Saracens secure return to Premiership

Saracens will be playing in the Gallagher Premiership next season after winning the Greene King IPA Championship.

The London club were relegated to the English second tier last season as punishment for salary cap breaches, but they have secured an immediate return to the top flight by beating Ealing Trailfinders in the Championship final.

They went into the second leg of that final with an impressive 60-0 advantage from last weekend but found themselves reduced to 14 men and down 7-0 on the scoreboard within a minute.

Jackson Wray was sin-binned after 30 seconds for deliberately knocking the ball out of play after misjudging the kick-off and Ealing were awarded a penalty try.

At half-time it was 10-10 and far more competitive than the first leg, but Saracens showed their class in the second period despite having Michael Rhodes, who was making his final appearance for the club, sent off for a dangerous tackle in the 49th minute. Saracens won 57-15 to make it 117-15 on aggregate.

Wray was named Man of the Match and told BT Sport: “This was the only goal we had at the start of the season. We’ve overcome a few blips and built really well for these two weeks. We’re really proud of the performance.

“We’re proud of the way we approached it (the Championship). We’ve tried to embrace it, embrace everywhere we’ve gone. It’s been a difficult year but we’ve tried to take as much from it in terms of the learnings of it and build as we go. A lot of guys have come a long way this season and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do next year.”

Saracens won the Premiership five times in the last decade – 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 – and will likely be amongst the title contenders in the 2021-22 season too.

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