SARACENS warmed up for a tricky pre-season test at Edinburgh Rugby formerly Edinburgh Reivers on Saturday, August 11, with an emphatic 54-12 victory over Welsh side Caerphilly in front of a bumper 1,600 crowd at Vicarage Road on Saturday, August 4.

Although the lack of match practice was evident early on as Sarries got off to a slow start, with a number of handling errors, the men in black eventually opened the scoring ten minutes in when skipper for the day, Abdel Benazzi, bulldozed his way over after a rolling maul.

Benazzi claimed his second ten minutes later after showing good hands to collect a Tom Shanklin pass before going over unopposed, and the French international looks to be a welcome addition to the squad.

Sarries soon got into their stride in the game played over four 20-minute quarters, with Jannie de Beer looking a class above, as the South African marshalled his team with some superb set-up play and place kicking.

De Beer also went on to display a master-class in penalty kicking going on to make all but one of his afternoon's attempts at goal.

Once Sarries got on top, they looked as if they could score with ease as the centre pairing of Kevin Sorrell and Shanklin provided a solid foundation for the team, although a lack of discipline did ensure that the Vicarage Road outfit conceded a number of penalties in front of their own posts, from which a more accomplished opposition would have capitalised.

Sorrell got himself on the score sheet on the half hour, finishing off a well constructed move, before Richard Haughton added another on the stroke of half-time to put the game well out of reach.

Sarries fielded a more experimental side in the second half, with a number of youngsters getting their chance to impress, although the match threatened to boil over as tempers flared resulting in each team being temporarily reduced to 13 men after a punch-up in the middle of the field.

This aggressive side to the Saracens play noticeably seemed to form an integral part of the approach to the game, and seems indicative of what Saracen's owner Nigel Wray calls a need to "develop a hardness, a toughness and a 'we will not be beaten' mentality that we did not have last season."

However, Sarries still showed glimpses of brilliance, and rising star James Bailey scored a wonderful try after displaying lightening pace to race 70 yards down the pitch before going over in what was his debut for the first team.

The other youngsters on show also acquitted themselves well, and Sean Phillips and Sean Hardy both grabbed tries as the number of substitutions made by Sarries made for a scrappy second half.

Tony Roques claimed the final score of the day for Sarries although Caerphilly grabbed the last try of the game as Francois Pienaar's men ran out comfortable winners in what proved to be a highly useful work-out.

Saracens: Sparg, Haughton, Shanklin, Sorrell, O'Mahony, de Beer, Walshe, Flatman, Cairns, Magellan, Cheesebrough, K Benazzi, A Benazzi, Roques, Cole.