Saracens registered their third away win on the bounce in the Zurich Premiership as they despatched a woefully under-par Leeds at Headingley.

In an error-strewn game in which neither side played any fluent rugby of note, Saracens deservedly won thanks to a dominant forward display and a controlled performance by New Zealand stand-off Glen Jackson.

The win lifts Saracens into the top half of the Premiership table and sinks Leeds even further into the relegation mire.

The Leeds back line once again looked horribly disjointed, as they struggled to come to terms with an aggressive Saracens defence, and on the few occasions they did create space they panicked and let the chance slip by.

Missing both Tim Stimpson and Gordon Ross through injury and international duty respectively, Leeds' lack of a regular goal kicker was painfully exposed in the early stages.

Twice they turned down eminently kickable penalties, opting instead to kick for touch, and when they did eventually decide to kick for goal, stand-in kicker David Doherty missed a straightforward effort in front of the posts.

Only former England international Iain Balshaw threatened to break the deadlock with a couple of jack-knifing runs from deep in his own half.

When Sarries finally made it into the Leeds 22 they spurned three gilt-edged chances with Taine Randell and Cobus Visagie knocking the ball on close to the line and Kyran Bracken narrowly failing to ground the ball over the line.

Eventually Sarries pressure told as their forwards began to take a grip on the game and they forced Simon Raiwalui over from a powerful surge for the first score of the game.

Jackson was unable to convert and the sides turned round at 5-0 to the visitors.

Sarries struck again early in the second half when Leeds crept offside in front of the posts and Jackson duly kicked the simplest of penalties.

Leeds suddenly came to life, and two searing breaks from Phil Christophers and then Balshaw set up a huge overlap on the right.

However, in keeping with the rest of their performance, they were unable to take the chance as Tom McGee threw a forward pass to David Rees and a certain try went begging.

Sarries went 11-0 up after 65 minutes thanks to the boot of Jackson, who then proceeded to close out the game on 70 minutes with his third penalty of the evening.

For the second week running, Leeds rallied in the dying minutes with Rees scoring deep into injury time.

But once again it was in vain as their slide towards the drop zone gathers more and more momentum.