Joe Shaw: Saracens star playing 'four positions' helped win

Saracens head coach Joe Shaw believes his team’s dramatic victory at Leicester Tigers was down to them staying cool despite the adversity they faced.

In their opening Gallagher PREM fixture of the season, Sarries lost centre Olly Hartley to an arm injury early in proceedings and flanker Nick Isiekwe to a 20-minute red card in the second half.

They also had to fight from behind twice against a fired-up Leicester – for whom Gabriel Hamer-Webb scored a hat-trick – with Rotimi Segun’s 73rd-minute try deciding a breathless contest at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

Shaw said: “The boys very calmly worked out what to do – Elliot Daly played four positions today and did very well in all of them.

“Then you get hit with the 20-minute red card at a place like this, where it’s been tit-for-tat.

“If you want to be in the top four, you’ve got to be able to keep your cool, work things out and I think in the last six or seven minutes – where we had 15 men and they had 14 men – were crucial.

“The adversity bit would be front and centre of what we’re pleased with.

“If you get hit with a couple of injuries early, you’ve got to be happy to change things round.

“There’s no point in me saying anything [about the red card] until I see it properly, but referees were very clear with us on what they were going to ref this season, and we’re going to work as one with them.”

Tries from Juan Martin Gonzalez, Tobias Elliott and Daly – replied by Solomone Kata and Hamer-Webb scores – had Saracens 21-12 ahead at half-time.

Hamer-Webb completed his hat-trick either side of Ben Earl’s try, with Segun twice running in for Sarries after first Adam Radwan then James Thompson had nudged Leicester in front.

Leicester head coach Geoff Parling said: “They started well but we got ourselves back in the game and did lots of good things.

“I just think in the end our inaccuracy and failure to convert pressure moments is what hurt us.

“The attack was good when we went hard and went through them first and we carried hard and did the basics well, and that opened up gaps for Jack [van Poortvliet] and gaps on the edges.

“But on the same side in attack, we gave the ball up too cheaply and too early and that actually hurt us.

“I don’t think people will look at three defeats at the start of the season – two are cup games with lots of youngsters thrown in there.

“We know losing is not good enough for our team, home or away, but I’ve seen enough today – we all saw them – that there’s lots of good things we can do.”