forward's dexterity to take and give in one
stride, with Hill gobbling up the pass and breaking a tackle to force his way
over in the corner.
Leeds might have realised it was not their day when van Straaten followed a
26th minute penalty miss with another failure early in the second half after
Adryan Winnan had edged Saracens 8-3 in front with his 43rd minute effort.
The closest the Tykes came was on the hour, when a series of drives for the
line were held up and the pressure relieved only when Leeds skipper Mike Shelley
drove into one of his own players as he tried to barge his way over.
Other than that it was a stalemate in the middle of the park, with both sides
kicking, chasing and hammering into well-organised defences as they tried to
find an opening.
Saracens did so when their driving maul was pulled down five metres short
following a line-out with replacement Andy Goode keeping his nerve and scoring
to open up an eight-point lead with just five minutes remaining.
Van Straaten finally managed to find the centre of the posts with a minute of
normal time remaining, but throwing the ball around to create a try-scoring
chance in the treacherous underfoot conditions was beyond his team-mates.
Teams:
Saracens: Winnan, Arasa, Sorrell, Shanklin,
O'Mahony, Horan,
Bracken, Califano, Cairns, Marsters, Hooper, Benazzi, Roche,
Hill, Chesney.
Replacements: Croall, Ross, Yandell, Peacey, Kirton, Haughton,
Goode.
Tries: Hill.
Pens: Winnan, Goode.
Leeds: Scarborough, Stanley, Davies, van Straaten, Albanese,
Ross, Hegarty, Shelley, Regan, Holt, Campbell, Palmer, Mather,
Ponton, Fea'unati.
Replacements: Wheatley, Rawlinson, Hogg, Popham, C. Murphy,
Dickens, Hall.
Pens: van Straaten 2.
Att: 9,328
Ref: R Goodliffe (Sheffield (RFU)).
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