Brendan Venter heaped praise on Glen Jackson after the fly-half inspired Saracens to victory over London Irish at Twickenham on Saturday in their season opener.

Sarries' new director of rugby watched his side survive a second-half onslaught from last year's Guinness Premiership finalists in front of more than 67,000 supporters. New Zealander Jackson was in sublime form scoring an ingenious solo try before creating the second for Andy Saull. Venter was understandably delighted with his playmaker's display and singled him out for praise.

The South African said: "I think it was interesting when Derick Hougaard came, being such a wonderful player and South African, everybody said Glen was going to be back-up. In the pre-season although Derick Hougaard has been fantastic for us, Glen has just been really good the whole pre-season. When I had to make my decision I said to Derick, Glen has been the guy in the saddle producing the goods in all the warm-up matches. How would I justify to him that you play ahead of him?

"It's going to be a long season. I said you're going to play for us a lot but Glen Jackson was superb. The way he ran the game was like a general and it was [being replaced] just we needed another tackler out there because they were coming in waves. He is my general. He runs the show."