Saracens stroll to Edinburgh victory (From Watford Observer)

Saracens score five tries as they thrash Edinburgh 45-0 at Murrayfield in the Heineken Cup

5:23pm Saturday 13th October 2012 in Sport By Tom Allnutt

Saracens scored five tries as they beat Edinburgh 45-0 to kick off their Heineken Cup campaign in style this afternoon.

As well as the scores from open play, Charlie Hodgson was on target again as he notched four penalties and four conversions to land an individual haul of 25 points. 

The Men in Black were first to trouble the scoreboard as a quick penalty allowed Joel Tomkins to go over just after the quarter hour mark.

Three penalties from Hodgson took the visitors further ahead as Saracens led 16-0 at the break.

Schalk Brits was sin-binned for not releasing Richie Rees after the Edinburgh scrum-half had made a thrilling individual run early in the second half.

But despite being a man down, Saracens continued to push forward and a Hodgson penalty as well as a try from Owen Farrell extended the visitors' advantage.

Two more scores, first from Chris Ashton and then from Alex Goode, added to the Men in Black's total before Hodgson got in on the action touching down late on.

Edinburgh: Brown, Jones, De Luca, Scott, T. Visser, Laidlaw, Rees, Yapp, Ford, Nel, Gilchrist, Cox, Denton, Rennie, McInally. Replacements: Fife for T. Visser (41), Leonard for Laidlaw (41), Leck for Rees (70), Hislop for Yapp (70), Titterrell for Ford (62), Cross for Nel (70), McAlpine for Gilchrist (77), Talei for McInally (65).

Saracens: Goode, Ashton, Tomkins, Barritt, Strettle, Hodgson, Wigglesworth, Vunipola, Brits, Stevens, Borthwick, Botha, Brown, Fraser, Wray. Replacements: Farrell for Tomkins (56), Wyles for Strettle (70), de Kock for Wigglesworth (56), Gill for Vunipola (56), Smit for Brits (65), Du Plessis for Stevens (65), Kruis for Botha (56), Saull for Brown (56).

Att: 6,543

Ref: John Lacey (Ireland)