Rugby Union: Guinness Premiership: Saracens 22 - 16 Leicester

Saracens have made considerable improvements of late, but total self-belief remains elusive. They dominated this match for long periods but somehow contrived to keep everyone interested until the death, with Leicester's James Buckland being held up under the posts in the very last movement of the match. Referee Roy Maybank maintained that he was unsighted, but Leicester's head coach Pat Howard was adamant his own video evidence showed his hooker had scored.

Not that Howard was overly complaining because, as he admitted, his side "took a while to get going". Indeed they did. They had been 19-6 down - and it should have been 22-6 when the otherwise impeccable Glen Jackson missed a penalty early in the second half. But the arrival of fly-half Andy Goode, the former Saracen booed every time he went near the ball, galvanised the depleted Tigers (missing 11 internationals from around the globe). He scored and converted their only try, owing much to a Tom Varndell break and all the more impressive because Leon Lloyd was in the sin bin for killing the ball, before adding a penalty to make it 19-16 going into the last quarter. Jackson then added his fifth penalty with one minute of normal time remaining before Leicester's resilience and Saracens' mental frailties ensured a frantic finale.

That would never have seemed possible when Richard Haughton's try after 16 minutes, allied to Jackson's conversion and an earlier penalty, had given Saracens a 10-0 lead. Leicester were simply unable to make it out of their own half at this stage as their line-out and scrum both creaked, and Paul Burke struggled with his kicking, missing an easy penalty when his side did make a rare sortie into Saracens territory. And, of course, no Saracens match these days can go without a mention of Andy Farrell.

This was his first start at inside centre and his director of rugby Alan Gaffney summed it up neatly with his observation: "If I had to say one word, it would be 'solid'." There were some nice touches in attack, although a forward pass denied Kevin Sorrell a clean break, but surprisingly Leicester did not test his defensive channel too much. "But remember that we were only resting 'Johnno' [Ben Johnston] for this game," added a cautious Gaffney. "He's been playing really well." Looks like back to the bench for Farrell next week then.

Saracens Scarbrough; Haughton (Penney 46), Sorrell, Farrell, Vaikona; Jackson, De Kock; Yates (capt), Byrne (Cairns 51), Visagie, Ryder (Vyvyan 59), Fullarton, Chesney, Gustard, Skirving. Try Haughton Con Jackson Pens Jackson 5.

Leicester Vesty; Murphy, Lloyd (Cornwell, 67), Gibson, Varndell; Burke (Goode, 44), Bemand (Ellis 51); Moreno, Buckland, Holford, Cullen (capt), L Deacon, B Deacon, Jennings (Abraham 59), Crane.

Try Goode. Con Goode. Pens Burke 2, Goode.

Sin-bin Lloyd 57.

Referee R Maybank (Kent). Attendance 8,895.