FIJI hero Moses Rauluni came off the bench to score and set up another of Saracens' six tries as the Men in Black romped to a 28-46 bonus-point victory over Leeds Carnegie at Headingley tonight (Friday) to get their EDF Energy Cup challenge off to a flyer.

After a dour first half which saw the visitors hold an 8-13 lead through the impressive Rodd Penney's converted try and two Gordon Ross penalties, Saracens turned on the style in an eventful second half which saw no less than eight tries scored. It was just a shame only 2,000 hardy souls witnessed a superb advertisement for a competition derided in some quarters.

All Leeds had to show for their promising attacking endeavour in the first half was Erik Lund's 25th minute score and Alberto Di Bernardo's early three-pointer.

Di Bernardo goalled again early into the second half to keep he hosts in touch, but Saracens hit back with two quick-fires tries from Craig McMullen and Penney.

Leeds' American prop Mike McDonald snatched one back but another double whammy from Saracens, this time engineered by Fiji skipper Rauluni who put in Edd Thrower before scoring himself, should have been enough to shake off the beleaguered hosts.

But credit to Leeds as they rolled up their sleeves and reduced the deficit to nine points with six minutes left thanks to scores from replacement Scott Armstrong and home debutant Appo Satala.

However, another Saracens replacement Kevin Sorrell put the gloss on a fine attacking display, in the second half at least, with his side's sixth try in the dying seconds.

Despite the win Sarries boss Alan Gaffney aired his grievances about his side's leaky defence. "To come up here and score six tries and get a bonus point I should be happy but conceding 28 points is just not acceptable," said the director of rugby. "We came up with a side we believed was more than capable of putting in a good performance and I suppose a lot of our attack play was pretty good. However, our defence was unacceptable.

"We want to do well in this competition and hope to put in a good performance against Bristol next week."

The Aussie made sweeping changes to his starting line-up, handing debuts to South African number eight Guthrie Hall and Canadian wing Daniel van der Merwe. Rodd Penney moved into the midfield alongside Australian trouble-shooter Craig McMullen while former Leeds fly-half Gordon Ross, who kicked 16 points, replaced the rested Glen Jackson.

Another ex-Tyke, Alan Dickens was handed the captaincy in Neil de Kock's absence. Italy hooker Fabio Ongaro was handed his first start of the season.

After Albero Di Bernardo and Gordon Ross had traded penalties the game finally burst in to life after 13 minutes. From a quickly taken free kick, David Seymour made a lacerating break through the middle of the park before being stopped in his tracks five metres short of the line. The ball was pinged out left to Edd Thrower but he was pulled into touch before grounding the ball.

However, Sarries maintained the pressure and from a scrum five stand-in skipper Alan Dickens exchanged neat, intricate passes with Ross before offloading for Rodd Penney to dart under the posts, just as he did against the same opposition last month.

Ross added the extras and Sarries should have done better minutes later when Richard Haughton's kick and chase was boomed out of the ground before a bout of indiscipline scuppered the chance.

Leeds captain Rhys Oakley warmed up the sparse crowd with a wheel barrow tackle on Ross after the Scot made the ill-fated decision to run instead of kicking from inside his own 22. From that, Leeds worked the flanks and opened up an overlap for Lund to capsize over the line in he left corner, bringing the score to 8-10.

Ross landed a fine long-range penalty before Sarries coughed up another good opportunity, Hall knocking on after several good phases took play to within sight of the line.

The industrious Penney then embarked on a mesmerizing run from his own 22, scything through one cluster of flat-footed Leeds players before arcing round another. He goose-stepped his way over the Leeds 10 metre line before he was shackled.

The visitors were forced into a change in the dying seconds of the first half when Paul Gustard was replaced by Don Barrell. However, the flanker shook off his ailment to take to the pitch for the second half in place of Hall.

Di Bernardo got Leeds off to the perfect start with an easy penalty in front of the posts to give the score-line an air of uneasiness from a Saracens perspective.

However, the visitors were merely lulling Leeds into a false sense of security as, a minute later McMullen barged over after taking Ross' perfectly weighed pass into his stride. The Scot added the extras before doing the same again moments later after providing another deft pass for Penney to shimmy his way through the last line.

But, far from being dispirited, Leeds rolled up their sleeves and Mcdonald dived over after a glorious break from Leigh Hinton, who was denied himself by Haughton's precision ankle tap.

Not to be undone, Sarries roared back and it was substitute Rauluni who lofted a blind pass out wide for Thrower to step on the gas for an easy try. Ross's difficult touchline conversion struck the post but he made no mistake minutes later when Rauluni darted over from close range.

Armstrong, one of a raft of Leeds replacements, went over in the corner with 10 minutes left before Fijian British Army Private Satala fixed his bayonet and hared over on the left.

Di Bernardo missed his last two conversions and with it a chance of completing a remarkable comeback, before Sorrell put the gloss on a fine win with a last minute effort.

Saracens: Haughton, van der Merwe, Penney (Sorrell, 55), McMullen, Thrower (Cato 75), Ross, Dickens (cpt) (Rauluni, 58); Lloyd, Ongaro (Kyriacou, 68), Mercey, Chesney, Ryder, Gustard (Barrell, 39), Seymour, Hall (Gustard, 41).

Attendance: 2,639.

Referee: Malcolm Changleng (Scotland).

Scoring sequence: 3-0/3-3/3-8/3-10/8-10/8-13 HT/11-13/11-18/11-20/11-25/11-27/16-27/18-27/18-32/18-37/18-39/23-39/28-39/28-44/28-46