Saracens beat Leicester to keep play-off hopes alive

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• Published25 April 2026, 17:05 BST
• 64 Comments

The Prem

Saracens (12) 19

Tries: Hartley, Caluori, Mawi Cons: Burke 2

Leicester (12) 15

Tries: Steward, Hassell-Collins Cons: Searle Pens: Searle

Saracens kept their hopes of making the Prem play-offs alive with a 19-15 win over Leicester.

The sides were level on 12 apiece at half-time after Olly Hartley and Noah Caluori scored excellent tries for the hosts while Freddie Steward and Ollie Hassell-Collins replied for Leicester.

Eroni Mawi put Saracens ahead early in the second half before young star Caluori - who has now scored 10 tries in his past three Prem games - was sin-binned after an hour.

Billy Searle's penalty against 14 men got Tigers within four points, but they could not find a way past Saracens' strong defence.

The win sees Saracens stay in sixth place - five points off fifth-placed Exeter - who have a game in hand - and one more off fourth-placed Bristol.

Tigers remain in third place but missed the chance to potentially cut the gap on the top two.

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Hartley impressively gave the hosts a fourth-minute lead as he danced around three defenders and went in under the posts from 40 metres.

But Tigers were level seven minutes later as Steward went in from close range after a period of pressure inside the home red zone.

Tigers had Izaia Perese sin-binned for an infringement at the breakdown soon after and the hosts took advantage as Caluori chipped over his marker on the right touchline, regathered and dived over in the corner while keeping his feet in touch to score a superb try.

Hassell-Collins got his first Prem try since October eight minutes from the break as he dived over in the left corner - Olly Cracknell's powerful break had set up Tigers' field position.

Caluori had a second try disallowed moments later with Hartley knocking on in the build-up, while Searle missed a simple penalty for Leicester with the final kick of the first half.

Joaquin Moro came within a metre of putting Tigers in front four minutes after the break as he was bundled into touch after good work from a close-range line-out - and it was as close as his side would come to scoring another try.

Four minutes later, Saracens got what proved to be the winning try as replacement prop Mawi forced his way over after Fergus Burke's superb kick to touch set up a five-metre line-out for Saracens.

Caluori was yellow-carded for an infringement at the maul but Saracens did well to restrict Leicester to just a Searle penalty while they were short-handed.

The hosts defended well but were given a scare in the final minute when Lucio Cinti was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock on - but Leicester could not take advantage as Saracens turned the ball over and won the game.

Image source, Getty Images

'We showed fight and grit' - McCall

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:

"Before the Sale game last weekend we talked about the play-offs. There was a percentage going around about us making the top four, which was 15 per cent.

"We talked about it and said let's try and take it north of that. And I think after the Sale win it went to 18 per cent. I'm much not sure where it's going to go to now.

"We need some of the teams at the bottom to do us a favour and it's certainly not in our hands, but we are in control of what we do and we've now had four good performances in a row.

"We played some good rugby in the first half against Leicester. We just couldn't capitalise on some of the breaks we made and the good attacking rugby that we had.

"There was a lot about the first half that I liked, from a rugby point of view, but in the second half we had much less of the ball and a big penalty count against us.

"We showed all the fight and all the grit that maybe we had been lacking a couple of times this season."

Leicester director of rugby Geoff Parling told BBC Radio Leicester:

"I'm incredibly frustrated.

"Someone said to me outside, 'You deserved to win that game', but we didn't because we lost.

"There were too many turnovers - we turned the ball over 14 times in that second-half, and in some key positions as well.

"Fair play to Sarries for hustling and going to work there, we know they're a quality team. But we've got to look at ourselves there."

Saracens: Malins; Caluori, Tompkins, Hartley, Segun; Burke, Bracken; Carre, George, Street; Itoje (capt), Tizzard, McFarland, Earl, Willis

Replacements: Dan, Mawi, Riccioni, Isiekwe, Michelow, Van Zyl, Farrell, Cinti

Yellow card: Caluori (59), Cinti (79)

Leicester: Steward; Hamer-Webb, Perese, Bailey, Hassell-Collins; Searle, Van Poortvliet; Smith, Blamire, Heyes; Henderson, Chessum (capt), Liebenberg, Moro, Cracknell

Replacements: Clare, Van der Flier, Hurd, Martin, Williams, Whiteley, Wand, Radwan

Yellow card: Perese (14)

Referee: Karl Dickson

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