Saracens beat Exeter 27-10 to win third Premiership title in four years

Saracens are Premiership champions once more. They took the title from last year’s winners Exeter Chiefs with an utterly dominant performance that brought four tries and a 27-10 win at a sun-drenched Twickenham.

It is their fourth title, and third in four years; last time, they were beaten in the semi by Exeter. That is some spell of dominance.

There were lows for Saracens this season. They could not back up successive European titles and went on a run of seven straight defeats around Christmas.

But as the weather has improved so have they, and they were at their best in the weeks leading up to the final. They scored more than 50 points in five of their last six games, and managed 41 in the one they did not. They have been building towards this and found a superb performance that effectively translated pressure into points.

Owen Farrell and Richard Wigglesworth – who won his fifth Premiership title, pulling away from a pack of seven with four winners medals – managed the game superbly, while the forwards were immense, with Maro Itoje winning three huge turnovers and Mako Vunipola everywhere.

Saracens had to be patient. The opening 10 minutes were all Exeter, with Joe Simmonds scoring a simple penalty and missing a tough one. Saracens were a little indisciplined, and left to live off scraps. They survived, though, just three points back.

When they got ball, they sprung. Henry Slade missed touch from a penalty, and they were sparked. A foray in to opposition territory saw Farrell play a pair of cute quicks to free Alex Goode – who had a storming first half – and Chris Wyles. That provided rhythm, and moments later Billy Vunipola was charging over under the posts.

Wyles, playing his final game of a 10-year career for the club, scored next as Goode created space for him out wide. With another simple finish after half time Wyles would become the fourth player to score a brace in a Premiership final, and he would have had a third had it not been for a brilliant piece of defence from Jack Nowell to cut off a delightful Farrell nudge.

Still no one has scored a Premiership final hat-trick, but almost as soon as Wyles was withdrawn with five minutes to go, his replacement on the left wing, Nathan Earle (who is also leaving the club), crossed in the corner to put victory beyond doubt.

Another departing club legend, Exeter’s Gareth Steenson, played a fine hand from the bench, looping round to score from a scrum to keep the game alive and Saracens sweating late on. With Schalk Brits, whose eight year spell as a central part of the Saracens machine ends here, in the sin bin, Exeter swept forward.

Billy Vunipola put in a fine 59-minute stint, proving his fitness to tour South Africa, but Farrell left the field limping in the quarter-hour due. The England captain for that tour played down any concerns, saying he was merely suffering cramp.

But it was Vunipola’s brother, Mako, who won the man of the match award (the Peter Deakin Trophy) for a superhuman 75 minute shift in his 32nd match of a season that came hot on the heels of the Lions tour that he played such a vital hand in. Vunipola put in 18 tackles, and missed none. He made 38 metres across 15 carries, beating defenders and offloading too. He wears it heavily on a weathered face but, inside, Vunipola has a marathon runner’s endurance. He, and his Saracens team, are worthy Premiership winners.